Reading Up : Middle-Class Readers and the Culture of Success in the Early Twentieth-Century United States

"A person who reads a book for self-improvement rather than aesthetic pleasure is 'reading up.' Reading Up is Amy Blair's engaging study of popular literary critics who promoted reading generally and specific books as vehicles for acquiring cultural competence and economic mobility. Combining methodologies from the history of the book and the history of reading, to mass-cultural studies, reader-response criticism, reception studies, and formalist literary analysis, Blair shows how such critics influenced the choices of striving readers and popularized some elite writers. Framed by an analysis of Hamilton Wright Mabie's role promoting the concept of reading up during his ten-year stint as the cultivator of literary taste for the highly popular Ladies' Home Journal, Reading Up reveals how readers flocked to literary works they would be expected to dislike. Blair shows that while readers could be led to certain books by a trusted adviser, they frequently followed their own path in interpreting them in unexpected ways"--Amazon.com. A person who reads a book for self-improvement rather than aesthetic pleasure is OC reading up.OCOa"Reading Up"ais Amy Blair's engaging study of popular literary critics who promoted reading generally and specific books as vehicles for acquiring cultural competence and economic mobility. Combining methodologies from the history of the book and the history of reading, to mass-cultural studies, reader-response criticism, reception studies, and formalist literary analysis, Blair shows how such critics influenced the choices of striving readers and popularized some elite writers. Framed by an analysis of Hamilton Wright Mabie's role promoting the concept of OC reading upOCO during his ten-year stint as the cultivator of literary taste for the highly populara"Ladies' Home Journal," a"Reading Up"areveals how readers flocked to literary works that they would be expected to dislike. Blair shows that while readers could be led to certain books by a trusted adviser, they frequently followed their own path in interpreting them in unexpected ways. A person who reads a book for self-improvement rather than aesthetic pleasure is "reading up." Reading Up is Amy Blair's engaging study of popular literary critics who promoted reading generally and specific books as vehicles for acquiring cultural competence and economic mobility. Combining methodologies from the history of the book and the history of reading, to mass-cultural studies, reader-response criticism, reception studies, and formalist literary analysis, Blair shows how such critics influenced the choices of striving readers and popularized some elite writers. Framed by an analysis of Hamilton Wright Mabie's role promoting the concept of "reading up" during his ten-year stint as the cultivator of literary taste for the highly popular Ladies' Home Journal , Reading Up reveals how readers flocked to literary works that they would be expected to dislike. Blair shows that while readers could be led to certain books by a trusted adviser, they frequently followed their own path in interpreting them in unexpected ways. Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgments......Page 8 Introduction: Cultivating Taste in a Mass-Market World......Page 14 1. Mr. Mabie Tells What to Read......Page 36 2. The Compromise of Silas Lapham......Page 74 3. James for the General Reader......Page 112 4. Misreading The House of Mirth......Page 150 5. The Comforts of Romanticism......Page 184 Epilogue: Reading Up into the Twenty-first Century......Page 208 Appendix A: The Mabie Canon......Page 218 Appendix B: “Novels Descriptive of American Life”......Page 222 Notes......Page 224 Bibliography......Page 240 Index......Page 254 Introduction: Cultivating taste in a mass-market world Mr. Mabie tells what to read The compromise of Silas Lapham James for the general reader Misreading The house of mirth The comforts of romanticism Epilogue: Reading up into the twenty-first century Appendix A: The Mabie canon Appendix B: "Novels descriptive of American life" (November 1908). Introduction: cultivating taste in a mass-market world "Mr. Mabie tells you what to read" The compromise of Silas Lapham James for the general reader Misreading The house of Mirth The comforts of romanticism Epilogue: reading up into the twenty-first century. The role of cultural elites and journalists in promoting reading as a means of self-improvement and social mobility