Writer Bruce Jay Friedman reviews a new book about the golden age of publishing, which book author Silverman defines as covering the years between 1946 and the early 1980s. This was an era that ended when “the great ‘bookmen’ stepped aside and the bottom-liners of business took over.”
Friedman’s review certainly makes one want to read this book for the sake of its anecdotes about both the publishers and the writers of the time. Where else could one find such an interesting tidbit of trivia as this:
Doubleday, a proudly ‘middlebrow’ company, was founded by Frank N. Doubleday, who suffered from flatulence. As a result, none of the characters in the books he published were allowed to pass wind.
