A History of the Book in America, Vol. v: The Enduring Book: Print Culture in Postwar America (review)

This is a wonderful book. A highly absorbing read it provides, in twenty-eight chapters from thirty-three contributors, a multiplicity of viewpoints on print culture in post-war America. There is so much covered in the volume that this review cannot possibly do it justice. The editors are to be congratulated on completing the mammoth task of bringing this book to publication and completing the final volume in the history of the book in America.

There is of course much that is familiar to be found. We have the growth of paper-back publishing, industry consolidation, and the corporatization of the publishing houses. Consider how in 1990 the whole staff of Pantheon Books went on strike in protest at the introduction of an edict that every title had to make a profit. There is the story of censorship, including the days of the McCarthy era, when books such as Allen Ginsberg’s Howl were banned. Apparently some more extraordinary attempts to get books censored were resisted, such as when librarians ignored the claim that The Adventures of Robin Hood was subversive. There is the growth in higher education and also the controversy around how and if evolution should be covered in school textbooks. There is a chapter on the black and radical press — in the 1950s four out of five black-owned papers in Mississippi supported segregation — which charts its rise and fall, concluding that the internet may be the best route for its reinvigoration.

It is very instructive to read about the book alongside chapters on magazines and newspapers. For example, both book and magazine publishers discovered the joys of niche publishing in the 1950s and 1960s, in particular hobby and special interest titles. It is striking to see the effects of generational shifts in reading habits. For example, the baby boomers remain strong book buyers, even as they grow older. This is attributed to the investment in reading and education in response to the launch of Sputnik in 1957 — it was considered vital to increase literacy rates in the next gen era tion. By contrast, since they grew up with TV, the baby boomers were less likely to read newspapers.

Another interesting chapter looks at the connections between magazines and the making of authors. Publication in magazines such as Esquire and Glamour could earn an author thousands of dollars with the added bonus of becoming a celebrity. James Baldwin, for example, ‘interwove book publication with writing for magazines across a wide spectrum’. A separate chapter examines Rachel Carson’s seminal book Silent Spring, about the dangers of pesticides, for which the author submitted simultaneous manuscripts to the New Yorker and to Houghton Mifflin. In this case Carson did not submit the article to a general interest or women’s magazine, recognizing that her work could alienate advertisers from the food and chemical industries. Instead the New Yorker had the required editorial independence.

One important question tackled is what reading is for: the author Anne Fadiman is quoted as saying that a book is not a toaster (simply an object of consumption) but a signpost to a life. Reading can be a social activity, within a reading group, or an opportunity for some private time. There are a variety of fascinating case studies, including a chapter on the ‘Big Book’ used by Alcoholics Anonymous. Reading the book plays an important part in AA meetings. Elsewhere it is argued that it is the act of reading romance fiction, rather than the message given by the text, which gives female readers respite from their daily routine. This conclusion is echoed by similar research into the reading of Agatha Christie in the UK.

The illustrations are well...