Bővebb ismertető
One of the charms of a holiday is the oppor-
tunity it affords for reading. Even the briefest period
of relaxation is likely to offer odd moments when it is
pleasant to dip into a book. But there is always the
question, what kind of book? The answer depends, of
course, on the type of person the reader is. For some
it may be an old favorite, for others a current best-
seller, and for still others a book like the present one
which is made up of selections from many books.
Despite the millions of typewriters now in existence
and the army of competent writers who can produce
glib little stories and articles, there are actually no more
first-rate authors per capita in the world today than in
the past. Yet with the whole field to draw from, the
task of making the selections here offered resolved
itself into a battle with opulence. The controlling idea
was simply to choose a variety of short stories and
essays that would entertain the reader, but in doing this
within the limits of a single pocket-size volume a great
deal of material which the assembler would like to
have included had to be thrown overboard.
Fashions in writing change as do all other modes.
While no attempt has been made to illustrate the de-
velopment of the short story or the essay, it has turned
out that the selections cover a wide range of time and
display a variety of styles. The product of many dif-
ferent periods, the individual pieces in addition to being