Kevin J. Gallagher posted this on PUBLIB, and has agreed to allow us to reprint it here:
\”I\’ve got to respond to the posting from a colleague in western
Ireland, who relayed yet another address decrying the decline in reading
of classics.
This is the second public library that I have served in as
director. Both communities are small cities, serving a large suburban area. In
both communities the library collections have had extensive holdings of
classic writers, as well as large collections of bestsellers. Both parts of the
collections are used, with the heaviest use coming from the bestsellers.
(There\’s a reason they\’re called \”bestsellers\”…)
Kevin J. Gallagher posted this on PUBLIB, and has agreed to allow us to reprint it here:
\”I\’ve got to respond to the posting from a colleague in western
Ireland, who relayed yet another address decrying the decline in reading
of classics.
This is the second public library that I have served in as
director. Both communities are small cities, serving a large suburban area. In
both communities the library collections have had extensive holdings of
classic writers, as well as large collections of bestsellers. Both parts of the
collections are used, with the heaviest use coming from the bestsellers.
(There\’s a reason they\’re called \”bestsellers\”…)
I see students, and adults, continuing to read the classic
writers. My three children all graduated from an inner-city high school that
regularly assigns Shakespeare, and had the drama club perform
Shakespeare for their spring production a few years ago. The classics aren\’t being
forgotten.
However, I do have some problems with people who seem to think
that all good writing stopped after the 19th Century, and was limited to
writers from the United Kingdom. Also, automatic dismissal of a book because
it\’s a bestseller smacks of a snobbery that is really misplaced. Charles
Dickens openly wrote for the masses, and was keenly aware of his status as an
author of \”bestsellers.\” There is much research that indicates that
Shakespeare\’s plays were written for the common people of his day. Centuries later,
his work is justifiably regarded as classic.
Who can say what writers of
the 20th and 21st Centuries will be regarded as classic authors in the
future?
The dismissal of more modern writers implies that somehow writing stands still. That just isn\’t true. Also, one of the wonderful things about the variety of books
available, and the broadening of people\’s reading tastes is that we are
able to provide public library users with examples of outstanding writers
from all over the world today, not just the UK. Maybe the \”classics\” people
will be reading a century or more from now will be works from Asia, Africa,
or North and South America. They probably will be.
Finally, a lot of bestsellers are junk. So what? At least people
are reading, instead of watching TV. That isn\’t such a bad thing.\”
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