Book Reviewing: Home

Faint Praise: The Plight of Book Reviewing in America by Gail Pool University of Missouri Press Summer 2007 www.umsystem.edu/upress/spring2007/pool.htm www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, www.powells.com

Book Reviewing: A Bibliography

This is a bibliography-in-progress and I welcome comments, questions, corrections, and suggestions.

Please send correspondence to: Gail Pool

· Abbott, Charlotte. “The Power of Print Media.” Publishers Weekly, May 13, 2002, 39-41. Article argues that even in this “age of electronic media, when network television programs…can create a bestseller overnight,” “national newspapers still make a critical impression on book consumers.” Abbott cites the commercial impact of book coverage in such newspapers as the New York Times, USA Today, and the Wall St. Journal.

· Almond, Steve. “On Reviews: A First-Timer Reveals How It Feels.” Poets and Writers, May/June 2003, 44-53.

· “Amateurs on Amazon.” Economist, August 28, 1999, 65.

· Amis, Martin. “Life Class.” In The War Against Cliché: Essays and Reviews, 1971-2000. New York: Talk Miramax Books/Hyperion, 2001. Review originally published in New Statesman 1976. In this review of John Updike’s collection of reviews, Picked-Up Pieces, Amis touches on various aspects of reviewing.

· Arana-Ward, Marie. “Views From Publisher’s Row.” Washington Post Book World, June 1, 1997.

· Arnold, Martin. “A Critique of the Critics.” Making Books. New York Times, April 23, 1998, B3. “Making Books” column about Kirkus and Publishers Weekly.

· ------ “Fictional War of the Sexes.” Making Books. New York Times, June 4, 1998, B3. “Making Books” column, commenting on a Harper’s Magazine article by Francine Prose (“Are Women Writers Really Inferior?”), briefly discusses representation of women on the book page, as authors and reviewers.

· Atlas, James. “In Praise of Dispraise.” Atlantic, August 1981, 79-83. Essay discusses invective as an “art form” that has “gone out of style.”

· Atwood, Margaret. “Sexual Bias in Reviewing.” In Ann Dybikowski et al, eds. In the Feminine: Women and Words: Conference Proceedings, 1983. Toronto: Longspoon Press, 1985.

· Austin, Charlotte. “Art of Reviewing: Book Reviewing Today.” The Charlotte Austin Review, December 17, 2000.

· Avant, John Alfred. “Slouching Toward Criticism.” Library Journal, v. 96, December 15, 1971, 4055-4059. “A librarian’s review of reviews.”

· Bagnall, Nicholas. “O My Connolly and My Toynbee Long Ago!” New Statesman, July 4, 1997, 49.

· Baker, Carlos. “Query: What Are Critics Good For? Answer: To Find What is Worth Finding and to Keep Whatever is Worth Keeping.” New York Times Book Review, July 17, 1960, 1, 14, 18.

· Balakian, Nona. “The Lowly State of Book Reviewing.” In Critical Encounters: Literary Views and Reviews, 1953-1977. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1978.

· Baratz-Logsted, Lauren. “Toward a Utopia of Book Reviewing for Women.” Booksquare.com, July 7, 2005.

· Barbato, Joseph. “The Trouble With Reviews.” Publishers Weekly, April 14, 1989, 28-29. Article discusses the review situation for small presses.

· Barrett, Paul M. “Court Reverses Ruling in Times Case.” Boston Globe, May 4, 1994, 49. Brief news article on the dismissal of Dan Moldea’s libel suit against The New York Times.

· Barringer, Felicity. “Newspaper Budget Cuts Pinch Book Pages.” New York Times, April 23, 2001, C8.

· Barzun, Jacques. “A Little Matter of Sense.” New York Times Book Review, June 21, 1987, 1, 27-29. Barzun argues eloquently for clarity and precision in criticism.

· Bass, Judy. “In Defense of Book Critics.” My Say. Publishers Weekly, May 8, 1987, 48.

· Baumann, Paul. “Confessions of a Book Review Editor.” Columbia Journalism Review, May/June 2001, 83-85.

· Bawer, Bruce. “Literary Life in the 1990s.” New Criterion, September 1991, 53-60.

· Berger, Kevin. “The Incredible Vanishing Book Review.” Salon.com, July 19, 2001. Part of a series of articles on the consolidation of power and ownership in the media, this article focuses on book-page cuts at the San Francisco Chronicle but looks more widely at the newspaper industry as well and concludes that “book criticism is an increasingly endangered beat in a chain-dominated newspaper industry now permanently fixated on the bottom line.”

· Berger, Maurice, ed. The Crisis of Criticism. New York: The New Press, 1998.

· Berger, Meyer. The Story of the New York Times, 1851-1951. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1951.

· Beyer, Gregory. “The Last Word: Advice for Aggrieved Authors: Zip It.” Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 2008, 59.

· Bingham, Sallie. My Say. Publishers Weekly, August 5, 1983, 102. Book review editor at the Louisville Courier Journal asserts the importance of regional newspaper book sections and argues that they will not survive if New York publishers continue to ignore them, by failing to send galleys, to schedule author appearances of interviews, or to advertise in their pages.

· Birkerts, Sven. “The Reviewing Life.” Boston Book Review, Winter 1994.

· -----“Critical Condition; Reading, Writing and Reviewing: An Old-Schooler Looks Back.” BookForum, Spring 2004, 8-12.

· -----“Lost in the Blogosphere.” Boston Sunday Globe, July 29, 2007, E1-E2. A longtime reviewer discusses literary blogs and explains why he believes we need print reviews.

· Block, Marylaine. “The Art of Reviewing.” Littera Scripta, 2000. A Library Journal reviewer offers some brief comments on reviewing.

· Bloom, John. “The ‘Art’ of the Review; Brilliant Sri Lankan Novelists, Go Home.” Guest Comment on National Review Online, nationalreview.com, May 21, 2002. (Reprinted from United Press International.) Bloom lets his biases and patriotism hang out in this attack on the selection of books the “big Sunday book sections” review--not the airport rack books “everyone actually reads” but books that are “exotic to the point of obscurity, internationalist, multicultural (by virtue of the translation)”--and how they review them.

· Bogart, Leo. “The Culture Beat: A Look at the Numbers.” Gannett Center Journal, (now Media Studies Journal), Winter 1990, 23-35. “One of America’s top media researchers takes an empirical look at trends in cultural criticism, especially in the newspaper industry.”

· “Book Reviewing a la Mode.” Nation, August 17, 1911.

· “Bottom-Line Pressures in Publishing: A Panel Discussion.” Edited and abbreviated transcript of a National Arts Journalism Program panel held at Columbia University on April 17, 1998. Moderated by book review editor Ruth Lopez and literary critic Carlin Romano, the panel focuses on the topic: “Is the Critic More Important than Ever?” Moderators and panelists from the publishing field offer a range of views on the role, importance, and problems of contemporary reviewing.

· Bowman, James. “A Little Help For Their Friends.” National Review, March 7, 1994, 63.

· Boyd, Ernest. “Ku Klux Kriticism.” Nation, June 20, 1923.

· Brantley, Ben. “Fool or Prophet? No, Just a Critic.” New York Times, Nov. 14, 2001.

· Brockes, Emma. “Trash Your Rivals and Get Away With It.” Guardian Unlimited, January 20, 2000.

· Brown, Ivor. “Critics and Creators.” Saturday Review, August 10, 1963, 11-13, 39. “A British novelist, critic, and journalist argues the case for criticism by those who have ‘sweated, suffered, and faced the frustrations’ of creative writing.”

· Broyard, Anatole. “Fashions in Reviewing.” New York Times Book Review. Brief commentary on how reviewing, once acerbic and even venomous, has become gentler in contemporary times.

· Brustein, Robert. “An Embarrassment of Riches.” New Republic, March 16, 1992, 27-29.

· Bryant, Eric. “Are Reviewers Fair to Gay and Lesbian Writers?” National Book Critics Circle Journal, Autumn 1999, 4-5. Commentary arising from John Updike’s New Yorker review of Alan Hollinghurst’s The Spell, a review that Bryant, and other critics, judged homophobic.

· Burger, Nash. “Truth or Consequence: Books and Book Reviewing.” South Atlantic Quarterly, Spring 1969, 152-166. An editor of The New York Times Book Review reflects on quality vs. trendiness in literature and reviews.

· Burgess, Anthony. “A Shrivel of Critics; Modest proposals for reviewers.” Harper’s, February 1977. 87, 90-91.

· Burgess, Anthony. “Joseph Kell, V.S. Naipaul and Me.” New York Times Book Review, April 21, 1991, 1, 28-31.

· Business Week, “Newt Gingrich, Literary Critic,” Sept. 10, 2001, 14.

· Calame, Byron. “The Book Review: Who Critiques Whom—and Why?” The Public Editor, Week in Review, New York Times, December 18, 2005, 12. Calame, the Times’s Public Editor, briefly discusses policies at The New York Times Book Review, explaining how the editors deal with some conflicts of interest and suggesting that some of their solutions need to be reconsidered.

· Caldwell, Heather. “Pecked.” Salon.com, July 24, 2002.

· Calvani, Mayra and Anne K. Edwards. The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing, Twilight Times Books, 2008.

· Canby, Henry Seidel. Definitions: Essays in Contemporary Criticism. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1922.

· ------“On Criticism.” In Definitions: Essays in Contemporary Criticism. (Second Series) New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1924.

· ------“Books Are News.” Saturday Review of Literature, January 30, 1926, 521.

· ------“Blurbing.” Saturday Review of Literature, November 24, 1934, 308.

· Cannadine, David. “On Reviewing and Being Reviewed,” History Today, March 1999, 30-33.

· Caplan, Paula J. and Mary Ann Palko. “The Times is Not A-Changin’.” Women’s Review of Books, November 2004. Caplan and Palko report on the low percentage of women authors and reviewers on the pages of the New York Times Book Review and other prestigious book review publications. (For another article on their study, see: Cotts, Cynthia. “Boy, Girl, Boy: Sexism at The NYT Book Review?”)

· Charles, Ron. “Will Authors Get Honest Review for $350?” Christian Science Monitor, September 27, 2004.

· Ciabattari, Jane. “Editors on Reviews.” Poets and Writers, July/August 2003, 48-55.

· Coleman, Wanda. “Book Reviewing, African-American Style.” L. A. Weekly, August-9-15, 2002.

· Complete Review Quarterly, “Withering Reviews: Where Have All the Book Reviews Gone?”, Complete Review, Vol. II, issue 2, May 2001.

· Conason, Joe. “The Woman Who Couldn’t Read.” Joe Conason’s Journal. Salon.com, January 27, 2003.

· Connolly, Cyril. “More About the Modern Novel.” The Selected Essays of Cyril Connolly. Edited and With an Introduction by Peter Quennell. New York: Persea Books, 1984.

· ------“Ninety Years of Novel Reviewing.” The Selected Essays of Cyril Connolly. Edited and With an Introduction by Peter Quennell. New York: Persea Books, 1984.

· Conrad, Peter. “From the Derisive Position.” Times Literary Supplement, March 25-31, 1988, 329.

· Constantine, David. “Eager to Come At the Truth.” Review of Behind the Lines by Michael Hofmann and Signs and Wonders by D. J. Enright. Times Literary Supplement, Nov. 16, 2001, 12. In this review of two collections composed mainly of old reviews, Constantine discusses the virtues and problems of such collections in general—and these in particular—and offers perceptive observations about the nature of reviewing.

· Cook, Bruce. “The Select and Sought-After Newspaper Book Sections.” Washington Journalism Review, May 1983, 24-26; 28-29. Article deals with loss of review space, trouble acquiring advertising, and other aspects of newspaper book sections; based on interviews with review editors at larger newspapers. Includes a one-page question-and-answer feature with various editors participating.

· Cooper, Gloria. “Book Reviewing Ain’t Beanbag.” Darts and Laurels. Columbia Journalism Review, July/August 2000, 14.

------Dart to Tulsa World. Darts and Laurels. Columbia Journalism Review, November/December 1991, 38.

· Coser, Lewis A., Charles Kadushin, and Walter W. Powell. Books: The Culture and Commerce of Publishing. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1982.

· Cotts, Cynthia. “Boy, Girl, Boy: Sexism at The NYT Book Review?” Nation: Press Clips. Village Voice, January 7-13, 2004. (See also: Caplan, Paula J. and Mary Ann Palko. )

· Cox, Ana Marie. “The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations.” the antic muse, May 9, 2003.

· Cowley, Jason. “Ouch!” Guardian, Oct. 3, 2002.

· Cowley, Malcolm. “Criticism: A Many-Windowed House.” Saturday Review, August 12, 1961, 10-11; 46-47. Critique of critical approaches.

· Criticism in America: Its Function and Status. Essays by Irving Babbitt, Van Wyck Brooks, W.C. Brownell, Ernest Boyd, T.S. Eliot, H. L. Mencken, Stuart P. Sherman, J.E. Spingarn, and George E. Woodberry. Harcourt Brace, 1924; Haskell House Publishers, 1969.

· Curtis, Anthony: Lit Ed: On Reviewing and Reviewers. Manchester: Carcanet, 1998.

· Davidson, Donald. “Criticism Outside New York.” In The Spyglass, Views and Reviews, 1924-1930. Selected and edited by John Tyree Fain. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1963. [This essay, originally called “Provincial Book Reviewing” and having a somewhat different lead, first appeared in Bookman, May 1931.]

· Davis, Elmer. History of The New York Times, 1851-1921. New York: The New York Times, 1921.

· Davison, Peter. “The Real Cultural Article,” Atlantic, March 1966, 141-42.

· Diamond, Edwin. “Can You Prove the Hollandaise Was Curdled?” New York Magazine, April 18, 1994, 32-34.

· ------Behind the Times: Inside the New New York Times. New York: Villard Books, 1994. See esp. chap. 11: “Tweedy Backwater: Behind the Lines at the Book Review.”

· Dirda, Michael. “Reviewing Books.” Off the Cuff. Writer, December 1982, 5-6. The deputy editor of the Washington Post Book World offers concise, lucid advice on writing reviews, describing the basic qualifications the reviewer should possess and the basic qualities the review should possess.

· Dobrzynski, Judith H., “Embarrassment of Critics: Raters Rated.” New York Times, June 20, 1998, A15, A17.

· Dorris, Michael. “Say, Who Was That Semi-Masked Book Reviewer?” Boston Sunday Globe, Dec. 8, 1991, A14.

· Dreher, Christopher. “Bribes, Threats and Naked Readings.” Salon.com. September 16, 2002. What authors will do to promote their work “in a world where more and more books get less and less attention.”

· Drewry, John E. Writing Book Reviews. Boston: The Writer, Inc., 1945, 1966.

· Eisenberg, Howard. “So Many Books, So Little Space,” Publishers Weekly, April 10, 1987, 25-30. The author asks a dozen major newspaper book-page editors what makes them choose a book for review.

· Epstein, Joseph. “Reviewing and Being Reviewed,” in Plausible Prejudices. New York: W. W. Norton, 1985. Essay originally published in The New Criterion, 1982. Opening with his responses to reviews he has received, Epstein proceeds to discuss reviewing in general, commenting astutely on it purpose, its practice, its practitioners, and its problems.

· Fadiman, Clifton. “The Reviewing Business.” Harper’s, October 1941, 472-79.

· Farmanfarmaian, Roxane. “How San Diego Got Its Book Review Section Back.” Publishers Weekly, February 10, 1997, 12. Brief news item on the revival of the San Diego Union-Tribune book review section, which had been diminished for several years.

· Fialkoff, Francine. “The Art of Reviewing: Mastering the short review is no easy feat.” Library Journal, March 15, 1992, 74.

· ------“Whose Words Are They, Anyhow? The delicate art of reviewing.” Library Journal, August 1994, 62.

· ------“The Medium and the Message: We need to stop segregating the media.” Library Journal, March 15, 1995, 56.

· ------“Are We Dumbing Down the Book Review? Neither LJ—nor librarians—can serve just one clientele.” Library Journal, April 15, 1995, 60.

· Fialkoff, Francine. “Better Never Than Late? Publisher’s late galleys—or none at all—often imperil a review.” Library Journal, May 15, 1995, 57.

· ------“Caught in the Net.” Library Journal, August 1995, 58.

· ------“Calling All Reviewers: Here’s your chance to reap the rewards of reviewing.” Library Journal, June 15, 1996, 52.

· ------“Tainted Reviews.” Library Journal, June 15, 2001, 61. Commenting on the trade magazine ForeWord’s online pay-per-review service, Fialkoff argues that “paying to get a book reviewed ultimately compromises the review itself.”

· ------“What’s a Review, Anyway?” Library Journal, July 2001, 72.

· Fields, Howard. “Libel Suit Over ‘N. Y. Times’ Book Review Is Reinstated.” Publishers Weekly, March 7, 1994, 14. Brief news item on Dan Moldea’s libel suit against The New York Times.

· Fleming, Thomas. “The War Between Writers and Reviewers.” New York Times Book Review, Jan. 6, 1985, 3, 37.

· Frizzelle, Christopher. “Rant! The Rise of the Critical Critic.” Seattle Weekly, September 5-11, 2002.

· Funderburg, Lise. “Authors on Reviews.” Poets and Writers, May/June 2003, 42-53.

· Furbank, P.N. “Cool Appraisals.” Times Literary Supplement, May 18-24, 1990, 524.

· Fusilli, Jim. “A Crime Columnist’s Confession: Reviewing Is a Rough Trade.” Boston Sunday Globe, July 18, 2004, E7.

· Fussell, Paul. “Vanity in Review: The Author’s Reply as a Literary Genre.” Harper’s, February 1982, 68-73. Fussell criticizes authors who reply to negative reviews with a letter-to-the-editor, which he calls the “A.B.M.”--the “Author’s Big Mistake.”

· ------“A Power of Facing Unpleasant Facts.” In Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays. New York: Summit Books, 1988. As in “Vanity in Review,” Fussell criticizes authors who cannot take criticism, who equate “unfavorable” with “unfair,” and who send off a letter-to-the-editor in reply to a negative review.

· Gannon, Mary. “Critics on Reviews.” Poets and Writers, September/October 2003, 54-61.

· Garbus, Martin. “My Mother, Book Reviews and the First Amendment.” My Say. Publishers Weekly, April 25, 1994, 28.

· Gard, Wayne. Book Reviewing. New York: F. S. Crofts, 1937. Gard, a reviewer and review editor for the weekly book page of a daily newspaper, intends his book “to help the novice reviewer and the prospective reviewer.” He offers some basic advice, advice from various review editors of the day, and sample reviews, which, like most reviews, are hard to read so many years later without some particular interest in the book, author, or reviewer.

· Gardiner, Harold C. “Fainting With Damn Praise.” In In All Conscience, Garden City, NY: Hanover House, A Division of Doubleday, 1959, 25-30.

· Garner, Dwight. “Crisis in Critville: Why You Can’t Trust Book Reviews.” Salon.com, May 3, 1996. (This article is also titled: “Blurbmania: When Good Reviews Happen to Bad Books.”)

· Gissen, Max. “Commercial Criticism and Punch-Drunk Reviewing.” Antioch Review, Summer 1942, 252-63. Gissen provides an astute description of the way in which reviewers are made part of the commercial publishing process.

· Glendinning, Victoria. “The Book Reviewer: The Last Amateur?” Essays by Divers Hands: Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, New Series: Vol. XLIV, edited by A. N. Wilson, 1986, 182-194.

· Gold, Herbert. “Reviewmanship and the I-Wrote-A-Book Disease.” Atlantic, June 1970, 114.

· Goodrich, Chris. “Book Reviews as Book Promotion.” Publishers Weekly, September 21, 1984, 30.

· Gorman, Trisha. “Which Books Should Get a Review? How Ten Magazines Choose.” Publishers Weekly, November 6, 1981, 23-27. Article looks at selection policies of Atlantic, Esquire, Harper’s, Mother Jones, Nation, National Review, New Republic, Newsweek, Saturday Review, Time.

· Gould, Edward S. “American Criticism on American Literature.” Lectures delivered before the Mercantile Library Association, December 29, 1835. New York: Printed for the Mercantile Library Association, 1836. Discussing the reviewing of “fictitious writings” in the periodical press, Gould analyzes critical practices, focusing on the reasons for the preponderance of overpraise. He addresses a central literary issue of the time: the patriotic desire to nurture the young country’s literature by praise, an impulse he believes is misguided, but deals with other issues as well. Overall, his analysis and commentary are extraordinarily relevant today.

· Gray, John Maclachlan. “Forget Ottawa, Try the Conflicted World of Writers.” The Globe and Mail, June 18, 2002.

· Greeley, Andrew. “Who Reads Book Reviews Anyway?” Publishers Weekly, April 10, 1987, 78.

· Green, Jack. Fire the Bastards! Introduction by Steven Moore. Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1992. Green’s examination of the review media’s treatment of William Gaddis’s The Recognitions, first published by Green himself in his periodical, newspaper, in 1962 and reprinted here in book form.