Reading up middle-class readers and the culture of success in the early twentieth-century United States Blair, Amy L. 1972- creator JSTOR (Organization) text bibliography Electronic books. Criticism, interpretation, etc. History. pau Philadelphia Temple University Press 2012 monographic eng remote 1 online resource (ix, 250 pages) A person who reads a book for self-improvement rather than aesthetic pleasure is 'reading up.' Reading Up is Amy Blair's engaging study of popular literary critics who promoted reading generally and specific books as vehicles for acquiring cultural competence and economic mobility. Combining methodologies from the history of the book and the history of reading, to mass-cultural studies, reader-response criticism, reception studies, and formalist literary analysis, Blair shows how such critics influenced the choices of striving readers and popularized some elite writers. Framed by an analysis of Hamilton Wright Mabie's role promoting the concept of reading up during his ten-year stint as the cultivator of literary taste for the highly popular Ladies' Home Journal, Reading Up reveals how readers flocked to literary works they would be expected to dislike. Blair shows that while readers could be led to certain books by a trusted adviser, they frequently followed their own path in interpreting them in unexpected ways. Introduction: Cultivating taste in a mass-market world -- Mr. Mabie tells what to read -- The compromise of Silas Lapham -- James for the general reader -- Misreading The house of Mirth -- The comforts of romanticism -- Epilogue: Reading up into the twenty-first century. Amy L. Blair. Includes bibliographical references and index. n-us--- Mabie, Hamilton Wright 1846-1916 Knowledge Literature Ladies' home journal Mabie, Hamilton Wright 1846-1916 Umschulungswerkstätten für Siedler und Auswanderer American literature Appreciation United States History 20th century Popular literature United States History and criticism Books and reading United States History 20th century Middle class Books and reading United States History 20th century Success in literature Literature and society United States History 20th century Littérature américaine Appréciation États-Unis Histoire 20e siècle Paralittérature États-Unis Histoire et critique Succès dans la littérature Littérature et société États-Unis Histoire 20e siècle POLITICAL SCIENCE Public Policy Cultural Policy SOCIAL SCIENCE Anthropology Cultural SOCIAL SCIENCE Popular Culture LITERARY CRITICISM American General American literature Appreciation Literature Books and reading Literature and society Middle class Books and reading Popular literature Success in literature United States Englisch Leser Literatur Leserin Bestseller 1900-1999 fast PS228.P67 B63 2012eb 306.4/88097309041 Reading up Blair, Amy L., 1972- Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2012 (DLC) 2011015287 9781439906699 1439906696 9781592134502 9781592134519 1439906688 9781439906682 1283319691 9781283319690 22573/ctt140118v JSTOR F15552C8-05AD-4E82-AB01-97170430A66D OverDrive, Inc. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctt14bt88p E7B 110422 20230103223232.3 in00004634500 eng