BANNED IN BOSTON

The appearance this month of a book called "World Without End" by Helen Thomas, wife of the English poet, Edward Thomas, brings back memories of some of the more glaring examples of stupidity in Boston book censorship. It is true that the words "Banned in Boston" on the jacket of a novel will boost its sales tremendously, but in most cases the Boston book censor is not worthy of this reputation for the detection of horrid words and passages. As an example of this the first part of "World Without End" appeared some years ago under the title of "As It Was." This fragment of one of the finest and tenderest love stories in recent years was suppressed soon after its appearance in the Boston bookstores. Now under a new title and the story continued until the death of Edward Thomas in the War the book is apparently being tolerated by the guardians of the public morals. This may be cause for rejoicing as evidence that the wings of the Watch and Ward Society have been effectively clipped, but it is not yet time to say definitely whether tolerance and true discrimination have found their way among certain persons of authority over Boston books and the Theatre.

The present system of censorship around Boston seems to be one of veiled hints and circular letters sent out by a committee which advises but does not demand that certain books be removed from sale. This discreet method would indicate that perhaps the censors are aware of the force of public opinion on these questions. Nevertheless such comparatively innocuous books as "Harriet Hume" by Rebecca West and Michael Ossorgin's "Quiet Street" have been handled rather gingerly by some booksellers within the past year. Such dictatorial acts as the suppression of the numbers of Scribners containing certain installments of "A Farewell to Arms" will probably not be repeated, but it is too much to be hoped that the censors, self-appointed or otherwise, will ever overcome their squeamish morals and susceptibility to shock sufficiently to make them representative of the average reader.

The Literary Guild celebrates its fifth anniversary this month by publishing "Savage Messiah" by H. S. Ede, a biography of the young French sculptor, Henri Gaudier. The biography is one of the finest yet selected by the Guild and was an appropriate choice to round out their fifth year of existence.