Penguin and the Paperback Revolution

The first paperback books were released in Aug. 1935 by Penguin Books (at first only as an imprint of Bodley Head (of Vigo Street) with the books originally distributed from the crypt of Holy Trinity Church Marylebone.)  These were more obtainable due to cheap price and smaller size than their hardback predecessors.

Paperbacks, originally linked to poor production quality and pulp fiction, made rights to many classics obtainable for a cheaper price than they wouldve been through a known publisher and in hardback. The general consensus that paperback would be a passing fad paved the way for Penguin to buy thousands of titles and publish them.

Now, over 80 years later, The Penguin Group is a huge operation that is one of the larger distributors worldwide.  They are also known for carrying many of the beat generation under their label.

First 10 Books Published by Penguin:

     

Ariel: a Shelley Romance — André Maurois

A Farewell to Arms — Ernest Hemingway

Poet's Pub — Eric Linklater

Madame Claire — Susan Ertz

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club — Dorothy L. Sayers

The Mysterious Affair at Styles — Agatha Christie

Twenty-Five — Beverley Nichols

William — E.H. Young

Gone to Earth — Mary Webb

Carnival — Compton Mackenzie

Kate - The Life of Katharine Hepburn

"Kate" was written by Charles Higham in 1975 and what drew me to it was the fact that he tracked down anybody still alive that had ever worked with Ms. Hepburn for a unique behind the scenes take. He also interviewed her, and in her infamous aversion to interviews hearing what she had to say was just fascinating.

Higham starts with her childhood, how her mother's feminism directly contributed to the fact she never married, or had kids. Goes through how she got into film, and how she never needed Hollywood to be a success, and how even when she was blacklisted she didn't really care because she did what she loved.  Ive never been much of a bra burner, maybe because i've never really had to be, but I have the most admiration for Katharine Hepburn.

Her wit and sense of humor is what has always drawn me to her, and it's in abundance in this book.  From tricks on directors with the cast to the lengths she would go to get her way,  She is an amazing person and her quirks and OCD just make her more interesting to me.

This book shows her as a person that was passionate about what she did, cared about everyone she worked with from the makeup person to the actors, and would never bow to public pressure to be more "womanly" or sensitive to her fans. It goes into detail on her relationship with and handling the death of Spencer Tracy, through her thoughts on every film she made, and her routines and idiosyncrasies in-between.

"She is the greatest actress of our time because she has let us see her life unfold in her playing, and because her technique is so finished it's invisible. ... She challenges the audience because she at once removes her own disguises and demands we do the same . . . When women were wearing what fashion dictated, she wore what she wanted to wear. When women were supposed to be chiefly good for marriage and children, she rejected both. When women were not allowed to have an intellect, speak their own minds, or take on men as equals, she did all three."

-From "Kate" by Charles Higham

Joe Julian - This was Radio

Joe Julian was an all around radio man who's decade spanned over 30 years, and appeared in over 10,000 broadcasts in all forms of production from sound effects to leading man. As a current day radio employee, this book just makes me want to buck the system, bring in some actors and some musicians, pull up a script, lock the studio door, and have a blast.

Joseph Julian

Unlike the corporate, bean counting, unimaginative state of radio today, these men and women lead incredible lives, had to break boundaries to get their desired results, and, without computer technology, extended the theater of the mind (which our bosses still say today, strangely enough) into people's living rooms every night for almost 40 years. The things they accomplished without technology are impressive.

Mr. Julian worked with everyone from Marlene Dietrich to Orson Welles the godfather of theatrical radio, Norman Corwin.  The book starts out as a behind the scenes look into the greatest era of radio, but about halfway through, tragedy strikes.  And by tragedy,  I mean Joseph McCarthy and the Red Channels list.

Wrongfully blacklisted as a commie the book takes us through the harsh reality that all it takes is the general public's fear of something for those in power to be able to do whatever they want.  Lives were ruined, careers ended, and few had the courage to stand up against the machine in court . . .  But Julian did.

I won't give away how it ends but after reading this book I have even more respect for the group of people who birthed the radio movement, and a general animosity for the people now that are ruining it and people in government that put their hands in too many pockets.  It's an amazing story from an amazing era.  It wouldn't be here if I didn't recommend it!

Feeling nostalgic?  look up your favorite Old Time Radio (OTR) programs here: http://www.otr.net/

My Country, Tears of Thee

I'm going to try to do a book review once a week as I read . . A LOT.  And none of that kindle cheating stuff, real paper, ink, have-to-have-a-uhaul-just-to-move-em-all books.  I think my book collecting has reached manic levels, but honestly,  there's worse things I could be doing.

I wanted to start these not with a particular book but with a generation of writers that influenced me a lot growing up, both directly from their words and indirectly through the people they inspired like Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Hunter S Thompson. Ferlinghetti is still alive and runs City Lights bookstore in San Fran, finding him is on my near future bucket list.


This is the Beat Generation.  http://www.litkicks.com/Texts/ThisIsBeatGen.html  A great article from 1952 on the birth of the beat.

Love them or hate them, you can't deny this talented group of writers (Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsburg, William Burroughs, Neal Cassady) made their mark in post-WW2 America.  I grew up reading these guys and I absolutely blame Kerouac's  On The Road for my inability to stay in one place for very long, always searching for a change of pace or a place to stop moving where you don't have to question everything.

"Isn't it true that you start your life a sweet child, believing in everything under your father's roof? Then comes the day of the Laodiceans, when you know you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, and with the visage of a gruesome, grieving ghost you go shuddering through nightmare life."
- On the Road

 This group of writers from New York epitomized the last decade where you could really chase the American Dream. Anything went for these guys, and if you decide to look them up you'll notice they refused to side with anything one way or another as picking a team means limiting your freedoms.  They weren't gay or straight,   liberal or republican, working class or hobos, they were a little of everything.

 Allen Ginsburg - Writer of "Howl"

 

                                                               

                                                                           Bill Burroughs -"Naked Lunch"

Without these men we may have never had a Bob Dylan, Hunter S Thompson, or Ken Kesey. This was the original publication and popularization of rebel art. The ultimate fighters for free speech and human rights, It helped a youth damaged and confused by war find a voice and a place in society, and showed them the status quo was fine but not the only option, and that government doesn't always know best. The ultimate libertarians, they offended mainstream America by being brazenly open about sexuality, drugs, and inner demons.  The collegiate side of America criticized them as being idiots (they were all college men and unbelievably well read), McCarthy and "the establishment" labeled them as commies (they wanted to fix the country so everyone could be free). In reality, while fighting one of the largest censorship cases in US literary history (Howl on Trial), they opened the door for a post war society blinded by materialism to be more open minded, curious, and aware.

Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,
and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice,
except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero
and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own
and no other culture but its own.
Pity the nation whose breath is money
and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.
Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away.
My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.

- LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI