American Pulp: How Paperbacks Brought Modernism to Main Street - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Paula Rabinowitz is professor emerita of English at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of Black & White & Noir: America's Pulp Modernism.

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"Paula Rabinowitz's eloquent and persuasive history of mid-twentieth-century pulp paperbacks provides long-overdue recognition of the role these physically humble but culturally powerful books played in our society. The pulps were scorned by literary critics and flayed by clucking Congressional committees, fearful of their effect on the young. But, as Rabinowitz shows, they were carriers of literacy, modernity, and cultural awareness such as America had never seen before. We who wrote pulps never dreamed that a sophisticated and caring critic would one day give our efforts such thoughtful attention."--Ann Bannon, author of The Beebo Brinker Chronicles (1957 1962)

"American Pulp is a masterful achievement--elegantly written, impressive in scope, keenly attentive to nuance, and essayistic in the best sense of the word. Deftly interweaving published reminiscences, archival material, and personal memories and anecdotes, Rabinowitz provides a cultural history of how the pulps helped fashion new identities in midcentury America. She also chronicles an American love affair with books, reminding us that they are an essential part of cultural experience."--Priscilla Wald, Duke University

"American Pulp is a fast-paced, historically rich, and often moving study of the public and private lives of mass-market paperbacks in midcentury America. Rabinowitz traces how the pulps repackaged elite modernist literature for a diverse popular audience that included women, African Americans, sexual minorities, and the working class. And she analyzes the pulps' infamous cover illustrations just as skillfully as she illuminates the texts they surrounded."--William J. Maxwell, Washington University in St. Louis

Aus dem Klappentext

"Paula Rabinowitz's eloquent and persuasive history of mid-twentieth-century pulp paperbacks provides long-overdue recognition of the role these physically humble but culturally powerful books played in our society. The pulps were scorned by literary critics and flayed by clucking Congressional committees, fearful of their effect on the young. But, as Rabinowitz shows, they were carriers of literacy, modernity, and cultural awareness such as America had never seen before. We who wrote pulps never dreamed that a sophisticated and caring critic would one day give our efforts such thoughtful attention."--Ann Bannon, author ofThe Beebo Brinker Chronicles (1957 1962)

"American Pulp is a masterful achievement--elegantly written, impressive in scope, keenly attentive to nuance, and essayistic in the best sense of the word. Deftly interweaving published reminiscences, archival material, and personal memories and anecdotes, Rabinowitz provides a cultural history of how the pulps helped fashion new identities in midcentury America. She also chronicles an American love affair with books, reminding us that they are an essential part of cultural experience."--Priscilla Wald, Duke University

"American Pulp is a fast-paced, historically rich, and often moving study of the public and private lives of mass-market paperbacks in midcentury America. Rabinowitz traces how the pulps repackaged elite modernist literature for a diverse popular audience that included women, African Americans, sexual minorities, and the working class. And she analyzes the pulps infamous cover illustrations just as skillfully as she illuminates the texts they surrounded."--William J. Maxwell, Washington University in St. Louis