REPORT ON COMPETITION No. 9

As was expected, the task of selecting ten hooks to he taken on a three years' expedition proved popular.
There was a surprising resemblance between the different lists with occasional original variations, such as " Who's Who," " Mrs. Beaton's Cookery Book," " Russian Grammar " (if there's a good large one), " A History of the People I Was Visiting for speculation [sic] a Volume of Strickland's " Lives of the Queens of England " —how glad I am that this excellent work is not entirely forgotten!
Nearly all competitors started with the Bible or the Roman Missal, or both, and many added the Imitation of Christ, The Bible and the Imitation should cover devotional meat. Shakespeare was often named, though some competitors may have omitted him because of my remarks in setting the competition. As one entrant pointed out, the fact that one could read him later was no reason for waiting three years. Chesterton, Belloc, Dickens, and Boswell's " Life of Johnson " were represented in most lists, and Milton, Goethe, Dante, Chaucer, according to taste. Newman was not as popular as I expected, and I must protest against H. A. L. Fisher's "History of Europe " (see Catholic reviews at time of publication). Various anthologies represented the need for modern verse.
No list satisfied me completely—which was natural, but I personally liked Miss Grant Johnson's somewhat weighty choice, disqualified by the fact that the works of Trollope could not be obtained in one volume. Her list is as follows: 1. Holy Bible.
2. Imitation of Christ.
3. Life of St. Teresa.
4. Chesterton's Poems.
5. Jane Austin (complete works).
6. Trollope (complete works).
7. Shakespeare (complete works).
8. Leacock Laughter Book.
9. St. Thomas Summa Qu. LX—LXXXIII (The Sacraments).
10. Aristotle's Metaphysics.
I fear that i should have preferred as much Kai-Lung as I could get into one volume to replace the unspecified " Life of St. Theresa." I think that Theresa would agree. And what about St. Francis of Sales' Introduction as alternative spiritual reading?
Another interesting list, unfortunately omitting the Bible, is C. Curtin: 1. Confessions of St. Augustine (Orchard Books).
2. Purgatorio. Dante. (Temple Classic).
3. The Path to Rome. Belloc.
4. Father Brown Stories. Chesterton.
5. The French Revolution. Carlyle.
6. Francois Villon. Lewis.
7. Imaginary Conversations. Landor.
8. Complete Short Stories. 0. Henry.
9. Montaigne's Essays. Tr. by Florio.
10. The Oxford Book of Regency Verse.
The prize goes to John Meyer, of Villa Rance, Rennes, for the following: Holy Bible, Imitation, Shakespeare's Works, Oxford Book of English Verse, Newman's Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, Boswell's Life of Johnson, Tolstoi's War and Peace., Alice Through the I.00king-Glass, the Wallet of Kai
Lung, wry omnibus volume of P. G. Wodehouse. AMEX.