Communications. Shes undergraduate degree and her masters from the university of illinois. As a former magazine writer and editor, her Research Interests include 19th century culture culture. Womens magazines of the. And the radical alternative press. And before we begin the program, i would like to send a special welcome to anyone who will be joining the virtual the first time. If youre not familiar with the Historical Society, when the first Historical Society in america. Ill be expecting preserving and sharing the histories in 1791. Withhold amazing collection. Including the papers of the first president of the United States. Im sorry. The first six president s of the United States. I misspoke that. We are continuing to collect today. And if you are interested in, we are currently collecting material related to that covid19 experience. The special initiative designed to listen to peoples experiences during the unusual times and preserving this information for future generations. In this age of social distancing, we are hosting virtual programs and we have Online Events plan every week from now until the end of july. And also into the beginning of august. Next week or hosting a top finance another new publication, and you can find more information on a website. Before we begin, we have a few housekeeping details here. So first of all, if you have a question comment or concern about the program or other programs, you can contact me or sarah our Public Programs coordinator and chemo programs or you can reach us on website. As i mentioned, we are producing this information during the covid19. Of course we are a nonprofit. So without further ado, our speaker today we will be hearing from donna harrington. If you would like to unmute yourself will get started. It is great to see you. [inaudible] switch it okay thank you. Thank you also much. Thank you for coming for a thank you for gavin and sara for making this possible. Now before we began, i want to acknowledge, these are such difficult times. With so much at stake and so much on our minds. As i work on this lecture and presentation, last week i must admit i found myself thinking is this really the time to be talking about summer. [inaudible] or about 19th century publishing. But the last quarter of the century, it was not without its challenges. At the beginning of the period, in 1877, federal troops were sent in with a worker strike. And again the United States founded spanishamerican war. In between the countries struggled with the failure of reconstruction and rapid industrialization. So is economic, social and political upheaval so with those challenges in mind, i would like to have one of the prominent argument of the. And i would extend that to Summer Reading. In a short period of time away from the impressions of 19th century life, it gave people the wherewithal to engage with the work once again on their return. And i thought tonights talk might work in the same way for you. Okay. Summer reading could really begin anywhere in the 19th century but i would like to start today talking boston or more specifically in dorchester with Alice Stone Blackwell, the daughter of lucy stone and henry blackwell. Prominent 19th century abolitionist and womens rights advocate. We can see it kind of a family portrait, family photo over here on the left of the three of them. In the early 1870s, alice was a teenager and she was a voracious reader. Especially in the summertime when her reading term varied dramatically to stories of adventure and sensation. So if you read her journals during this period, its filled with entries of accounts of rushing to boston by train or streetcar. Its the latest issue of the popular ledger of the popular weekly story paper. Or she talks about stopping at the Boston Public Library or the fort stacks of books she devours in one week and then returns the next. A quote hear from her journals , change my books and got out in time for dinner, she wrote on july 1872. Ive got a very good set of books this time for though ive read them all before. And among the titles that she mentions in this journal, she mentions gothic mystery called the thief in the night which she. [inaudible] Thomas Hughes and tom brown oxford when she describes as a favorite. But alice took part in a far different kind of Summer Reading as well. Thats the picture on the right is going to come in. This is a family home in dorchester. Throughout the summer, the blackwell household engaged in shared family reading. This was a very common practice in the 19th century. But in the summer, they did so on the walk you can see it high atop the annalys dorchester home to take advantage of the cool breezes from the nearby bay. And there, alice reports sir Walter Scotts answer query and zacharys vanity fair. That is long novel of talks over the course of many summer evening. And delight in the shared reading was absolutely apparent heres another quote from her journal. The answer query was read up on the roof in july of 1872. In a chaste pop about to tickle his toes. Strange informal given to action and adventure. Allison Summer Reading choices and her practices still resonate with us today. Every year we are familiar with this. Every year, sometimes around memorial day rican the Summer Reading season begins. I picks for the best Summer Reading but so does the New York Times, National Public radio, the wall street journal , and a host of other media outlets. Summer is the time where we are advised to turn to light weight paperbacks we can step into a beach bag or read without worry by the poolside. It is a time we are told to reach for the popular novel or the action packed bestseller and clive barnes the critic of the New York Times are in the papers summer book issue for 1968, he says Summer Reading like the statue of liberty and motherhood is always with us. And that is still true today. The list of the best summer it reads continues in this very, very fraught season. I have taken sams green graph sprayed the first one, two, three of them came from the weekend of the memorial day weekend. And the one on the bottom is just from today. See the top one in the New York Times the beach may be close but these books are worth opening for the next one down refinery 29 a fight of millennial young women for the 25 books you will want to read this summer. On the left is from a 28 of the best beach reads of the summer 2020 and then there is a another list this one took the boston globe online. The best books to read this summer. And i might know here about the boston globe. Have a chance to go quickly through it and see what they were recommending. And i was really struck. At one point the New York Times was criticized, one season they refused to having reached peak capacity with their choices. And the best books to resist summer on the boston globe are incredibly varied and diverse. Okay, but where this idea formal reading come from . Summer reading is a specific practice. Howd it come to be an established part, not only of literary commerce, but of American Culture as well . Those are some of the questions i began to explore. So im a book historian parts i practice in a field that looks at the intersection of authorship, reading, and publishing. Book histories the field that concerns as a material object. First, but also with the Cultural Practices that surround books. How books are produced, how they are circulated. How they are received. And one summer, is returning for print culture culture and note under nova scotias in the airport bookstore looking for some into reader the flight home. I came across the ubiquitous glossy brochure that was announcing the best summer reads for that season. And i found myself as a result thinking about my own Summer Reading rituals. And the ways in which the Publishing Industry may have shaped and sustain those. So that led me to the library at sean university i worked for a megson called the book fire. It is a magazine of nerd city publisher ill talk about a little bit later in this talk is well for the very rich text for live advertisements from other publishers talk about with the book trade was like, what people were reading. And from there i moved on. In i moved outward to the 19th century magazines magazines and newspapers across the United States. I didnt want to just read in new england. I included the africanamerican. As well as a member of alternative process. After that, it was onto publishing archives at harvard and princeton in columbia. On two letters and journals into a long, long list of novels set in summer resorts. Many of them written by some of the periods most absently famous authors. Statement crane, william howell, louisa may alcock, sara on jewett, they all practice in the tradition of the summer novel at some point in their career. So what i found as a result of this, my thumbs are now not so idle. What i found this a very interesting chapter in history of publishing. Summer reading to be sure in the 19th century is very much a commercial construction. The idea from Summer Reading is a product was part of the Publishing Industrys really effort to redefine a slow season. And to capitalize on a really dramatic rise in travel, tourism, and summer at leisure in victorian america gilded age. But 19th century Summer Reading involved commerce as well. And the last 19th century, it also became a wall established Cultural Practice of performanc performance. Many of those characteristics remain with us today. Overall then an interesting chapter both in the history of the book and the history of summer leisure. Now, my book itself covers a lot of ground. Ive just briefly reproduce the table of context here to give you just a little bit of a flavor of the larger argument as well. I look at the dramatic rise of travel tourism and summer leisure in the period. The period where its changing from an elite culture practice to one that is embraced by middleclass, increasingly as a marker of gentility. I would be remiss in not noting here, the professional authors of the. All indulgent summer leisure. I also look at a variety of books that were advertised as best summer reads. And i look especially at the development of what i called the american summer novel. The novel that specifically set at a summer resort. And finally, i looked at the ways in which authorships intersected and kind of exploited the new genre. And at the ways in which physical spaces shape Summer Reading practices. Everything from resort libraries in Saratoga Springs, two chairs or advertise for portside reading that had bookshelves that were built into off of a very, very wide arm. Today though i want to focus on one part of the books argument. And that is the role of the 19th century magazine culture played in reframing Summer Reading into a genteel practice. I was especially interested in the socalled peacemaking publications. And ive reproduce some covers of these here. These are the three most prominent sprayed the Atlantic Monthly which was published in boston. Harpers new monthly magazine arrival in new york city, and century illustrated monthly. Theyre very significant. These were publications that had significant degree of cultural authority. Its described with the atlantic for example of yankee humanism. In the type of copy that it featured. In this age of the magazine, these publications and others, become the primary vehicle for what James Thompson calls the machinery of publishing and reviewing. That is the machinery that presents readers a certain way. That flames the text, establishes a context for. Prepares us as readers to reddit in a certain weight with a certain timeframe in mind. So together, these and other publications, these and other magazines of this. Shape the discourse on Summer Reading through their tax and visual. And that is what i would like to explore. Let me just say, to give you an idea of where i want to go to this as we move ahead. Is tied up in three parts. And finally, i want to look at the efforts to reframe and reclaim Summer Reading as something well see how that develops. Okay. So the first part, the very early discourse i have some images here, paintings from the. We took this from england and europe Domestic Tourism in the United States. Developed in the late 1700s around places like the anger falls, seen here at the top. The catskills over here on the left, and tourism develops around there. By the 1820s and 1830s, there visiting the White Mountains. Shows the painting of the side of mount washington. They were in Mount Desert Island in maine, Mineral Springs in the south. And a host of other sites. Excuse me, it is allergy season get to magazines here to give you the tenor of how the discourse begins. On the left, 1835 with the magazine. You can see here the opening story of Young Goodman brown. Began with the philosopher and his advice to live there less experienced travelers, with advice they need to use their time to cultivate. Heres a quote. Walk slow, talk slow, think slo slow, b, light, dress, undressed, and short live with the study in exquisite deliberation. And that deliberation, you need to extend to whatever reading matter the traveler chose. The travel for example was to avoid reading anything having to do with politics as well as anything for egotism. The best authors the article advise charles lamb especially lamps acacia. Here is another quote read the review of a quote lamps acacia or quote to the glass of hot, to the customer after dinner nap with visuals in the garden. To the jazzmen, and good girls under. Young man who follows this advice is very specific about the gender of the summer reader would last until october. Over here on the right, putnam in the 1850 and 1853 putnams in the review of a poetry collection a book or the seaside from the boston firm of the collection of poetry featuring the works of shelley, tennessee, longfellow and others. Patton was very keen on it. Said it was going to be not just a good summer read but a permanent value. Later in the 1850s, it would also recommend the work of Washington Irving for Summer Reading for it was described as an happen to be one of putnams authors as a genial and beautiful genius. It also noted that irvings work was a convenient and classic series it would be quote delightful for Summer Reading. So here is our first glimpse of a discourse taking place, explains it as a masculine, explains it as very, very distinctive. And what it was designed to accomplish. Mid century that change. That discourse is gone really Interesting Development with the field and that is the wave of cheap paperback fiction flooded the marketplace after the civil war. Popular culture that challenge tickled variety of forms. I will go way of cheap fiction. First, in this. Before the passage of the copyright act, this wave of cheap fiction included additions of european fiction said George Eliots march, alice in wonderland, Sir Walter Scott the talisman, charles dickens, all of these works were not protected by copyright. Pirate publishers in the United States quickly pick them up and publish them in very cheap paper covered edition. Optative libraries sometimes multiple releases a week. Cost about ten to 20 cents a volume. There readers probably were not finding some book stores these cheap paperback sprayed said they find them at newsstands, were weight kiosks, and even on bory trains. Theyve go up and down selling snacks the paper bound books. If any that all would have encountered the book from one of the popular cheap libraries. Cheap fiction took another form as well against stories from the socalled fiction factories. These were stories that were quickly produced of questionable quality. They were on murder and rescue and melodrama. Very, very heavily formulated in a in industrial commodity that flooded the market. Now one other part of this mix of cheap fiction needs to be mentioned. And that is the questionable and perceived very immoral novel people talk about this throughout the period in one of the critics is not just being sinful, so all of these are in the mix. You can kinda see three of the covers that will give you the flavor of this wave of cheap fiction pretzel on the left, western stories were incredibly popular in the middle library that was particularly aggressive about the absence of a copyrigh copyright. And then on the right, one of the most popular writers of the period, wildly author and paper covers, now, what is the relationship with summer readin reading . Light Summer Reading becomes part of associated with this wave of cheap fiction. And indeed a number of publishers in the period tried to exploit that connection. They want to take advantage of it. So this is one of them. Sin incredibly successful series called the Seaside Library. It does say pocket edition, portability is going to become incredibly important in terms of marketing summer fiction at this time. The idea you could slip it into a pocket or a satchel. In the middle, uc George Monroe we have the Seaside Library then we have that postcard with the lighthouse. With the couple on the cliff overlooking the sea in the sale but is gone by. Clearly a broken summer and summer time. And then finally come over here on the right one of my favorite cheap paperback sprayed illustrates kind of a another way that they figured in this marketplace. Again, its called flirtation of a beauty. It was wildly popular. Three of her novels were set specifically at summer resorts. Theirs went lennox, white at atlantic city, and this one, for tatians of beauty is initially in Newport Rhode island. Now these thoughts are really quite wild and incredibly predictable. The plot here is typical a penniless young woman falls in love with a very, very rich man at newport. She knows it wont work out because of the discrepancy. In here shes shown sacrificing herself by throwing herself off the wall. If youd like to think youre familiar with newport this is. [inaudible] program no reason to do so. Here she is on the walker in the little cut light under it says im going into the eagerness of death. Im going to set you free. While this is early in the novel, and she doesnt die. In fact as a story progresses, she ends up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire where she is kidnapped by pirates and taken down the connecticut rive river. This is all about first he just 70 pages. Now, more worrisome perhaps for any publisher interested in jumpstarting their summer seaso season, was a cultural conversation around this kind of liked reading and more. 1876 the reverend keyed to wit very prominent preacher once the Summer Season with a sermon basically condemning summer life its their chosen springs. The gossip the horse racing all of the other frivolitys thats associated with Saratoga Spring springs. Leveled some of his severe criticism against Summer Reading itself. In fact it was called literary poison in august. And he warned that the kinds of allowable attend novels people bread in the summer were dangerous to their congregations immortal souls. So here we have him. Two quotes from his sermon. This would get repeated in the book with some regularity. Do not let the dogs and the life of the corrupt Printing Press jump and crawl into your serotonin trunk or white mountain. Would it not be an awful thing to be struck by lightning someday and you have in your hands one of these paper covered romances that hero heroin and unprincipled flirt. Chapters in the book he would not reach your children at the rate of 100 a line i believe theres more trash of them in the classes in july and august and all the other ten months of the year. Throughout the 19th century criticism of the novel in general and cheap paperback fiction in particular was rampant. Nineteenth century and cultural clinic contract critics just about had novel reading with the reading in the basement, especially for the woman reader. So, given this kind of cultural cross current, the pair between 1870 and 1901 of the most congenial threatenings for light Summer Reading, mainstream publishers and they used a variety of tactics buried we are going to reclaim Summer Reading from this cheap fiction. They used a variety of tactics. For example first in their advertising they begin to put labels on everything as a best of summer read for even if the books had absolutely nothing to do with the summer. They used a nether strategy, of packaging books as part of a summer series. Kind of making each a recognizable summer branch. So appleton had its common Country Library they had the sunshine series, there is leisure our series is a satchel series and in the case of one newspaper a 100degree in the shade summer fiction series. They also embrace the paperback as the perfect summer read. Her the quotes from the american bookmaker. In praise of the paper covers, these are the golden days of the paper covers a flexible cost of topics. Without being covers, gives a cool and some really look. From bolt upright to the recumbent position assumed on a sofa or lounge. Or in a steamer chair, hammock or bedford stretched out on greens wood or sandy beach. I think perhaps most important, taking aim at the cultural discourse that equated novel reading with the sensational and the sinful publishers work very specifically to refrain and repackage Summer Reading trading is a genteel act. A welcome escape, and middleclass treasure. The pace making monthlies a dimension earlier, these are good taste in breeding. They are all help. And there really issued in this. Coming find that in the summer novels begin to be described as a way to fill up the bacon hours at a resort port or protect against the fordham of rainy days. In summer novel said not to mention much attention but that made them Excellent Company on long rides. Summer novels were at structure permit that just met the best summer novels could be picked off and put down without losing the thread as other activities beckons. Light and easytoread, they skate from the pressures of 19th century life. One of the most poignant examples i came across, came from the literary monthly in san francisco. In one critic noted it was especially lightweight collection of summer fiction that was available that year. Is almost inclined, he or she was almost inclined to criticize her but then they stop and reflect. It is been incredibly difficult season and they tossed a way that people needed something to take their mind away from them. Most important, publishers, authors and the literarys together worked very, very specifically to reframe some is a gracious feminine pastime. Henry james starts this out incredibly Young Henry James in 1870s many authors during this period were starting out become part of a literary marketplace. They began with travel writing and james is no exception here. In 1870 he wrote a travel column for the nation. And a dispatch written from sarasota springs, there are few prettier sites make charmingly dressed woman, gracefully establishing some shady spot with a peace of meat at hanford or this quote, later in the pc is recounting a trip on the steamer crossing lake george to burlington, vermont. And he goes on at once about the scene around him. But then hed drilled down focuses on the young women who were on the steamboat that he is on. And reports that they are standing in a group on the deck with copies, benjamin is rails latest novel that was published that year by appleton bird they all had it in their hands. We see that. The scene is about the lake as a whole and vast undisturbed scene. Almost startled to behold these make shifts of civilization pretty half wonder if the capital little steamer and the young ladies in the hotel on the deck with copies of book fair in their hansford Summer Reading has been becoming a performance and women are embracing that performance. Another link, very, very clear link in the literary monthlies , this is Charles Dudley warner. And he is writing as certain as it appears comes the crop of summer novels. Fluttering down the style and procession through the railway cards, littering the drawing room table ornamental attractive fanciful designs. As a welcome and grateful as the girls in muslin. Later on in the call he goes on to say that when you are reading something, Summer Reading should always come lightly clad in out of it should always come in lightweight paperback. Okay. Let me drill down just a little bit further to show you how this narrative arc, this discourse really takes place. The book buyer is a really, really good site for doing this. You can really see the process of reframing at work clearly in charles, the book buyer. This publication was very wellknown today. It was one of the leading American Publishing companies the 19th century. And initially it was a house or can produce a magazine designed to feature the firms own work. And at this time it starts, 1867, he specializes in enthusiastic attacks. It specializing in School Textbooks and maps. Between in 1870 77 for the first decade of the read the book buyer was tempted best about the prospects of summer publishing. For example, every month the book buyer featured a column purportedly written from the office. You can see that over here on the left. It was the cover calm part in this Author Insights of book trade in england and the continent. In 1868, the column noted that in the face of a scorching summer, driving everyone abroad in search, punitive books are being brought out. That is going to have to wait till late autumn for any kind of new offerings from the publishing world. A year later, the call noted, where the heated term left people sweltering in broad cloth and tweed and failing to sign the books. May reach a little bit from the august 189 column. The papers say that the monitor in the Volunteer Camp at wimbledon on friday last, at blundered at 30 degrees in the shade. And though it seems to be an exaggeration, the heat has been so intense that books have become weariness to the flesh. And the issues of the publishers drop off gradually until the nearly ceased altogether during the months of august and september. Or what is called the long vacation. For everybody that is anybody takes himself away from town. In short, people are just too busy in the summer with their betas memory, to have any time for reason. Okay gradually though, in later years. Beginning in the 1880s especially, gradually the book buyer begins to explore the markets for the potential for summer titles in the United States. Heres an advertisement from 1872, this is fairly early. It is the first advertisement that specifically labeled Summer Reading. Summer reading popular books from armstrong and company. And maybe kind difficult to see here. But basically this kind of the grab bag a approach Summer Reading. As a grab bag of titles i have unhampered reits in the upper lefthand side hes our french authors. Very, very popular stargell fiction. They have a new book out. But also underneath it, there is something called common sense in the household by marion. She is a bit the author of domestic advice book. And then over on the right, we have shooting, boating, and fishing. Very utilitarian link. Now the grab bag strategy, Marketing Strategy gets refined a bit. Becoming very much more sophisticated. What follows this calmest advertisements in 1874. And then again in 18761st series called the birth of blacks series. This was a series that spreads the position quite specifically as a summer offering. In the advertisement appears the newspaper promotion and advertisement reflected that discourse as well. They begin to describe it as the most pleasant Summer Reading. Aim to take the tour support they describe it as a refreshing volume suitable for the country or the seashore. And guaranteed to take away the fatigue and a pullman car. This critical notice of over here on the left. From the Christian Union to all lovers of literary antidote in the gossip with the murmurs of that will have the book will approve a refreshment of a mood. There the boston post, no more refreshing volume could be carried into a country or to the seashore to fill in images of times that intervenes between the pleasure of summer holiday. By the 1880s, the discourse continues to develop. The strategy, the Marketing Strategy continues. In the book buyer really begins an intense Summer Reading. And has a much more sophisticated marketing campaig campaign. The book. Changes very much a house organ its much more of a literary magazine. A literary monthly. It is publishing reviews of new books and advertisements from a variety of firms, appleton, the start of the Summer Season, does the best summer books and paper addition. And then we have this, 1885 this is the first adverse summer book and paper covers. This is very interesting in terms of the way the advertisement works. If you look closely can see the prices for these are paper bound books. They are 50 cents to a low of 30 cents. Generally cheaper than the dollar 25 cloth cover the books may have appeared in. Now the first three are books by very, very popular wellestablished authors. Many from the 1870s for they are not new at this time. So we have the lady of the tiger or letter grange its a story about a family on a canalboat. It also mentions. [inaudible] that was a very, very popular author. Look at the three titles underneath it. The three in the middle are all by george parsons, one is an awful one is called an echo of passion. In the third is in the distance. All three of these arent novels set at summer resorts. They are beginning to see the potential of capitalizing specifically on Summer Reading. Reading matter that is set in novel, fiction, et cetera as a summer resort. And then at the bottom of everything they had available. Now, some of the firms most popular authors have been advocating this for years. Over on the left with francis burnett. Her husband lobbied repeatedly to issue the lowprice addition of his wifes work to compete with peterson. Or have the pleasure of spain the week reading. So he was saying he could recommend a decent firm in new york that might take on the task of issuing his wifes work in cheap paperback edition. And specifically is incredibly disingenuously mentions both George Monroe what she wouldve been appalled by. And even the arch rival, harper which began in paperbacks for Summer Reading that year. She made a much more obvious pitch for summer volume. We know her from handspring karen the silver skates. Variant seven or very popular childrens magazine saint niclas. She had a collection of short stories for the adult orchid and shed publish that. But she saw potential for the summer months. She likes this like issuing a very cheap and abridged edition of others in a soft attractive cover for Summer Reading. Two years later she renewed her request for cheap and then covered addition. Assuring a number of literary friends have suggested the book would do well as a summer book of this kind. And then finally, my alltime favorite over here on the right name was mary harlan who i mentioned before, one of the firms bestselling authors with the author in her own way as well as a 19th century domestic diva. In 1890 she was the editor of a magazine called the homemaker. She was a real celebrity. In 1890 she wrote asking to be interested in her new novel which was then be in the homemaker had been completed jet it would not be complete until september. But in march he is writing to him for the novel is called with the best intentions. And it was set at the resort and Mackinac Island an increasingly popular resort in the great lakes. By especially in the westford she had not finished the novel. Elise was set to publish the novel. In the little more than four minutes after inquiry, the book was published as part of the yellow paper cover series. And the advertise heavily in july and august improving it that year monday picks for the best books for idle summer days for a little bit of an aside here, to have an entirely commercial motive for making this asked. She admitted to scribners quote i am building again and what a large sum of money. That is she needed the 600dollar advance that was offered. Final chapter in the book buyers history was Summer Reading, which i really want to suggest is suggestive of the larger Publishing Industries on Summer Reading as well. This is june 1888 issue. And scribner is here exclusively to the summer book market. This is something publishers routinely did for the christmas promotion. But they havent done it this time for the summer. And you can see here on the cover prints very, very definite buildup of the audience for Summer Reading as the woman reader. So we see on the left, a young woman, aye muslim again, holding up her book. She seems to be under some kind of Apple Blossom tree. All freshness and solitude. Nothing of the heat, the crowds, the dust that rearward cars wouldve attended on the cliche. Thats repeated on the fullpage ad with this familiar formula, an old favorite that was titled a new volume as well. The womans at the center of the Marketing Strategy. And the woman reader is going to stay there for the rest of the century. She is going to become that other publishers exploit, making Summer Reading a marketing female space. So i have some posters here for example. The 1890s, publishers use, posters like these that publicize new issues of their magazine part two theres a poster for the century, harpers, all of them teaching the summer reader. Now, to be sure reservations remain. Some magazines, illustrators of the period, turned and i to the woman reader and her Summer Reading practices. And you can see these in the next three images. I will try to go through these. This is a life magazine cover from july 1883. It features several people inhabit expert but the prettiest thing in hammock is the young woman in the center. She is involved in a novel, she is alone, in the hammock bag of candy if you look really closely under her elbow has a bag of candy at her side. So she becomes us consumer of both words and sweets. A another one, july 18, 1886 for this is an illustration from warners pilgrimage. It was at harpers. It was a fictional romp to the summer resort. Here is a scene what takes place at Newport Rhode island is called the shepherd with the very well known illustrator cs reinhart. It shows a schoolteachers convention at the hotel in newport. And every one of the young woman here is told in the magazine while they look on. I dont think thats the reference there he seems little bit more accepting. Finally one of my absolute favorite images of the period, is from july 1897. The gibson girl is here, there some address on the beach. Her body language effects of too much leisure, too much fun. Its the boxes in paperbacks at their feet are any sign, they are suffering from too much Summer Reading. Having consumed the latest novels to arrive by mail, the readers are spent. Okay finally kai think im doing okay with time here. Since i began with an example from boston, i would like to end there as well. This example is far removed from Alice Stone Blackwell and her copy of the thief in the night. It also complicates the Summer Reading. By referencing a second tradition that takes place in the 19th century. A counter narrative that summer is the time for serious sustained and thoughtful reading. The book i went to and with scald the new hair and lucy. A story of boston in the summer of 1891. And this in spite. The plot is exceedingly familiar to anyone who is familiar with the genre. For anyone who has read any of the novels set at a summer resort. Two young people meet, fall in love in the summertime. The plot moves forward with the characters engaging in a variety of summer activities. In this case, they read the street cars to river solver the rents a canoe. They visit the mount auburn cemetery. They ride the vote to hampton and back. But that young of the title takes her titles especially seriously. So her, summer is a time to visit the temple to hear a lecture by helen keller. It is a time to teach and Vacation School for bostons atrisk children print its a time to end the mirth engine birthday and that charity home for bostons poor working women. So summer in other words, was a time, but for serious engagement with significant social issues. And i find myself wonderings i put this together, perhaps thisll be the tenor of our Summer Reading today. It will still be Summer Reading. So with that, i thank you. And i guess im going to channel my inner swan by calling your attention printers a couple of my books comments 19th century publishing for Summer Reading. It is Available Online from the university of massachusetts. And i just put the code here for 30 off and free shipping. Your support for the presse be greatly appreciated. And i guess i will stop sharing i will go to questions. That will be great. To just refresh everyones memory, you can either use a raise hand function of the bottom of the screen part or the q a function will answer your questions. Looks like we have a couple questions that have come in. Are there any 19th century summer reads that are still read today . Host okay. Thats a question i really grapple a lot with. They definitely are ephemeral. They definitely are of their time. Not many of them are available today prayed with the possible exception of the works of robert dean howell one of the most prominent authors of the period, so his work is still there. There is a book called one summer that was incredibly popular. Most of these novels, they were there for one season and then they disappeared. While blanche howards novel was published every year from 1870s on through to the 1900s and beyond. It took place in maine. Tells a story of a young woman who was courted by a young man. It was wildly popular. I found references to it in the college library, books donated by harvard professors breadth out probably come closest, the works of sara on jewett. I think the books are very much of their time. , the tradition is very, very much part of our system today pray think it is a great question. Host think of Summer Reading recommended as an escape from george beards version of im sorry i cant pronounce it. American nervousness also associated with the version of that very characteristic. [inaudible] guest i think with their probably most concerned with was a hypersensitivity. And so this whole period in which they talk about women and womens hysteria. And so they definitely were in conversation prayed the critics of Summer Reading were definitely in a conversation with those who were notorious effects. But for women they were more worried not so much about language as about hypersensitivity to sexual stimulation by reading sensational novels. We couldnt have that. Sue and december reading become populist beyond the middleclass . It isnt marketed to working and non caucasian audiences . Guest i was really surprised by the range of audiences that it meant. I kind of had to tease this out. I found a number of books that were contributed to libraries. A copy of one summer appeared in the Stanford University collection. In it come specifically from the stanford family. The book says the stanford family estate. And also from harvard that has a harvard professor who donated it. At the same time though, i look back at the wonderful online site called. [inaudible] looked at what was checked out of the library and muncie indiana. We can kind of trace summer novels there as well. And then kind of a final peace of this, they were advertised, not just in new england. But in california as well. So novels about the maine coast would appear in california. And working people would have been featured in the fiction. That may be less clear that it went beyond the middle class to the working class. Except for large i think i got color by first two names. See what do you think this type of reading and literature for women helps sort of keep women and their place, and reinforce their place in society . Guest marriage was definitely a major concern. All of the plots had to do with marriage. This would have been a period of time, just after the civil war for you had a pull for ration of young single women. So i think you kind of have to say that the glass half empty or half full . Is it provided with agency . It does end in marriage for just about everyone. I can become one exception that is William Dean Howells novel. So i guess with that in mind, the new women are shown and dramatically, some in a period of release. You have young women in canoes, young women going out on chaperone. Young women climbing trees and climbing mountains. So its kind of like with the shakespearean comedy. We have the comedy where there is a period of festive relief where women are trying out new roles. And given the freedom to do tha that. But there is that marriage at the end. And whether you see that as containment or fruition, i think the books kind of leave that up in the air. Host donna, wonderful presentation. In your book you mentioned many of the characters in the semel agenda summer novels were reading summer novels. Keep talk about the intention there . Was it a fun, wink and a nod marketing . Guest yeah, the authors writing these are kind of very, very aware of what the conventions are. So very often there will be references to characters seeking out Summer Reading. In one summer for example, the two people were eventually married. They meet because the young woman goes out on a rainy night because she saw a paperback bestseller in the drugstore that morning. And shes got to go out in the rain to do that. She bumps into the man who will become her husband. Because she has to do that. Another young woman is being courted by multiple suitors. And they have her reading in the novel itself. So its kind of a analysis if you will pay but the authors were very, very aware of kind of what the conventions were. What readers expected. I dont want to say they were slavishly following it. Think that in a number of cases, especially for howells, he is very much exploding some of the conventions and showing the ways in which this is genre can tilt more complicated simple lightweight. Host with looking at peoples time, i think we have time for one last question. I guess the last question could be, what happens with summer novels in the 20th century as we turn into the 20th century . Guest i had to stop at some point. And i stopped in the early 1900s. But it went back through and just kind of looked. It persists. I went back and looked for example in times of war, what happens . And so the tradition of kind of putting the label on it. This persists. The idea of being specific kind of novel, i think that persists as well. That you can take the brand and some of the books that are set in nantucket and other places today that are very, very much designed for a female audience. You can trace that chandra back. But as i said, i cited clive barnes saying, the statue of liberty and apple pie, Summer Reading is always with it. I think it persists clearly as a marketing practice. I am not sure that has the force of a Cultural Practice today, as it did back in the 19h century. Host thank you very much for a wonderful presentation for it and im going to share with everyone how to go about getting a copy of this. Hopes come on. So if you would like to order a copy of the book, it is available from new mass press. On the Discount Code is on the screen here. And thank you everyone for joining us. We hope you enjoyed the program. And well consider continuing to support mhs and joining us for the rest of our programs over the summer. While you may be on the beach reading. I hope you have a wonderful evening. Thank you. A know you read the things were said about thomas jefferson, he was an infidel, is an agent of the french government. Sounds a little reminiscent doesnt it . The things that were said about Abraham Lincoln prayed the things that were said about fdr, that he wanted to be a dictator. So it does kind of come with the territory. But i think in trump at least in the modern political era, postworld war ii, i have never seen anything like it. what your book tv when they spin two. Every weekend with the latest nonfiction books and authors. Cspan2, created by americas Cable Television company has a Public Service and brought to you today for your television provider. Host beginning yearbook tv, we will spend some time with the late author and columnist. This is part of our summer Binge Watching series. It features one wellknown author. William f. Buckley jr. Founded the National Review magazine you hope that the political Debate Program would go on for several years. He was also the author of over 50 books which included is thoughts on politics, religion, cultural, literature and other topics. He appeared in book tv and cspan nearly 40 times. And over the next five hours, we are going to share some of those programs with you. First of tonight,n