THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE
107
the Civil War that put Margaret Mitchell's novel on the map, they
are now promoting whatever long chronicles they can get hold of that
deal favorably with followers of General Lee. And these chronicles
sell, not because the book-buying public, which is chiefly Northern,
has been seized with a sudden, belated passion for the Southern cause,
but because the book-buying public is exceedingly amenable to sug–
gestion. Naturally, the booksellers and the book clubs, to whom the
potential buyer shakily looks for guidance, will have invested-to–
gether with the publisher-in the current formula. And finally, the
book buyer herself has a certain stake in it. She is unlikely to be more
adventurous with her two dollars and a half than were the publishers,
the book clubs, and the bookstore owners with their larger sums. She
wants a sure thing, and if she enjoyed
Gone With the Wind,
she hopes
to enjoy ...
And Tell of Time
because the subject-matter is similar.
A "natural" best-seller, such as
Gone With the Wind
or
Anthony
Adverse
does not depend on its subject-matter for its appeal. A "pub–
lisher's" best-seller, which is always an imitation of a "natural," does
use its subject-matter as a selling point, not because the subject-matter
is
intrinsically more attractive than any other, but because the subject–
matter serves to remind the potential buyer of the real thing, the
original best-seller, the McCoy. Thus, as has been seen, the purchaser
of ...
and Tell of Time
is not investing in the glamour of the Old
South but in the glamour of
Gone With the Wind.
The purchaser has
not noticed that the publisher's syllogism has an undistributed middle
term.
. . .
and Tell of Time
is, it seems to me, a classic example of the
"publisher's" best-seller. It has a number of selling points: (a) it
deals with the Old South, and novels about the Old South have been
popular; (b) it deals with pioneers, and novels about pioneers have
been popular; (c) it is a family chronicle, and family chronicles have
been popular; and (d) it is seven hundred and twelve pages long, and
long books have been popular. But these ,are facts
about
the book
which can be mentioned to great advantage in the blurb but which
really have very little relation to what is inside the novel itself. Given
these facts, a novel could be lively or it could be a bore, and ...
and
Tell of Time
is an unmitigated bore. A good, tantalizing plot and
sharply drawn "real" characters are essential to the readability of a
popular novel. But the plot of this novel is meandering and incon–
clusive: the characters mess around with love, politics, and farming,
but they are never particularly successful or particularly unsuccessful
in
any of these fields. This may be the stuff of life, but it is not the
stuff which dreams are made on, and Miss Laura Krey, who has writ–
ten the book, has an opaqueness of observation and a vulgarity of
mind which exclude her from that contemplation of life which is
supposed to be the serious, as opposed to the popular, artist's business.
The trappings of romance are here, but romance itself is absent. There
are the great plantations and the good, obedient darkies with their
