Books in general

"Books in general" by Sir John Collings Squire is a collection of literary essays written in the early 20th century. It gathers witty, conversational criticism and bookish feuilletons originally composed as weekly pieces, mixing light satire, cultural observation, and literary judgment. Topics range from the foibles of reference works and political songs to Baconians, epigrams, bad poetry, publishing fashions, and early wartime reading. The opening of this collection sets the tone with a preface explaining that these are New Statesman papers and that “Solomon Eagle” is a playful pseudonym borrowed from a plague-time street prophet. It then offers brisk, humorous essays: on the addictive drift of encyclopedias and Who’s Who (with a confessed near-hoax on an American edition); on the bathos of party songs versus sturdier socialist anthems; on a florid Parsee epic about Prince Albert; and on the English tradition of epigrams. The essayist profiles a fervent Baconian crank, revels in collecting magnificently bad verse (and tracing its sources), and scolds newspapers for printing unedited “pidgin-English” from Japanese contributors. He shifts to book-culture reportage—travel notes from Berlin, a sharp comparison of German and English book production at the Leipzig exhibition, and a cool appraisal of new Baconian claims—before the mood darkens in August 1914 with reflections on rumor, censorship, and the scarcity of reliable war news. The section closes by skewering a bestselling romance and briefly revisiting Erasmus’s Praise of Folly, confirming a blend of urbane criticism, anecdote, and sly comedy at the start. (This is an automatically generated summary.)