A Company of Readers : Uncollected Writings of W. H. Auden, Jacques Barzun, and Lionel Trilling from the Reader's Subscription and Mid-Century Book Clubs [Hardcover]

Arthur Krystal (Author), Jacques Barzun (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2001

In 1951, Jacques Barzun, W. H. Auden, and Lionel Trilling joined together to form the editorial board of the Readers' Subscription Book Club. Thus began a venture unique in the annals of American culture. Never before or since have three such eminent intellectuals collaborated to bring books to the attention of the general public.

Now, a half century later, A Company of Readers tells the story of this extraordinary partnership and presents for the first time a selection of essays from the publications of the Readers' Subscription Book Club and its successor, the Mid-Century Book Society.

As they composed their comments to club members, these distinguished editors freely shared with each other their notes and drafts. The result is criticism of the highest order: smart, humane, learned -- in short, stuff that makes for damn good reading. And because these pieces were written for the general public by men who knew that books still mattered, perhaps no other collection of essays gives so natural and vivid a picture of the cultural landscape at midcentury.

Together, Auden, Barzun, and Trilling would plunge into a pile of books and pick out what they liked, what they thought would instruct and delight. What they chose may surprise you. Here is Auden on J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, Barzun on Virginia Woolf's Writer's Diary, and Trilling on Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Each book, whether weighty or light, summoned from the editors a spirited appraisal, in language that welcomed any kind of reader.

The Mid-Century club disbanded in 1963, but its legacy lives on in these pages. A Company of Readers is essential to admirers of this illustrious trio, and it offers a window on an America in which books took center stage.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The monumental From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, published last year, may be Jacques Barzun's crowning achievement, but A Company of Readers: Uncollected Writings of W.H. Auden, Jacques Barzun, and Lionel Trilling from the Readers' Subscription and Mid-Century Book Clubs further reveals the depth of his roots in American letters. Edited with an introduction by Arthur Krystal and with a foreword by Barzun, the book shows the mid-century giants in full public intellectual mode: introducing, pronouncing, off-handedly dismissing acts that gave thousands of book club subscribers the terms by which they read the likes of Joyce, Baldwin, Faulkner, Colette and many other greats.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The typical book club of the mid-20th century was established for reasons of business and salesmanship. But one club was different from all the others. The Readers' Subscription Book Club (later reincorporated as the Mid-Century Book Club) was conceived in 1951 in New York to create an audience for books that were above the popular taste. Three literary figures were enlisted to form its editorial board: French American historian, cultural critic, and educator Jacques Barzun; English-born poet W.H. Auden; and American critic and author Lionel Trilling. Their duties included choosing titles and writing monthly reviews in the club's publications, the Griffin and the Mid-Century. This volume is a collection of some of these reviews, reissued for the first time since their initial publication in the club's periodicals. Krystal, a contributor to The New Yorker, the Times Literary Supplement, and Harper's, chose the articles based on the "timeliness," "significance," or "newsworthiness" of the book and author under review, from today's perspective as well as from that of the mid-20th century. This eclectic selection of reviews and essays, including 15 by each of the three writers, examines prominent works by Proust, Dostoevsky, Eliot, Shaw, Baldwin, Faulkner, Montaigne, and others in six thematic chapters. All pieces in the volume are elegantly written and informative even to the reader already familiar with the work being reviewed. An appended list of these reviewers' essays not selected for this volume is useful for reference or for further reading. Recommended for most collections. Ali Houissa, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; First Edition edition (August 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743202627
• ISBN-13: 978-0743202626
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #424,627 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Culture of "Inclusiveness", March 13, 2002

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Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Company of Readers : Uncollected Writings of W. H. Auden, Jacques Barzun, and Lionel Trilling from the Reader's Subscription and Mid-Century Book Clubs (Hardcover)

While I was growing up in Chicago, one of my greatest pleasures was listening to classical music while reading the latest selection from the Readers' Subscription Club to which I belonged. That was almost 50 years ago (!) and yet how vividly I recall pouring over brief but brilliant essays in the latest edition of The Griffin (the monthly bulletin) to select titles to order and then, several weeks later, reading those selected as soon as they arrived. (By the way, I found Bach's "Goldberg Variations" to be an ideal companion to my reading, regardless of subject matter.) In this volume, with a Foreword by Jacques Barzun, followed by an Introduction by editor Arthur Krystal, we have a rich and varied selection of the uncollected writings of W.H. Auden, Jacques Barzun, and Lionel Trilling who, from 1951 until 1963, served as editors of the Readers' Subscription Club which later became the Mid-Century Book Society. As I began to read this book, I recognized only a few of the 45 essays which Krystal has organized as follows:

Biography and Belles Lettres (e.g. Barzun's "The Artist as Scapegoat")

History and Social Thought (Auden's "Apologies to the Iroquois")

Novels and Novelists (e.g. Trilling's "A Triumph of the Comic View")

Music, Theater, and Fine Arts (e.g. Barzun's "Why Talk About Art?")

Poetry (.e.g. Auden's "T.S. Eliot So Far")

A Round-robin (i.e. all three editors collaborated on "The New Auden Shakespeare" and "Jameschoice for January."

Krystal then provides an "Editor's Note," followed by two appendices: Complete List of Essays and Reviews from The Griffin and The Mid-Century, and, Essays from The Griffin and The Mid-Century Published Elsewhere.

After reading all of the selections in this volume, I now realize and appreciate what I did not (and probably could not) so many years ago: the three erudite and eloquent authors of the selections never "wrote down" to their readers while providing an intellectual, aesthetic, and (at times) social context for each of the authors and works discussed.

In the Foreword, Barzun explains that "As critics we had one trait in common: none of us applied a theory or system. Apart from this unifying mode, our tendencies and backgrounds differed widely, surely a desirable diversity for the purposes of the club." He goes on to point out that they were guided by "the principle of what Trilling was the first to call 'cultural criticism,' that is, criticism inspired by whatever is relevant to the work. Its genesis, form, and meaning have roots in the culture where it appears, and it is also unique through its author's own uniqueness. To us, none of this was new. We were cultural critics with no need of a doctrine, for the essence of culture is inclusiveness." In the Introduction, Krystal then provides a brief explanation of how and why the Club was founded, what happened throughout its eleven years and six months of existence, and what he views as its unique contributions. Auden, Barzun, and Trilling "were like those classical musicians who, upon leaving work at the symphony, head downtown to play jazz all night in a smoky club." No small part of the "pleasure they derived from playing together...lay in the knowledge that they were performing for a literate audience who had come expressly to hear them." This simile is apt.

Who will most enjoy reading this book? Certainly those who were once a member of either Club and have so many pleasant memories of their own associated with the monthly interaction with the three editors as well as with the subjects they discussed. But countless others, "non-members" if you will, who will also be intellectually stimulated while thoroughly enjoying the pleasure of the three editors' company. Jacques Barzun was right: "The essence of culture is inclusiveness."