Technological Change and the Humanities Curriculum/part two

I. New Patterns in the Patronage of Literature

Most teachers know and appreciate the inexpensive reprints of the classics made available by such firms as Harpers, Regnery, Modern Library, and Rinehart.

It confirms the thesis of this paper to recall that these long established lines are excellent examples of how technological change can aid the humanities. The new patterns-the paperback revolution, the appearance of quality literature in mass circulation magazines, book clubs, and the recording of literature on film and record- promise greater riches founded on new production and distribution techniques developed by our businessmen and scientists. Noteworthy in the paperback revolution was the appearance of paperback anthologies devoted to the best in current writing. New World Writing (MN)* has reached its sixth semi-annual issue; Discovery (PB), its fourth; and Stories in the Modern Manner (AV) and Modern Writing (AV) have had two issues each.

Rolfe Humphries edited New Poems by American Poets (BB), a highly successful attempt to bring contemporary poetry of high quality to a mass audience. American Accent (BB) uses the paperback form to bring fourteen stories by members of Bread Loaf Writer's Conference to a larger audience. The last two are examples of the Ballantine plan of publishing originals simultaneously in hard and soft cover editions. Six Great Modern Short Novels (DL) contains work by Faulkner, Joyce, Melville, Gogol, Porter, and Wescott; Short Story Masterpieces (DL) is what one might expect from its editors, Robert Penn Warren and Albert Erskine.

Finally, it is interesting to note what happens when scholar and paperback meet, as in the Penguin series. The two most recent examples are Marcus Cunliffe, The Literature of the United States (PN) and first volume in a new series edited by Boris Ford, The Age of Chaucer (PN). It is ironic to find, in the case of the former, an Englishman writing a highly literate survey of American literature-a use to which an American scholar has not yet put a paperback. The new series, called a layman's guide to English literature, will contain seven volumes: The Age of Chaucer, The Age of Shakespeare, From Donne to Marvell, From Dryden to Johnson, From Blake to Byron, From Dickens to Hardy, The Present Age.

The format of the volumes include an account of the social context of literature, a literary survey of the period, detailed studies of some of the chief writers, and an appendix of essential facts for reference purposes. The first volume includes an anthology of medieval verse. That American scholars are beginning to use this new means of communication is apparent in Sculley Bradley's recent edition of Leaves of Grass (MN), Oscar Williams' The Pocketbook of Modern Verse (PB), and John Ciardi's new translation of The Inferno (MN).

Edith Hamilton's Mythology (MN) may be taken as example of material available in reprint. The Society of American Historians, Inc., whose membership of 400 writers of history is interested in a wider diffusion of historical materials and ideas among the general public, has gained considerable success in its first paperback, The World of History (MN), an omnibus of historical writing by many prominent historians. The Uses of the Past (MN) by Herbert J. Muller and The Shaping of the Modern Mind (MN) by Crane Brinton are typical of values to be found in historical reprints.

The Wonderful World of Books (MN) and Good Reading: A Guide to the World's Best Books (MN) are useful volumes to stimulate and guide the newly interested. The November, 1954 edition of the latter is especially important for its new comprehensive checklist of the best paperbound books. This checklist is twenty-five pages long and is divided topically. This list includes in its coverage the important new middle price range paperbacks, Anchor Books, Meridian Books, and Vintage Books.

Another new pattern in the patronage of good literature in contemporary America is the publication of mature work in the mass circulation magazines. The appearance of a Hemingway novella in Life is just a most spectacular instance in a general development. Harper's and Atlantic consistently publish work of high quality in fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. More heartening is the regularity with which serious writing is found in the fashion magazines: Harper's Bazaar, Mademoiselle, Charm, and similar outlets.

Paperback and magazine come together in Saturday Review Reader #3 (BN), an excellent introduction for the general college student. This issue is particularly useful because of its essays on the theme of the common man and the mass media. Harper's and Atlantic have also published readers in this format-in effect, trial subscriptions at a price that permits inclusion in a variety of English curricula. The book clubs and related activities take advantage of a highly efficient postal service to distribute books at considerable savings to the subscriber.

For example, recently, the Book-of-the-Month Club offered the following to prospective members: Lindbergh's The Spirit of St. Louis, Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Cousteau's The Silent World, Costain's The Silver Chalice, Paton's Too Late the Phalarope, Herzog's Annapurna, Johnson's two-volume Dickens, and Wouk's The Caine Mutiny. This is a respectable, if not an exalted, level of taste. And for those with higher aspirations, there is plenty of room for upward movement in the other book clubs. Book Find, Seven Arts Book Society, History Book Club, American History Publication Society, and Readers' Subscription are among the more specialized audiences assembled through efficient and imaginative use of the mails in book salesmanship.

Marboro Books distribute remainders and odds and ends by the same methods, usually at considerable savings. Perhaps the humanities could make the existence of such outlets more generally known. The mechanical preservation of literature by film and record is an asset long known by members of the NCTE. Teaching Films Custodians and the NCTE's poetry records are time-tested adjuncts to many literature programs. The developments along this line are equally exciting. Television's achievements now include Hamlet, Richard II, and Macbeth. Maurice Evans' Richard II has been made available on free kinescopes for school use. It is available from the Institute of Visual Training, Inc., 40 East 49 Street, New York 17.

The Schwann LP Catalog, available from most retail record dealers, is a most valuable source of recorder plays and poetry. Recent entries under its "Spoken and Miscellaneous" section include the Classic Theatre Guild's series of plays, contemporary work by Eliot, Arthur Miller, Christopher Fry, and performances of various of Shakespeare's plays. One of the major projects of the Caedmon Publishers for fall, 1954 is "a four-record set called 'Monuments of English Drama,' in which are acted major dramatic works beginning with the Quem Quaeritis, through Everyman, The Second Shepherd's Play, Gorboduc and a number of others, including Abraham and Isaac, and concluding with the Spanish Tragedy and Faustus."

Caedmon is outstanding for its pioneer work in recording not only drama and poetry but also fiction. Columbia Literary Series contains twelve LP's of the outstanding literary figures. Folkways is creating a reputation for imaginative material in this field: witness its recent "Anthology of Negro Poets" edited by Anna Bontemps and read by the poets themselves. In effect, the Schwann LP Catalog will become to the teacher of literature what Lewis Leary's volume has become for the scholar of American literature-an indispensable aid.

Paperbacks, the appearance of quality work in magazines of wide circulation, book clubs and mail order schemes, and mechanical methods of recording literary performances are among the most heartening facts of cultural life in contemporary America. It seems only natural that teachers in the humanities will do everything possible to finish what businessmen and technicians have started.