This year American literature marked time: U.S. authors produced little that will be read with excitement in 1961. But for the general reader, alive to his time and looking for books that reflect it, 1951 was a good year. Even the publishers cast off their long faces, and began to smile. Their break-even point on a new novel stood at around 7,000 to 10,000 copies—anything below that point usually meant red ink. But thanks to the lusty sales of nonfiction, and the royalties from reprints and other sidelines, most publishers did better than in...
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