Al Silverman (1926–2019)

One summer when I didn't have anything to do, I sat in the local college library and read all the New Yorker magazines from the 30s to the 80s. It was over those few weeks in June that it occurred to me that the last time America had a chance to be considered a literate nation was 1958. Reading all those magazines, trying to read between the lines as much as enjoying the lines, it seemed to me that leading up to 1958 the writers assumed that the NY audience was genuinely interested in books and had the time to read them. Then came a gradual decline and a shift in editorial tone from one of sharing information about books with fellow readers to one of writing about books that were available. And the books themselves seemed to devolve- trashy reading went from Gone With the Wind to I’m OK, You’re OK.

In thinking about it, I figured that it made sense because we had more leisure and money than ever before, teevee began to stream the waters of Lethe into American homes, and booze was cheap. Youth culture was in full flower and we had more things to occupy our time.

But I digress. Al Silverman has written a book about publishing from just after WWII to the mid 80s, what he calls the ‘golden age’ of publishing. I think he’s right- more people were publishing more books and reaching more people. He marks the end of the era with the accumulation of the publishing houses by large corporations and the fall of the editors and rise of the bean counters. He is too nice a guy to be bitter, but he is disappointed.

Each chapter discusses the great publishers- Knopf, Doubleday, Random House, ect.-and the editors that came and went and made them great houses. It’s a fascinating look inside, and we can follow some editors as they trek through different firms. The last section is devoted to the ascendency of the paperback and is, to me, the most exciting part. This is a gentle book, an insider reminiscing with other insiders about a business they loved. Anyone who’s ever found himself hunting for a book to read by first scanning the shelves looking for publishers and then considering titles will love reading The Time of Their Lives.… (more)