Title Reading up : middle-class readers and the culture of success in the early twentieth-century United States / Amy L. Blair

Published Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2012

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Description 1 online resource (ix, 250 pages) Contents 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 Summary 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 Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Subject Mabie, Hamilton Wright, 1846-1916 -- Knowledge -- Literature SUBJECT Mabie, Hamilton Wright, 1846-1916 fast Umschulungswerkstätten für Siedler und Auswanderer Bitterfeld gnd Ladies' home journal Subject American literature -- Appreciation -- United States -- History -- 20th century Popular literature -- United States -- History and criticism Books and reading -- United States -- History -- 20th century Middle class -- Books and reading -- United States -- History -- 20th century Success in literature. Literature and society -- United States -- History -- 20th century POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture. LITERARY CRITICISM -- American -- General. American literature -- Appreciation Literature Books and reading Literature and society Middle class -- Books and reading Popular literature Success in literature Englisch Leser Literatur Leserin Bestseller United States Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781439906699 1439906696

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