Transcriber’s Note: Italics are enclosed in _underscores_. Additional notes will be found near the end of this ebook. Books and Authors Books and Authors By Robert Lynd Delight, the parent of so many virtues. _Coleridge._ Let us enjoy, whenever we have an opportunity, the delight of admiration, and perform the duties of reverence. _Landor._ G. P. Putnam’s Sons New York & London The Knickerbocker Press 1923 Copyright, 1923 by Robert Lynd [Illustration] Made in the United States of America To H. M. TOMLINSON PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION To write books about books has been spoken of as though it were a parasitic industry. Undoubtedly, books about books are among the least necessary of books. The world delighted in songs and epics and histories for centuries before it paused to attend to a literary critic. Even to-day, when men engage in the eternal discussion of the books with which they would like to be left on a desert island, I do not think a vote is ever given to a volume of criticism. The poet, the essayist, the novelist, the biographer, the philosopher, are all safe among the world’s best authors: the critic must be content if he is given a place among the second-best. He is not a contributor to the hundred best books; the most that he can claim is that no collection of the thousand best books would be complete without him. Certainly, it is difficult to imagine a well-chosen library of a thousand books without a volume or two of literary criticism.