The Change in Literary Conditions Available to Purchase

To many readers the title of this article may pre‐suppose that there has been a time when literary condictions were economically good. That would be an incorrect supposition. The grim truth is, that literature, like all other concerns of the spirit and the mind, has always had to take a second, perhaps even a tenth place, behind the material interests of mankind. This is not a cynical statement by a tired and angry writer, and I am not blaming anybody. The battle of life, as I know from our common human experience, tends to drive us all to that prime anxiety, the desire for physical safety; the sufficient food, the sound roof, the money in reserve, the assurance of creature comforts and even luxuries. After those capital provisions, we begin to think about our souls, and the sustenance thereof, amongst which is literature.