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. |
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Seite ix
... tion by commenting on earlier drafts , sharing ideas , or furnishing various kinds of assistance : James Baughman , Casey Blake , George Cotkin , the late Catherine Covert , Lynn Gordon , Robert A. Gross , James Hoopes , Michael Kammen ...
... tion by commenting on earlier drafts , sharing ideas , or furnishing various kinds of assistance : James Baughman , Casey Blake , George Cotkin , the late Catherine Covert , Lynn Gordon , Robert A. Gross , James Hoopes , Michael Kammen ...
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... tion and helped check quotations . The following gave me not only funds for research but also the gift of time : a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for College Teachers ( 1983–84 ) ; a State University of New York ...
... tion and helped check quotations . The following gave me not only funds for research but also the gift of time : a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for College Teachers ( 1983–84 ) ; a State University of New York ...
Seite xii
... tion , publishers , responding to the demand for culture in organized , manageable parcels , nurtured authors like Durant who could " outline " and simplify specialized learning . At the same time , older institutions such as ...
... tion , publishers , responding to the demand for culture in organized , manageable parcels , nurtured authors like Durant who could " outline " and simplify specialized learning . At the same time , older institutions such as ...
Seite xiii
... tion that highbrows and lowbrows were naturally allied against the " pernicious pest who comes between " them and her association of " mid- dlebrow " with the corruption of taste by commercial interests rever- berated through every ...
... tion that highbrows and lowbrows were naturally allied against the " pernicious pest who comes between " them and her association of " mid- dlebrow " with the corruption of taste by commercial interests rever- berated through every ...
Seite xv
... tion with Midcult . " 6 Macdonald's dismissive argument not only gave up on middlebrow culture as a means for improving the quality of American life in the future , it also licensed the scholarly neglect of middlebrow efforts in the ...
... tion with Midcult . " 6 Macdonald's dismissive argument not only gave up on middlebrow culture as a means for improving the quality of American life in the future , it also licensed the scholarly neglect of middlebrow efforts in the ...
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 |
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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