An Aged Book List Revisited: How Well Has It Held Up Over Half a Century?

In 1930, as the Great Depression was shifting into high gear, the American Library Association published a 64‐page booklet, 500 Books for the Senior High School Library, compiled by Meta Schmidt, under the direction of a committee of the ALA, Frances H. Kelly, Chairman. Understandably, even so small a product represented “several years of hard work.” First, five school librarians each were called upon to list 500 essential titles, but since only 35 of these works were common to all the lists, another step was taken: 20 other school librarians were asked to vote on the titles which had been submitted. The final list thus combined the judgments of 25 librarians. Actually, there are, by my count, 497 titles, under 420 different main entries, most of whom are personal authors.