Popular Reading and Publishing in Britain 1914-1950

by McAleer, Joseph

• ISBN13: 9780198203292
• ISBN10: 0198203292
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-02-11
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

Before the advent of television, reading was among the most popular of leisure activities. Light fiction--romances, thrillers, westerns--was the sustenance of millions in wartime and in peace. This lively and scholarly study examines the size and complexion of the reading public and the development of an increasingly commercialized publishing industry through the first half of the twentieth century. Joseph McAleer uses a variety of sources, from the Mass-Observation Archive to previously confidential publishers' records, to explore the nature of popular fiction and its readers. He analyzes the editorial policies which created the success of Mills & Boon, publishers of romantic fiction, and D. C. Thomson, the genius behind The Hotspur and other magazines for boys, and also charts the rise and fall of the Religious Tract Society, creator of the legendary Boy's Own Paper , as a popular publisher.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations

List of tables

Abbreviations

Introduction

Popular reading and publishing 1870-1914

'Books are a commodity': The commercialization of popular fiction

'The quickest way out of Glasgow': Adult reading habits

'Take the place of valium': Mills & Boon Ltd

'We must prevent the leakage': Children's reading habits

'Get me the boy from the age of six': D. C. Thomson & Co., Ltd

'The public mind might be diverted': The Religious Tract Society

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

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