On Books for Boys

A BOYS' book, I suppose, is a book without a heroine; that is, without a heroine in what too often is the film‐meaning. Women and girls may enter, perhaps should enter, but there ought to be “no nonsense” and no “love interest.” They are to have all rights as individuals, yet only a restricted right as females. They are to come and go as characters, yet if their sex makes them attractive, it should be such attraction as one feels for a chest of gold doubloons. Elusiveness is permissible if it is like the elusiveness of buried treasure; “desire,” except as one desires treasure—which is something to be found rather than fingered—is disallowed.