The most striking feature of U.S. publishing in 1955, as of U.S. life generally, was prosperity.
In a business which talks poor almost from habit, there was little to be heard but complacency. For once, some of the gravy was trickling down to the bookstores. The book clubs were booming, Hollywood was paying fancy prices for books again ($300,000 for Robert Ruark's Something of Value, $250,000 for MacKinlay Kantor's Andersonville, a $1,000,000 deal for Herman Wouk's Marjorie Morningstar). High-priced, quality paperbacks were having the year of their lives.
Of the 12,000 or so titles...
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