A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books

By: Alex Beam

Running Press Book Publishers / 2009 / Paperback

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Product Description

Fifty-four faux-leather volumes contained within them 443 works by 74 authors. They were marketed and sold as the books that could make you cultured, that could give you a liberal arts education-even with dense double-column formatting, poor translations, no footnotes, and lack of authorial diversity. This wittily-written story of the men who came up with and sold this set to thousands of households across the country is a fascinating tale of American drive, hucksterism, and naive pride. 245 pages, softcover.

Product Information

Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 256
Vendor: Running Press Book Publishers
Publication Date: 2009

Dimensions: 8.30 X 5.50 (inches)
ISBN: 1586487760
ISBN-13: 9781586487768
Availability: In Stock

Author Bio

Alex Beam is an award-winning columnist for the Boston Globe. His writing has also appeared in the Atlantic, Slate, the New York Times and many other magazines. The author of Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America’s Premier Mental Hospital, and of two novels, he lives in Boston.