' .. . ..- r- I I- V 7
PAPERBACK REVOLUTION: A Philologl Question
(Continued from Page 7)
IN ADDITION to the lower
classes, the National Book-Burn-
ing Society of America has bene-
fited from the advent of Paper-
backs.
Paperback books burn easily,
with a steady flame, and with no
hard - to - light heavy cover that
burns long after the pile should
have been ready for weiner- and
marshmallow-roasts.
The lack of a, hard cover has
been a drawback in sales to the
poorer college students starving in
garrets in their sandals and long
beards, however. Although the.
books do provide an inexpensive
source of fuel--only after the es-
sence has been gleaned from them,
I should add-they burn only a.
short time, and with not at all
the intense heat that can be ex-
pected from even the cheaper
hard-bounds.
. The paperback is a boon to
those persons who like to change
their furniture frequently; now,
in addition to purchasing a new
couch or new chairs for the par-
lor, one can with a modicum of
expense change his entire selec-
tion of books-and the color selec-.
tion is as wide as that in the hard-
cover field.
ALTHOUGH it might be exag-
gerating to say that paper-
bounds have completely changed
the chromium culture of the
United States, it is reasonable to
state that there is as a result of
their infiltration a new polish on
many facets of the American Way
of Life.
The paperback is wonderful for
inverse-snob appeal. The symp-
toms of papersnobomania are first
apparent when a dissection of the
green book bag reveals under a
microscope only paperbound books.
The syndrome is considered com-
plete when the afflicted is heard
to state, "Oh, I never buy hard-
covers." The statement may be
suffixed with "anymore," denoting
a convert, or may be used without
ornament, in which case the utter-
er is an obvious theist.
A note to paperback snobs:
Dylan Thomas in paperback is
definitely "out," having been ac-
quired in large
bourgeosie; the
may safely buy
is "in."
numbers by the
true intellectual,
Hart Crane, who
THE ERUDITE petty gangster
has invaded the paperback
book field, too.
He has not done it to make
money; he has done it to im-
prove his mind.
He plays upon the fact that the
paperbound, although it is some-
times a thing of beauty and a joy,
is not forever. Paper books fall
apart; pages drop out; the cover
bends and breaks. There is prob-
ably not a single copy of the paper-
back edition of "Peyton Place"
that is intact.
The petty paperback racketeer
sends a letter to the publisher.
He doesn't buy any books, but he
tells the publisher he has; he also
tells the publisher the books fall
apart, the pages dropped out, and
the cover has bent and broken. He
asks the publisher to replace these
books; and the publisher, intent
on good public relations, does so.
After the pages of the "replace-
ment" books have fallen out, etc.,
the racketeer sends in another'let-
ter, with a new list of fatalities in
the high mortality rate of paper-
backs. And so on. One such gang-
ster had amassed a collection of
over two thousand books-all in
French--before he was finally sent
to prison for income tax evasion.
THE DAUGHTERS of the Amer-
ican Revolution would be the
first to deny that paper books are
a Communist front.
They see in the Paperback Revo-
lution something more noble, more.
honorable, more intrinsic than,
most people do. They see, symboli-
cally, the War for Independence
being re-fought.
A small number of shoddy but
inspired paper-covered books first
launched an attack upon the
tyranny of the hard-cover pub-
lishers. The well-trained Redcoat
hard-covers did all they could to
uphold the freedom to suppress,
but just as our Minute Men fought
from behind trees and rocks, so
fought the paperbacks from be-
hind shaving cream and perfume
bottles. Valiantly! And now, the
hard-cover publishers form ali-
ances with the. paperback 'pub-
lishers,. in 6 sort of NATO of the
book world.
Even the University of Michi-
gan's general library has been
affected by the paperbacks. It now
buys paperbacks and has them
bound by professional binders;
partly, we assume, to prevent any
appearance before a Congressional
sub-committees investigating mo-
nopolies, and partly to bring new
business to the state of Michigan.
SPEAKING of the University li-
brary system, the Undergradu-
ate Library has on displiy a ten-
dollar book shelf (which costs
$91.20) plagiarized. from the New
York Herald Tribune, composed
entirely of paperbacks.
Inspired by this unique selec-
tion, the first milestone in publish-
ing since Harvard's five-foot shelf
-is the trend in publishing today
from size to value?-one of our
friends compiled his own five-dol-
lar bookshelf.
This is the selection: Herbert
Simmons, "Corner Boy;" Peter
Keneson, "Tubie's Monument;"
Edward Ronns, "Gang Rumble.";
William Bennett, "Nor Fears of
Hell" ("Clem didn't mind his see-
ing her stark naked, but for some
silly reason she had wanted to
hide behind a bush to strip"); Ers-
kine Caldwell, "Tobacco Road;"
Grace Metalious, "Peyton Place;"
Ernie Kovacs, "Zoomar;" Bonnie
Golightly, "Beat Girl;" (anony-
mous?). "Let Them Eat Bullets"
and "Dead Dolls Don't Talk;" and
William Faulkner, "The Sound
and the Fury."
The college. undergraduate en-
joys good literature, but he feels
that there must be at least one
title in his library which will im-
press the folks at home.
No ESSAY on paperbacks would
be complete without a look to
the future; here are some likely
candidates for future paperback
bookdom: "The State Papers of
Queen Elizabeth I;" "The Lyrics
of William Shenstone;" and "The
Report of the Waterworks Com-
mission," Schenectady, New York,
1898.
And it should be only a short
time before the unexpurgated edi-
tion of "Lady Chatterly's Lover"
is available in paper in the United
States, selling for thirty-five cents,
to replace the much-fondled $6.18.
copies now available in various
locations.
The Ubiquitous Papeback
A Brief and Unauthoritative
Explanation Concerning
a Recent Development
in American Reading Habits
By FRED SCHAEN k
"BACK"is a very important word are not bound with paper, but with _
on any campus. On most cam- glue or thread; and how does one
puses, with the exception of the determine precisely what is the
University of Chicago, the root back of a book? In addition, paper
word is prefixed with "half-", books are not covered with paper,
"quarter-", or "full-". But by now, but with a rather thin cardboard;
"
1
1
I.I
RICHMOND RECORDS
a product of
,T
.
. .
ffrr
TI.98
These Same Recordings Formerly Sold-for $3.98 and $5.95
Tchaikovsky: ROMEO AND JULIET
Eduard van Beinum cond. The London Philharmonic Orch.
Tchaikovsky: FRANCESA DA RIMINI
Enrique Jorda conducting The Paris Conservatory Orch.
Chopin: LES SYLPHIDES
Ibert: DIVERTISSEMENT
Roger Desormiere cond. The Paris Conservatory Orch.
SYMPHONIC MARCHES
Elgar: POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE MARCHES Nos. 1-4
London Symphony Orchestra-Warwick Braithwaite.
Elgar: POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE MARCH No. 5
National Symphony Orchestra-Sir Malcolm Sargent
Elgar: IMPERIAL MARCH
Meyerbeer: CORONATION MARCH
Saint Soens: MARCHE MILITAIRE FRANCAISE
Halvorsen: ENTRY OF THE BOYARDS
London Philharmonic Orchestra-Julius Harrison
ENCORES FOR ORCHESTRA
Brahms: HUNGARIAN DANCES, Nos. 1, 3
Dvorak: SLAVONIC DANCES, Nos. 3, 5, 8
London Symphony Orchestra-Clemens Krauss.
Khachaturion: SABRE DANCE
Mozart: TURKISH MARCH
Rubinstein:TOREADOR ET ANDALOUSE
Godard: BERCEUSE DE JOCELYN
Delibes: PAS DE FLEURS
Brahms: HUNGARIAN DANCE No. S
New Promenade Orchestra-Victor Olof.
SHOWPIECES FOR ORCHESTRA_
Rossini: THE BARBER OF SEVILLE-OVERTURE
Offenbach: THE TALES OF HOFFMAN-BARCAROLLE
Jarnefelt: PRAELUDIUM
Sibelius: VALSE TRISTE
Nicolai: THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR-OVERTURE'
Delibes: LA SOURCE-SUITE
Mascagni: CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA-INTERMEZZO
Orchestra de la Suisse Romande-Victor Olof.
Borodin: POLOVTSIAN DANCES
London Philharmonic Orch & Choir-Eduard van Beinum-
Foll: EL AMOUR BRUJO
Lo'ndon Philharmonic Orchestra--Anthony Collins.
Beethoven: SYMPHONY No. 4
London Philharmonic Orchestra-Georg Solti
Beethoven: VIOLIN CONCERTO
Ruggiero Ricci-London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Sir Adrian Boult.
Mendelssohn: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM-
INCIDENTAL MUSIC
Schubert: ROSAMUNDE-INCIDENTAL MUSIC
Concertgebouw- Orch.. of Amsterdam-Eduard van Beinum.
Sibelius: SYMPHONY No. 5; KARELIA SUITE
Danish State Radio Symphony Orchestra-Erik Tuxen;
Thomas Jensen.
Beethoven: SYMPHONY No. 6
London Philharmonic Orchestra-Erich Kleiber
Brahms: HUUNGARIAN DANCES,
Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6,7,10
Dvorak: SLAVONIC DANCES, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 16
Homburg Radio Orchestra-Hans Schmidt-Issertedt.
Prokofiev: PETER AND THE WOLF
London Philharmonic Orch.-Nicolai Malko.
Britten: THE YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO THE ORCH.
Concertgebouw Orch. of Amterdam-Edogard van Beinum.
Ravel: BOLERO
- Berlioz: BENVENUTO CELLINI OVERTURE
Berlioz: THE CORSAIR OVERTURE
Paris Conservatory Orch.-Charles Munch.
Tchaikovsky: SYMPHONY No. 6-Pathetique"
Paris Conservatory Orch.-Charles Munch.
Dvorak: SYMPHONY No. 5--"From the New World"
New Symphony Orch.-Enrique Jorda.
ROSSINI OVERTURES
La Gazza Ladra; William Tell; Semiramide; La Scala di Seta
Concertgebouw Orch. of Amsterdam-Eduard van Beinum
Beethoven: SYMPHONY No. 5
Paris Conservatory Orch.-Carl Schuricht.
Tchaikovsky: SYMPHONY No. 5
Northwest German Radio Orch.-Hans Schmidt-isserstedt.
Debussy: LA MER
Ravel: MOTHER GOOSE (Ma Mere L'Oye)
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande-Ernest Ansermet.
Stravinsky: THE RITE OF SPRING
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande-Ernest Ansermet.
Rachmaninoff: PIANO CONCERTO No. 2
Julius Katchen-New Symphony. Orch.-Anatole Fistoulari.
Berlioz: SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE
Concertbegouw Orch. of Amsterdam-Eduard van Beinum.
Tchaikovsky: VIOLIN CONCERTO
Ruggiero Ricci-New Sym. Orch.-Sir Malcolm Sargent.
Rossini-Respighik LA BOUTIQUE FANTASQUE
London Symphony Orch.-Ernest Ansermet.
Bizet; CARMEN SUITE
Bizet: L'ARLESIENNE SUITE
London Philharmonic Orch.-Anthony Collins and
Eduard Van Beinum
Tchaikovsky: 1812 OVERTURE
Tchaikovsky: HAMLET-FANTASY OVERTURE
London Philharmonic Orch.-Sir Adrian Boult.
Stravinsky: PETRUSHKA
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande-Ernest-Ansermet.
Brahms: SYMPHONY No. 1
Concertgebouw Orch. of Amsterdam-Eduard van Beinum.
Beethoven: PIANO CONCERTO No. 4.
Wilhelm Backhaus-Vienna Philh. Orch.-Clemens Krauss.
Brahms: VIOLIN CONCERTO
Christian Ferras=Vienna Philharmonic Orch-
Carl Schuricht.
Grieg: PEER GYNT-Suites 1 and 2
London Philharmonic Orchestra-Basil Cameron.
Brahms: SYMPHONY No. 2
London Philharmonic Orchestra-Wilhelm Furtwangler.
Mendelssohn: VIONIN CONCERTO
Campoli, violin.
Eduard van Beinum cond. The London Philharmonic Orch.-
Bruch: VIOLIN CONCERTO No. 1
Campoli, violin 1
Royalton Kisch conducting The New Symphony Orchestra
Franck: SYMPHONY IN D MINOR
Franck- SYMPHONIC VARIATIONS
Eileen Joyce, piano
Charles Munch conducting The Paris Conservatory Orch.
Brahms: ACADEMIC FESTIVAL OVERTURE
Brahms: TRAGIC OVERTURE'
Brahms: VARIATIONS ON A THEME OF HAYDN
Eduard van Beinum cond. The Concertgebouw Orchestr..
of Amsterdam.k
Massenet: LE CID
Beyerbeer-Lambert:LES PATINEURS
BEETHOVEN OVERTURES
Robert Irving conducting The London Symphony Orch.
LEONORA No. 3; THE CONSECRATION OF
THE HOUSE; EGMONT; FIDELO; CORIOLAN
Eduard van Beinum cond. The London Philharmonic Arch.
everyone knows there has been a
philological revolution; in these
spheres there is a new dominant
influence: the prefix "paper-".
It might be appropriate to add
here that the most important
aspect of the Paperback Revolu-
tion is am philological question.
Several evenings in a row at the
Chi Omega house, heated argu-
ments arose among the Phi Beta
Kappas present, arguments that
have undoubtedly been repeated in
every bagnio from Bluestocking,
Massachusetts, to Libido, Cali-
fornia (a suburb of Hollywood).
The question was simple, but pro-
found.
Some of the boys maintained
that the only term that could pro-
perly cover the. softbound books
was "paperback," but a moiety of
the clan rejected this absurd posi-
tion and maintained that "paper-
bound" was the genteel term, the
only term ever used in this sense
by the British nobility. Three boys
at one table proposed the term
"softbound," but they were im-
mediately depledged. Everyone
looked to the leader of the group
to solve the problem, but the
spokesman for the "bound" fac-
tion made a Freudian slip on the
word "mastered," whereupon the.
spokesman was slapped with a
glove and called a poltroon.
THE DUEL was arranged im-
mediately, to be fought on the
railroad tracks west of the city,
the idea being that the loser would
be left unconscious between the
tracks at a spot calculated by en-
gineers to be the precise place
where those travellers who please
did "not use while in the station"
would use. The troupe set out, but
nothing resulted from the college
prank; nobody got past the Old
German.
The argument would surely have
been inconclusive from a philo-
sophical viewpoint, for-paper books
Fred Schaen, a member of
The Daily reviewing -taff,
spends most of his time in
bookstores looking at the,
covers.
and that is not very soft. But a
more important question was
raised by the entire affair: pre-
cisely what were all those men do-
ing at the Chi Omega house?
THERE ARE over twenty million
books currently in circulation
in the Western world, most , of
them overdue, and among them
are approximately six million pa-
perbacks.
The paperback is not a new in-
vention. The country for paper-
backs, of course, is France; nothing
is very permanent there. In Eng-
land, not many paperbacks are
published; but then again, they
even proofread there. Poor France.
Think of the manpower waste'
everywhere one goes, he sees stu-
dents sitting around slitting books
open. In France, each person has
his personal bookbinder-a carry-
over, no doubt, from the days
when each had his own corset-
maker.
The origin of the paperback is
a mystery, as origins often are.
But the most authoritative claim
may be that made by Thomas
Doolittle, a seller of pornography
on the Left Bank.
When a connoisseur of the art
offered a good price for the covers
of Mr. Doolittle's hardbound books,
he obligingly ripped them off; and,
not being a man to miss a profit,
he sold the interiors sans cloth
-overing to university students for
an untidy sum of filthy lucre.
Let us finish our short history
by stating that San Francisco has
already seen the rise of the Paper-
back-Book-of-the-Month Club.
THE IDEA behind the paperback
book is that essential books
may, in this inexpensive form, be
purchased by the masses.
One publisher's slogan is "Good
Reading for the Millions." Wheth-
er "millions" refers to profit or to
population is debatable, but we
shall assume it to mean popula-
tion. It thereby becomes clear that
the entire paperback movement is
a Communist-inspired idea, made
to stir unrest among the lower
classes who can now purchase their
own ideas without any help from
Andrew Carnegie.
However, no one can seriously
consider the concept of paperbacks
as a radical plot when he notes a-
representative sampling of the pa-'
perbacks available: "The Call
Girl;" "The Modern Meat Cook-
book;" "Miracle Gardening Tips
(Plus 1001 Tips for Today's Gar-
dener);" "A Dictionary of Obsolete
English;" "How to Write Success-
ful Business Letters;'"How to Live
Paperbacks - Wonderful for Inverse-sn
Without Liquor;" "Let's Name the
Baby;" "Morphy's Games of
Chess;" "Pigeon Racing;" "The
Case of James Dean;" "How You
Can Forecast the Weather;" "Mul-
tivibrators, Basic Synchros and
Servomechanisms;" "Honey Lips;"
and "How to Read a Book."
The Lion Library has a book
called "The Deluge," "the first
and only novel written by one of
mankind's ranking geniuses," Leo-
4o00o
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Theatre
wearing a Selfixsire W(
fahimbHASP
Keeping a crisp, fresh-looking appearance in hot, hv
no problem when you're wearing a Selfca
fashion by Haspel. For this is the rema
{f loeswrinkles like agic.but ne
What's more, it's the easies
world to care fo
automatically and drips c
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Come in and choose a Selfcain
of 75% Dacron* 25%Cotton or a silk)
of 65% Dacron 35% Cotton in the new deep, n
I1
(Continued from Page 4)
life into the company. The DAC
did not last long mainly because
people lost interest, and I cannot
see this as a slur on the intelli-
gence of Ann Arbor audiences.
Recently a group formed from
the old DAC group gave "The
Bald Soprano," a genuinely ex-
perimental play..
An awful lot of people worked
awfully hard. The advertising was
clever and well handled, and the
show itself was amazingly good,
considering the auditorium they
had to play in. Ionesco is a name
of sorts, but the houses, consid-
ering the effort, were distressingly
small. Where were the supporters?
ANN ARBOR theatre is by no
means in a flourishing state,
but it is by no means in a decline.
Audiences are getting what they
want, and this is a basic element
of all theatre.
Some things deserve mention.
Gilbert and Sullivan r e c e n t 1 y
played a performance for children
very successfully, and the local
members of the old Dramatic Arts
Theatre are engaged in a Chil-
dren's Theatre, a field sadly ne-
glected of late in the area, and
one which should be developed.
I cannot but lament the passing
of the old Union Opera for the
very reason that killed it finally -
it was a student scripted show.
But by the same token, I find its
replacement a more beautifully
vicious comment on conformity
than all the lectures against fra-
ternities.
However, things being what
they are, I suppose we are lucky
to have it at all, and heaven
knows, it does sell.
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