The hidden public: the story of the Book-of-the-Month Club, by Charles Lee

On a recent trip to Bennington, VT, we stopped off at the Dog Ears Book Store, where my favorite section is the books about books category, and where I found this interesting history of the Book-of-the-Month Club (BOMC) from its founding in 1926 through 1958, when it was published. The BOMC filled a significant niche in the literary marketplace because much of the US population did not live within a reasonable drive to a bookstore. Mail order book businesses allowed them to learn about new authors and buy contemporary fiction and non-fiction. Dozens of similar book clubs popped up, many of which were unsuccessful, but others of which continued for many years. Booksellers were outraged by the book club model, protesting the prices, premiums, and dividends offered to members, but industry analyses showed that the book clubs did not take away from book store purchases, and in fact, books and authors selected for the book club had skyrocketing sales in book stores as well due to the publicity offered by the book clubs.

I have my own history with book clubs, having been a member of one or more for decades starting in high school. I began subscribing to Organic Gardening in high school since I'd been gardening for years. Back then I really liked getting mail, and I would sign up for every catalog I could by filling out the postcards inside the magazine, as long as it had the stamp "no postage necessary." This way I got on tons of mailing lists, and I enjoyed reviewing all the catalogs that came my way, including the ones for the Troy-Bilt Roto-tiller, which my Dad continued receiving for decades, long after I moved out. Anyway, one of the mailings that I received was invitation to join a book club that focused on gardening and related pursuits. I decided to join, and my first three books covered many of my interests: a book about gardening, a book about how to become a vegetarian, and a book about raising small livestock. But the books kept coming, and I didn't have any way to pay for them, and I just hid them in my dresser drawer, until my Dad finally noticed all the mail and asked me if I'd joined a book club. I had to come clean. He paid the bills, and I let him read the books, too. My next book club was the Quality Paperback Book Club (QPBC), which I joined in the mid 1980s. I managed that book club better, and by that time I had my own checking account, so I could pay the bills. I belonged to the QPBC for decades, and have it to thank for opening my eyes to a lot of great literature. Some of the books that I remember getting from them in the early days included Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Toni Morrison's first five books, Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet, John Edgar Wideman's The Homewood Trilogy, and Richard Wright's Native Son and Black Boy (in one volume). I got a lot of nonfiction from QPBC as well, such as a biography of Mahatma Ghandi and collected articles by Ernie Pyle. It really expanded my horizons. Over the years I joined other book clubs: The Literary Guild, BOMC, History Book Club, and the Cooking and Crafts Book Club, but the QPBC will always be my favorite (with the History Book Club a close second).