We were not to be dependent, however, upon the budding supplements
and the clever, ignorant reviewing, which, in spite of notable
exceptions, characterized the newspaper view of books. The
technical critic of technical books had long been practising, and
his ability increased with the advance in scholarship that marked
the end of the nineteenth century. The problem was how to make him
write for the general intelligent reader. For years the old _Nation_,
under the editorship of Garrison and of Godkin, carried on this
struggle almost single-handed. For a generation it was the only
American source from which an author might expect a competent review
of a serious, non-technical book. But the weight of the endeavor was
too much for it. Fiction it largely evaded, as the London _Times
Literary Supplement_ does to-day. And with all the serious books in
English awaiting attention in a few pages of a single weekly, it is no
wonder that the shelves of its editorial office held one of the best
modern libraries in New York! Or that Christmas, 1887, was the time
chosen to review a gift edition of 1886! The old _Dial_ had a like
struggle, and a resembling difficulty.
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