Between Covers: The Rise & Transformation of Book Publishing in America

Between Covers goes behind the famous imprints to tell the often surprising story of the men and women who have made up more than two centuries of American book publishing. The only comprehensive, single-volume history of the profession, it is a book rich in life and color, in anecdote and biography. John Tebbel offers fascinating portraits of the founders of the great houses--the Harper brothers, George Palmer Putnam, the Scribners, Henry Oscar Houghton, among them--as well as of the figures who led the industry after the First World War--Alfred A. Knopf, Horace Liveright, Bennett Cerf, Stanley Rinehart, Alfred Harcourt, and many others. Tebbel traces the evolution of the industry through a fascinating series of developments: the astonishing rise of paperbacks before the Civil War, book selling through subscription, the great fiction boom of the 1890s, bouts with censorship, the tremendous growth of specialized publishing, and the escalating role of advertising, promotion, and publicity. The closing pages deal with the explosion in mass market publishing of the postwar era and the entry of conglomerates, and examine the state of publishing today. Based on the author's monumental four-volume History of Book Publishing in the United States, Between Covers will be of enormous appeal to everyone who loves books and reading.

"John Tebbel has condensed his four-volume History of Book Publishing in the United States in this one-volume work. Consequently, Between Covers is a comprehensive albeit general study. The book traces American book publishing from its origins in 17th-century Massachusetts, to the foundations of the great publishing houses in the 19th and 20th centuries, to the transformation of book publishing after World War II when business corporations bought the old houses. Tebbel, also, briefly examines the development of university presses, the burgeoning children's literary market in the 1920's, and religious book publishing. Descriptions of Alfred A. Knopf, the Harper Brothers, George Putnam, and other publishing giants enliven this otherwise encyclopedic account. As a condensed version, Between Covers omits much. In particular, Tebbel dispenses with footnotes/endnotes, thereby preventing the reader from expanding upon the brief accounts he offers. Tebbel's bibliography is only a listing of works he says will be easiest for the general reader to secure through his local library or Inter-Library Loan service. Nevertheless, this work is useful, beginning reading for those anticipating a career in book publishing." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)