Bookmark: 125 Years of Book Reviews - and women

[caitri]

Reviewing the Book Review

As the publication celebrates its 125th anniversary, Parul Sehgal, a staff critic and former editor at the Book Review, delves into the archives to critically examine its legacy in full.

Journalist goes through 125 years of book reviews looking for women, people of color, queerness.
 

Revisiting the midcentury: "I’d innocently turn a corner and find you back at it, comparing a woman writer to a trout — as praise."

The relevant line from the original review, of an autobiography called "That Pellet Woman!" by Betty Pellet: "Nevertheless, a valiant woman comes through, an indomitable spirit leaping at life with the drive of a Dolores River trout."

Snip:

It was a clubby world put into a panic by the success of “the lit’ry lady,” as a 1907 article termed her. Early issues of the Book Review were lively with alarm. Why Are Women Using Male Pseudonyms? How Dare Women Write From the Point of View of Male Characters? Why Are Women’s Books Selling So Well? “Is Woman Crowding Out Man From the Field of Fiction?”

(NB All these reviews are hyperlinked in the article.) 

Comments

[ithiliana]

When I tried to follow the links I ran into a paywall. Very frustrating.i also want to send the guy a link to Russ' How To Suppress Women's Writing with a note saying that she did it first and better.

[caitri]

You can try googling the title and access the article that way.

I just focused on the lines revolving around women here, but on FB I quoted some broader portions on how the archive treated POC and queer readers--it's super interesting, and exactly what you would expect. (That's on the history of the NYT writers, not the journalist who did a REALLY good job summing up what they found.)