The British Book Society and the American Book-of-the-Month Club, 1929–1949: Joint Choices and Transatlantic Connections

Abstract:

This article explores the previously overlooked transatlantic dimensions to the operations and cultures of reading of the American Book-of-the-month club (BOMC) and the British Book Society between 1929–49. These two book sales clubs were major distributors of new books to wide audiences through the mid-twentieth century, disrupting previous patterns of consumption, with a significant impact on book sales and global distribution. Drawing on extensive new archival research, this essay shows how the clubs were part of a broader transatlantic print culture of distribution and reading. Using little-known archival evidence of exchanges among authors, judges, publishers, and texts—as well as new quantitative data parsing book choices and recommendations—it demonstrates how the BOMC and the Book Society were part of a transatlantic publishing ecosystem that shaped interwar and mid-twentieth century reading patterns across the Atlantic and wider Anglophone world. As such, it is the first research to offer a comparative, transatlantic examination of two major Anglophone book distributors that revolutionised how we read and think about books.