“Down with fiction and up with fact”:Publishers weekly, and the postwar shift to nonfiction

Abstract

This historical study looks at the common wisdom concerning a shift in balance between fiction and nonfiction in American book publishing following World War II (1945II ( -1955, particularly from the perspective of the book trade journal Publishers Weekly. A brief statistical analysis suggests that although the collective effect of increases in each of a rising number of categories of nonfiction was to overshadow production in fiction, there was in fact a relatively steady and continuing gain in fiction production. The perception of the publishing community, as seen through the lens of Publishers Weekly, was that a drastic shift "away" from fiction was occurring for diverse reasons--from differences in price sensitivity and acceptability of paperbacking to ostensibly poor quality of postwar fiction. Also relevant were shifts in industry attitudes toward market research, the readership, and traditional tensions concerning the mission of publishing--between service-oriented profession and product-oriented business.