The Making of Middlebrow CultureUniv of North Carolina Press, 09.11.2000 - 438 Seiten The proliferation of book clubs, reading groups, "outline" volumes, and new forms of book reviewing in the first half of the twentieth century influenced the tastes and pastimes of millions of Americans. Joan Rubin here provides the first comprehensive analysis of this phenomenon, the rise of American middlebrow culture, and the values encompassed by it. Rubin centers her discussion on five important expressions of the middlebrow: the founding of the Book-of-the-Month Club; the beginnings of "great books" programs; the creation of the New York Herald Tribune's book-review section; the popularity of such works as Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy; and the emergence of literary radio programs. She also investigates the lives and expectations of the individuals who shaped these middlebrow institutions--such figures as Stuart Pratt Sherman, Irita Van Doren, Henry Seidel Canby, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, John Erskine, William Lyon Phelps, Alexander Woollcott, and Clifton Fadiman. Moreover, as she pursues the significance of these cultural intermediaries who connected elites and the masses by interpreting ideas to the public, Rubin forces a reconsideration of the boundary between high culture and popular sensibility. |
Im Buch
Ergebnisse 1-5 von 26
Seite 16
... present . Yet , for all its merits , Levine's interpretation is still a picture of a one - way street . If , as is now clear , Shakespeare was not the exclusive property of an educated minority , the fact remains that , even in the ...
... present . Yet , for all its merits , Levine's interpretation is still a picture of a one - way street . If , as is now clear , Shakespeare was not the exclusive property of an educated minority , the fact remains that , even in the ...
Seite 18
... present refinement in unabash- edly commodified form , they still had the potential to bolster Arnoldian values by dispersing them . The editors of popular periodicals , John Kasson has written , " participated in the commercialization ...
... present refinement in unabash- edly commodified form , they still had the potential to bolster Arnoldian values by dispersing them . The editors of popular periodicals , John Kasson has written , " participated in the commercialization ...
Seite 21
... present them in a manner capable of inspiring as well as educating and diverting . Thus , listeners evinced some desire for a refined sensibility as well as a command of data . Second , in terms of personnel , many of the best - known ...
... present them in a manner capable of inspiring as well as educating and diverting . Thus , listeners evinced some desire for a refined sensibility as well as a command of data . Second , in terms of personnel , many of the best - known ...
Seite 28
... present nonetheless . The same themes surfaced in the early advertising for the volumes . One of the first advertisements featured a portrait of “ Dr. Eliot ” beneath the banner " The Harvard Classics , " language that both traded on ...
... present nonetheless . The same themes surfaced in the early advertising for the volumes . One of the first advertisements featured a portrait of “ Dr. Eliot ” beneath the banner " The Harvard Classics , " language that both traded on ...
Seite 32
... present . The prestige of experts in the social sciences , at a high - water mark by 1917 , continued to spill over into the humanities . Even more than in the nineteenth century , readers overwhelmed by spiraling numbers of book titles ...
... present . The prestige of experts in the social sciences , at a high - water mark by 1917 , continued to spill over into the humanities . Even more than in the nineteenth century , readers overwhelmed by spiraling numbers of book titles ...
Inhalt
1 | |
Stuart Pratt Sherman Irita Van Doren and Books | 34 |
The Early History of the BookoftheMonth Club | 93 |
John Erskine and Great Books | 148 |
illustrations | 199 |
Will Durant and the Vogue of the Outline | 209 |
Book Programs on Commercial Radio | 266 |
Notes | 331 |
Bibliography | 373 |
Index | 405 |
Permissions | 415 |
Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
Adler advertising aesthetic Alexander Woollcott American appeared Arnold Arnoldian audience authority Autobiography Babbitt Book Review Book-of-the-Month Club broadcast Broun Canby Canby's Canfield character civilization classics Clifton Fadiman club's COHC College critics democratic Dewey Dorothy Canfield Fisher Durant's early editor effort Eliot Emerson Erskine Papers Erskine's essay example experience Fadiman Fisher Folder genteel tradition Haldeman-Julius Helen Helen Rogers Reid Henry Seidel Canby Herald Tribune human Ibid idea ideal intellectual Irita Van Doren James John Erskine Lazarsfeld lecture Letters Library Lincoln Schuster listeners literary Loon Loon's Mark Van Doren Max Lincoln ment middlebrow modern moral Morley NBC Records Norton novel outline personality Phelps Phelps's political popular publishers quiz Radio readers reading Review of Literature role Saturday Review selection sense Sept Sherman Similarly Simon and Schuster social Story of Philosophy tion Weekly Wells's William William Lyon Phelps Woodberry Woodberry's Woollcott writers wrote Yale