The Delights of Reading

by Bettmann, Otto L.

• ISBN13: 9780879239510
• ISBN10: 0879239514
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-01-01
• Publisher: David R Godine Pub

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
PART ONE Invitation to Reading
Behold a Book	2	(4)
``I will nourish with it... all humanity...''
Victor Hugo
The Mind-Expanding Potency of Reading	6	(4)
``Books---the best antidote against the marsh-gas of boredom and vacuity.''
George Steiner
Reading to Relax	10	(3)
``No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.''
Lady Montagu
Without Books, History Is Silent	13	(4)
``Books rule the world, at least those nations which have a written language...'' Voltaire
Rapid Readers
``He has only half learned the art of reading who has not added to it ... skimming.''	15	(2)
Lord Balfour
Vapid Readers	17	(2)
``Books are the best things, well used; abused, among the worst.''
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Read... Everywhere, Everywhen	19	(2)
``The time to read is any time: no appointment... is necessary.''
Holbrook Jackson
Books---A Boon to Old and Young	21	(6)
``The delights of reading impart the vivacity of youth even to old age.''
Isaac D'Israeli
Great Leaders...Great Readers	27	(4)
``I pluck up the goodlie greene herbes of sentences, eate them by reading...''
Queen Elizabeth I
Books of Our Own	31	(5)
``Build yourself a book-nest to forget the world without.''
Abraham Cowley
Books for All: Public Libraries	36	(5)
``Places of sanctuary...and the right of man to make up his own mind.''
Frances Clark Sayers
Lenders Beware!	41	(2)
``Everything comes to him who waits, except a loaned book.''
McKinney Hubbard
Aberrant Booklove: Bibliomania and Book Gluttony	43	(3)
For the bibliomaniac, ``anything that is between covers has an intoxicating savor.''
Hugh Walpole
Book Lover's Lament: So Little Time To Read	46	(6)
``The multitude of books is making us ignorant.'' Voltaire
PART TWO The Art of the Pen
The Mystique of Authorship	52	(4)
``When once the itch of literaturehas come over a man, nothing will cure it but the scratching of a pen.''
Sam Lower
The Writer's Life: A Blend of Ecstasy and Torment	56	(5)
``Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living.''
Gustave Flaubert
The Power of Words	61	(4)
``The art of the pen is...to spring imagination with a word or a phrase.''
George Meredith
Literary Genres	65	(5)
The Novel
``A garden carried in a pocket.'' Arabian proverb
Biography History
``Read no history; nothing but biography...''
Benjamin Disraeli
Poetry
``The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.'' Somerset Maugham
Theatre
``Theatre adds to living by being more than life.''
John Mason Brown
The Writer's Resources	70	(5)
Talent
``Talent alone cannot make a writer; there must be a man behind the book.''
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Research
``A man will turn over half a library to make one book.''
Samuel Johnson
Quotesmanship
``By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote.''
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Writers as Readers	75	(4)
``Writers enjoy reading, just as readers feel they might have been writers.''
Holbrook Jackson
Advice and Solace from the Masters	79	(5)
``If a book comes from the heart, it will contrive to reach other hearts.''
Thomas Carlyle
PART THREE The Literary Establishment
Publishers and Authors: A Friendly Tug of War	84	(3)
``In spite of good will...author and publisher are natural antagonists.''
Jacques Barzun
Writing: A Scant Sustenance	87	(3)
``The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business.''
John Steinbeck
Editorial Headaches: Hazardous Guesses	90	(4)
``An editor is a man who knows exactly what he wants but isn't quite sure.''
Walter Davenport
Criticizing the Critic	94	(4)
``A critic is a man who expects miracles.''
James G. Huneker
The Retail End: Bookshops, Antiquarians, Auctioneers	98	(3)
``Where is human nature so weak as in a bookstore?''
Henry Ward Beecher
Book Banners	101	(4)
``Are we to have a censor whose imprimatur shall say what books...we may buy?''
Thomas Jefferson
Book Burners	105	(7)
``The paper burns, but the words fly away.''
Akiba ben Joseph
PART FOUR The Book in America Freedom to think, to write, to be informed
A Nation of Readers
``I know that a knowledge of books is the basis on which all other knowledge rests.''	110	(2)
George Washington
An Early American Booster of Books	112	(2)
Benjamin Franklin
``From a child...all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out on books.''
Tom Paine's Pamphlets: A Clarion Call To Independence	114	(3)
The American cause owes as much to the pen of Paine as to the sword of Washington
The Nation Established: Reading Expands, Learning Flourishes	117	(2)
``The Revolution won, intellectual activities were opened for all.''
James D. Hart
Three Pioneer American Bookmen	119	(4)
Noah Webster
He wanted to make America as illustrious in letters as it was already in civil policy
Mason Locke Weems
``Humanity and patriotism both cry aloud for Books, Books, Books.''
Elihu Burritt
``I carried my indomitable taste for reading to the blacksmith shop.''
The Book That Roused the Nation	123	(4)
Uncle Tom's Cabin: ``God wrote it...I took his dictation''
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Afterword	127	(2)
Acknowledgments	129	(2)
Picture Credits	131	(2)
List of Authors	133