Abstract

Youth on the Bookshelf

Some time ago, in the "Survey Graphic," an article by Leon Whipple appeared, the first sentences of which were delightfully provocative. They ran as follows: "I personally have never met a grown-up, even in a mirror. Nor have I found one described in a catalogue or stuffed in a museum. The people I have discovered posing as grown-up to impress their friends or scare their children were fakes: they knew rather less about life than a rural idiot." Although it is unfair to lift these sentences from their context, the author hopes that Whipple will forgive the apparent vandalism in view of the fact that his attitude is both salutary and consoling to those who are interested in the reading done by people of high-school age. The article discusses books that treat the subject of how people grow up like "The Bent Twig," by Dorothy Canfield and "So Big," by Edna Ferber.