Self, Culture, and Self-Culture in Modern America: The Early History of the Book-of-the-Month Club
Self, Culture, and Self-Culture in Modern America: The Early History of the Book-of-the-Month Club
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现代美国的自我、文化和自我文化：每月一书俱乐部的早期历史
DOI：
10.2307/1888504
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发表时间：
1985
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
J. Rubin
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
J. Rubin
1926年，纽约的一位广告人哈里·舍曼创立了每月一书俱乐部。舍曼已经确信美国的书店不能满足对文学的需求，但他知道在零售店外销售单行本不会产生他赚钱所必需的重复业务。因此，他制定了一个计划，以订阅的方式通过邮寄销售新出版的作品。德国的图书协会，印刷廉价版本直接向公众销售，自1919年以来也采取了类似的安排;早在1921年，克雷格就构想出了最终成为文学协会的东西。然而，舍曼和他的同事们是第一批充当分销商而不是出版商的俱乐部组织者，他们严重依赖邮购技术，并聘请了一个专家评审委员会来赢得消费者的信任。根据俱乐部最初的合同条款，订阅者同意在一年内每月购买一本新书，全价加上邮费，每本书的价格不超过3美元。他们还得到了评选委员会的指导，或法官委员会，由五位美国最著名的作家和评论家组成：亨利塞德尔坎比，多萝西坎菲尔德费舍尔，克里斯托弗莫利，海伍德布朗和威廉艾伦白色。委员会确定了“本月最佳图书”，为每月时事通讯提供了有关该图书的评论，并生成了一份替代选择列表，如果订阅者在审查评委的选择后希望将其换成另一卷，他们可以从中订购。'
In 1926 Harry Scherman, a New York advertising man, created the Book-ofthe-Month Club. Scherman had become convinced that America's bookstores did not satisfy the demand for literature, but he knew that selling single books outside retail stores would not generate the repeat business necessary for him to make a profit. Hence, he formulated a plan for marketing newly published works by mail on a subscription basis. German book societies, which printed cheap editions for sale directly to the public, had entailed a similar arrangement since 1919; and Samuel W. Craig had conceived of what eventually became the Literary Guild as early as 1921. Scherman and his associates, however, were the first club organizers to act as distributors rather than as publishers, to rely heavily on mail-order techniques, and to employ a board of expert judges to win the confidence of consumers. Under the terms of the club's initial contract, subscribers agreed to buy one new book per month for a year, at full retail price plus postage, with no book costing more than three dollars. For their money they also received the guidance of the Selecting Committee, or Board of Judges, composed of five of America's most famous writers and critics: Henry Seidel Canby, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Christopher Morley, Heywood Broun, and William Allen White. The committee identified the "book of the month," furnished comments about it for a monthly newsletter, and generated a list of alternate selections from which subscribers could order if, after examining the judges' choice, they wished to exchange it for another volume. '