Life, 1912-06-13 · page 20 of 44
Life — June 13, 1912 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page analyzes American cities' reading preferences to satirize their character and concerns. The main illustration depicts a derelict airplane near the moon—likely commenting on impractical aspirations versus reality. The text humorously uses book selections as windows into each city's priorities: Philadelphia's choice of religious/philosophical works; Chicago's preference for lighthearted fiction; Washington's focus on self-improvement guides; Albany's legal-themed selections (suggesting political intrigue); and Seattle's civic-minded reading. The satire's point: reading habits reveal a city's obsessions, anxieties, and pretensions. Cincinnati's enthusiasm for *The Decameron* (a ribald medieval text) draws particular mockery. By treating book circulation statistics as meaningful social data, the author gently ridicules American cities' self-seriousness while noting genuine differences in their intellectual cultures during the 1920s.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
full gnificance when we note that Philadelphia is the only city in the Union that places he Garden of Resurrection on its list of best sellers —conservatively regarding it as_ fic tion—and includes a treatise Th Five Senses among favorites. And the fact that no other cities agree with it only gives addi- tional point to Pittsburgh's having voted first place in fiction to The Man Who Understood Women and having more copies of Old Age Deferred publi- its non-fictional Who whether Chicago and Washington agree or disagree upon the merits of The Winning of Barbara Worth? It is much more interesting to note that Chicago's first: choice in fiction is He Comes Up Smiling, while cares, for serious reading her citizens in- THE DERELICT cline to How to Live on Twenty-four Hours a Day. And it almost settles the coming election to know that Washington is crazy about The Fol- lowing of the Siar and is keeping the library attendants busy handing out copies of The Sixth Sense. The fact that both Albany and Seattle like f Hoosier Chronicle tells us little enough about what is on foot in those busy centers. But it is evident that political storm signals are out in Albany when her first choice in novels is Counsel for the Defense and her favorite non-fiction reading for the month is Counsel -lssigned. And the self-absorption of the western me- tropolis is equally deducible from her voting first place to The Municipal Plan of Seattle and to The Broad Highway. Old friends of St. Paul and Minne- apolis, too, will feel that all is well with them when they see that St. Paul Minneapolis is concentrating on The Harvester and Creative Evolution, while Minne is studying Keeping Up with Li The fact that Waco, Texas, turned ir an absolutely unanimous vote for Bran the Iconoclast should be of in- terest to the stand-patters. And I am sure that no novel that Cincinnati was shown to be enthusias tic about could much en- cour: well-wishers as give as ment to her the recent report that her first choice of all hooks had upon The Decameron! J.B. Kerjoot. non-fiction fallen comicbooks.com