Life, 1911-01-05 · page 60 of 104
Life — January 5, 1911 — page 60: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical profile of **J.B. Kerfoot**, a book reviewer for *Life* magazine. The top cartoon—"The Pursuit of Happiness"—depicts carefree revelers in a car, contrasting with the article's humorous examination of Kerfoot's obsessive, joyless book-reviewing life. The satire's core joke: Kerfoot claims to read a book daily and maintains elaborate systems for cataloging and storing thousands of books in his Freehold, New Jersey home. The interviewer feigns amazed admiration while gently mocking his compulsive habits—suggesting that true "happiness" (the cartoon's theme) requires *not* drowning in literature. References include **Bob Acres** (a nervous character from Sheridan's play, used to mock Kerfoot's psychological quirks) and his taste in "favorite authors": **Marie Corelli and Rex Beach** (popular but critically dismissed writers), further ridiculing his literary judgment. The humor relies on exaggeration: a man so committed to reading that he's catalogued books under categories like "Erotic" and "Simple Minded."
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Life’s Family Album le to J. B. A Confidential G Kerfoot W approached Mr. Kerfoot’s Lex- siderable trepidation. It ington Avenue home with con requires no small courage to interview a book re- viewer—the only one of his kind in this country—who actually reads the books he reviews. “See,” he observed, as we were shown in. “There is a book the leaves of which are actually cut.” We regarded it with becoming awe. It was the first book like that we had THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS ever seen in a book-reviewer’s den. “Where did you get your con- science?” we asked tremulously. And he answered proudly : “T was born in Chicago.” Thus we see that truth is stranger than fiction. At this moment, by subtle psychological kink, we thought of Bob Acres, and Mr. Kerfoot, who is, in ad- dition to being a book reviewer, also a mind reader, answered immediately, paraphrasing that celebrated gentle- man’s observation: “Yes, book a day “And after all these years,” we said tenderly, “you are. still, in health. Your mind seems unaffected. How do you account it?” “Again Chicago! who had previously been born in Chi- cago would ever have the nerve to read a book a day, or the moral cour- age to pursue the tas! “But you must have something to offset this,” we persisted, “something to counteract the effect.” “Well, I take a turn around the world occasionally. Then, in summer, I live in New Jersey.” “You are also a fisherman and a photo-secessionist, we believe. How did this happen?” we continued sternly. some indeed, I generally read a Nobody but one “Twas born a fisherman, and last summer, while hunting grizzly bears with a camera, I became a secessionist from stern recessity.” We glanced timidly around at the scenery—at the upholstered tarpon on the wall, and the planked trout, at the pictures of grizzly bears, at the visible typewriter and the invisible edition of Henry James, at the ivory carvings from Japan, the Sheraton mirror from Virginia and the Jersey lightning from Freehold, and asked: “Ts there anything that you haven't done?” photo- ‘o. It is necessary to do every- thing to be a book reviewer. I have even owned real estate in Flushing. “Do have any system of work?" We blushed as we asked the ques: tion, One might as well have asked the Post Office Department at Was ington, or the Bureau of Printing and Engraving if they had a system. “The books as they come in are en- tered by a large office force, work- ing night and day. They are then sorted out by a trained army of ex perts, who arrange them on differen: floors under ‘ Durable,’ ‘ Unendurable,” ‘Fair to Middling,’ ‘ Erotic,’ ‘Simple Minded,’ ‘Dull,’ ‘Heavy,’ and so forth, They are then shipped by car- loads to my home in Freehold, weighed on the public scale, appraised and stored in my ice-hous: “Who are your favorite authors?” “Marie Corelli and Rex Beach you comicbooks.com