What do people read from the library?
After his appointment as librarian in 1913, Ernest Bell began to make regular reports to the media on the libraries’ news and activities. Among his frequent bulletins were comments on the books most often borrowed by the library’s subscribers.
So what did library patrons want in 1914? According to Bell’s statistics, fiction predominated, with 33,190 volumes issued in the first six months of his appointment (around 30 volumes per subscriber). Among fiction writers, he mentions John Galsworthy, Oscar Wilde, and John Masefield, but the most popular writers were the purveyors of American western stories: Rex Beach, Ralph Connor, Hall Caine, Zane Grey, Gregory H. Oxen, Peter Kyne and others (Star, 6 Feb. 1914).
Adventure and romance
In 1919, he noted that “Today the American adventure story enjoys a striking popularity … and for tales of lumber camps, mining settlements and ranch round-ups, there is an every-increasing demand …” (Star, 18 Sept. 1919). Other popular authors were the romantics: Ethel Dell, Mary Waller, Elinor Glyn, Ruby Ayres, Mrs H. Ward, Countess Arnheim and Baroness Orczy. The two most popular books of the year 1915 were Dell’s The Keeper of the Door and her Way of an Eagle. Bell noted sadly that some of the classics by Dickens, Thackeray, Lytton and Meredith had never been borrowed.
Biography, history and travel books were the next most popular genres in the 1910s, and the war increased demand for such works. Bell wrote in 1916 that borrowing from these parts of the collection had doubled over the last year (Evening news, 15 July 1916). The most popular book of that year was The Red Glutton, by Irwin Cobb, was a description of life at the front. It was borrowed more than 50 times, at that time a record for the library. George Adams’ Behind the Scenes at the Front was borrowed 41 times, while the library’s 2 copies of With the Allies, by Richard Harding Davis, were borrowed 79 times. John Buchan’s History of the War was also popular. In 1917, Bell also noted an increased interest in works on spiritualism (Lyttelton Times, 27 December 1917). Demand for history, travel and war books continued into the 1920s.
Not just books …
Periodicals, newspapers and magazines were also high-demand items in the 1910s, (as they were also in the 1940s and continue to be today). Bell listed all the periodical titles held by the library in May 1914: they included a large number of British magazines, such as the Athenaeum, Antiquary, Book Monthly, Economist, English Mechanic, Fortnightly Review, Mercantile Gazette, Nature, Review of Reviews, Studio, United Empire, English Historical Review, Nineteenth Century, Quarterly Review and the Theosophist. American titles were few but included American Home and Gardens and Scientific American, while New Zealand magazines were mostly those published by government departments: NZ journal of Agriculture, the Journal of Education and the Labour Department journal. Australia was represented by the Victorian journal of Agriculture, the Australasian Insurance and Banking Record, and Theosophy in Australia (Press, 5 May 1914).
Compare the popular titles of the 1910s with our lists of the top 50 fiction and non-fiction books borrowed from the library in 2005-6.
