Books for Idle Hours: Nineteenth-Century Publishing and the Rise of Summer Reading

by Donna Harrington-Lueker

Overview

The publishing phenomenon of summer reading, often focused on novels set in vacation destinations, started in the nineteenth century, as both print culture and tourist culture expanded in the United States. As an emerging middle class increasingly embraced summer leisure as a marker of social status, book publishers sought new market opportunities, authors discovered a growing readership, and more readers indulged in lighter fare.

Drawing on publishing records, book reviews, readers' diaries, and popular novels of the period, Donna Harrington-Lueker explores the beginning of summer reading and the backlash against it. Countering fears about the dangers of leisurely reading—especially for young women—publishers framed summer reading not as a disreputable habit but as a respectable pastime and welcome respite. Books for Idle Hours sheds new light on an ongoing seasonal publishing tradition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625343833
Publisher:	University of Massachusetts Press
Publication date:	12/12/2018
Series:	Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Donna Harrington-Lueker is professor of English at Salve Regina University.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Abbreviations xiii

Introduction: On Summer Books and Summer Reading 1

Chapter 1 Nineteenth-Century Travel, Tourism, and Summer Leisure 14

Chapter 2 "As Welcome and Grateful as the Girls hi Muslin": Nineteenth-Century Periodicals and the Marketing of Summer Reading 35

Chapter 3 Society and Saturnalia: The Cultural Work of the American Summer Novel 61

Chapter 4 "Hurrying … Forward for the Summer Trade": William Dean Howells's Dialogue with the Popular Summer Novel 88

Chapter 5 "This Is Why I Do Not Board": The Role of Place and Space in Victorian Summer Reading 120

Chapter 6 Chautauqua Assemblies, Summer Schools, and Catholic Reading Circles: The Case for Serious Summer Reading 152

Epilogue: Changing Times, Persistent Practices 176

Appendix A American Summer Novels, 1867-1915 181

Appendix B The Summer Novels of William Dean Howells 185

Notes 187

Index 219

What People are Saying About This

Ardis Cameron

This book's research is impressive, including summaries of popular literature, both by known and unknown authors; the economics of nineteenth-century publishing; discourses generated by the literary press and marketing strategies; and the exploration of space and reading practices.

Tom Glynn

Books for Idle Hours is a well-written, carefully researched work on the history of the summer novel and summer reading. This is an important topic in the history of reading in America that has received little scholarly attention.

Editorial Reviews

Harrington-Lueker has done an admirable job of taking this reader on a tour of a past era, most of whose print culture has been forgotten, but which indelibly shaped the season of 'beach reads,' 'beach bodies,' and travel selfies we live with today. It is a thought-provoking reconstruction of a bygone moment that enables us to see its aftereffects in our present-day conceptions of the “universal” reader and publishing trends.”—María Carla Sánchez, American Periodicals

“Books for Idle Hours is especially interesting on the emergence of a new type of textual diversion: the American summer novel . . . it takes these books—and the culture that shaped them, and the culture they shaped—seriously, even while acknowledging how transitory they were.”—The New Yorker

“Books for Idle Hours is a well-written, carefully researched work on the history of the summer novel and summer reading. This is an important topic in the history of reading in America that has received little scholarly attention.”—Tom Glynn, author of Reading Publics: New York City's Public Libraries, 1754-1911

“This book's research is impressive, including summaries of popular literature, both by known and unknown authors; the economics of nineteenth-century publishing; discourses generated by the literary press and marketing strategies; and the exploration of space and reading practices.”—Ardis Cameron, author of Unbuttoning America: A Biography of "Peyton Place"

“A summer read about summer reads.”—The Public's Radio

“Harrington-Lueker traces the interplay between the growing ability and need of a (predominantly white) middle class to engage in leisure activities, the development of a veritable national tourism industry and a restructuring of the literary market.”—Journal of Tourism History

“Through painstaking research and with a keen eye for interesting and thought-provoking detail, Harrington-Lueker has assembled a scholarly study of summer reading in the late nineteenth-century United States that historians of reading and print culture would do well to consult for its incisive commentary on the relationship between market forces and readers' tastes . . . [A]s enjoyable as it is informative.”—Reception

“Books for Idle Hours is a fascinating study of a distinct but largely overlooked body of nineteenth-century American fiction and the authors, readers, publishers, and economic and social conditions that gave rise to it.”—New England Quarterly

“[A] detailed, thoroughly researched overview of the development of summer reading as an American phenomenon . . . The book is of interest to anyone interested in the social and cultural history of reading in the United States. It fills a gap in the current literature on print culture in nineteenth-century America in regard to popular fiction.”—Libraries

“[A]n excellent study of the summer reading experience and its effect on the social order and the print culture economy that remains largely unstudied by scholars.”—H-Net Reviews

“Harrington-Lueker offers a rich and readable analysis of the intertwining efforts of publishers, booksellers, vacationers, hoteliers, and even architects to define and promote what summer reading is, who and what it is for, and where and on what terms it can (or should) be done . . . From a wider scope, this book makes a valuable contribution to the history of reading and the publishing of fiction in the industrial era.”—SHARP News

From the Publisher

Through painstaking research and with a keen eye for interesting and thought-provoking detail, Harrington-Lueker has assembled a scholarly study of summer reading in the late nineteenth-century United States that historians of reading and print culture would do well to consult for its incisive commentary on the relationship between market forces and readers' tastes... [A]s enjoyable as it is informative.

Reception

Books for Idle Hours is a fascinating study of a distinct but largely overlooked body of nineteenth-century American fiction and the authors, readers, publishers, and economic and social conditions that gave rise to it.

New England Quarterly

[A] detailed, thoroughly researched overview of the development of summer reading as an American phenomenon... The book is of interest to anyone interested in the social and cultural history of reading in the United States. It fills a gap in the current literature on print culture in nineteenth-century America in regard to popular fiction.

Libraries

Books for Idle Hours is especially interesting on the emergence of a new type of textual diversion: the American summer novel... it takes these books — and the culture that shaped them, and the culture they shaped — seriously, even while acknowledging how transitory they were.

The New Yorker

Harrington-Lueker traces the interplay between the growing ability and need of a (predominantly white) middle class to engage in leisure activities, the development of a veritable national tourism industry and a restructuring of the literary market.

Journal of Tourism History

A summer read about summer reads.

The Public's Radio

Books for Idle Hours is especially interesting on the emergence of a new type of textual diversion: the American summer novel... it takes these books — and the culture that shaped them, and the culture they shaped — seriously, even while acknowledging how transitory they were.

The New Yorker