American Literature in Transition, 1910–1920 ed. by Mark W. Van WIenen, and: American Literature in Transition, 1920–1930 ed. by Ichiro Takayoshi, and: American Literature in Transition, 1940–1950 ed. by Christopher Vials, and: American Literature in Transition, 1950–1960 ed. by Steven Belletto, and: American Literature in Transition, 1980–1990 ed. by D. Quentin Miller, and: American Literature in Transition, 1990–2000 ed. by Stephen J. Burn (review)
- American Literature in Transition, 1910–1920 ed. by Mark W. Van WIenen, and: American Literature in Transition, 1920–1930 ed. by Ichiro Takayoshi, and: American Literature in Transition, 1940–1950 ed. by Christopher Vials, and: American Literature in Transition, 1950–1960 ed. by Steven Belletto, and: American Literature in Transition, 1980–1990 ed. by D. Quentin Miller, and: American Literature in Transition, 1990–2000 ed. by Stephen J. Burn
This new overview of American literature of the past century seeks to re-evaluate its field by considering the dynamic forces which led to structural change over the course of individual decades. Each volume comprises twenty or more chapters arranged into sections by literary genre, thematic concepts, or treating intersections with other art-forms. For the more bibliographically inclined reader there is surprisingly little focus on the physical artefacts of literature: this is not a history of publishing or book design, nor even of marketing and readership. The materiality of literature nevertheless underpins several chapters, and a few deserve special notice here.
In the 1910–20 volume, Mike Chasar contributes a helpful survey of the appearance of popular verse in non-book contexts such as greetings cards and lantern slides, while Jayne E. Marek usefully covers the large literature on the birth of the Little Magazine—a story continued in the Twenties by Greg Barnhisel. This is complemented by Brooks E. Hefner's account of pulp magazines, which at this time were still printed on pulpwood paper: a particular revelation is the remarkable [End Page 406] growth in 'aviation pulp fiction' in the months following Lindenbergh's transatlantic flight in 1927. The second volume also includes a chapter on 'Americans Abroad' by Craig Monk which describes the flourishing English-language magazine culture of Paris, from Gargoyle in 1921 to Eugene Jolas's transition from 1927. Lise Jaillant questions the traditional narrative of new, small-scale and often Jewish publishers undermining the mainstream houses by issuing a new canon of modern literature, while Loren Glass examines some of the same publishers in their involvement in the major obscenity trials of the decade.
In the 1940s the market for paperback reprints first took off, with the 1939 Pocket Books edition of The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck at the vanguard. Erin A. Smith carefully charts the new terrain made available through dissemination via drugstores and newsstands, and its effect on the 'many newly enfranchised members of the republic of letters'. The 1950s volume treats three publishing phenomena in particular detail: Loren Glass discusses the subversive effect of countercultural journals such as the Evergreeen Review and Big Table in diminishing the dominating position previously held by the Partisan Review and Kenyon Review; Evan Brier assesses the circumstances which led to such unexpected marketing successes as the twelve million sales of Grace Metalious's Peyton Place; and Rob Latham shows how changes in the book market enabled the flourishing of science fiction through the decade.
The 1980s saw fundamental changes in production methods, not covered here except briefly by Brian Cremins in an account of the emergence of the graphic novel as a genre distinct...
