Fiction and the American Literary Marketplace: The Role of Newspaper Syndicates in America, 1860–1900

ISBN-13: 9780521497107 / Angielski / Twarda / 1996 / 298 str.

Charles Johanningsmeier (State University of New York)

Opis

Conventional literary history has virtually ignored the role of newspaper syndicates in publishing some of the most famous nineteenth-century writers. Henry James, Rudyard Kipling and Mark Twain were among those who offered their early fiction to "Syndicates," firms that subsequently sold the work to newspapers across America for simultaneous, first-time publication. Charles Johanningsmeier shows how the economic practicalities of the syndicate system governed the consumption and interpretation of various literary texts. His study revises the conception of traditional literary history by examining the ordinary reader's response to some of the major writers of the nineteenth century.

Recenzje

' … a seminal study for newspaper, publishing and literary history.' Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand Bulletin

Spis treści

Acknowledgements; Introduction; Newspaper syndicates of the late nineteenth century: overlooked forces in the American literary marketplace; 1. Preparing the way for the syndicates: a revolution in American fiction production, distribution, and readership, 1860–1900; 2. The pioneers: readyprint, plate service, and early galley-proof syndicates; 3. The heyday of American fiction syndication: Irvin Bacheller, S. S. McClure and other independent syndicators; 4. What literary syndicates represented to authors: saviours, doctors, or something in between?; 5. What price must authors pay? The negotiations between galley-proof syndicates and authors; 6. Pleasing the customers: the balance of power between syndicates and newspaper editors; 7. Readers' experiences with syndicated fiction; 8. The decline of the literary syndicates; Notes; Bibliography.