Roundtable

Opinions and analysis from Lapham’s Quarterly writers and editors.

The Afterlives of Books

July 29, 2020

The Afterlives of Books

By Lapham’s Quarterly

What happens to books no one wants to read anymore?

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July 28, 2020

Circulating the Facts of Slavery

By Teresa A. Goddu

How the American Anti-Slavery Almanac became an influential best seller.

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How to Write a Best Seller

July 27, 2020

How to Write a Best Seller

By Lapham’s Quarterly

Advice from authors present and past.

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An advertisement for the Bookman. On a green background, a drawing of a fish reading a copy of the Bookman dangling from the hook on a fishing line.

July 27, 2020

The Power of Flawed Lists

By Elizabeth Della Zazzera

How The Bookman invented the best seller.

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Pamela Is Married, by Joseph Highmore, c. 1743.

July 24, 2020

The First Best Seller

By Pamela Regis

On Samuel Richardson’s Pamela and the prehistory of the romance novel.

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July 24, 2020

The Rest Is History

By Jaime Fuller

Nine-to-five, ancient bread, and very old butter.

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July 23, 2020

Married to the Momism

By Emily Harnett

Philip Wylie’s Generation of Vipers, revisited.

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The Slow-Burn Best Seller

July 23, 2020

The Slow-Burn Best Seller

By Lapham’s Quarterly

Books that took their time to find an audience.

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Cover of Lady Rose’s Daughter by Mary Augusta Ward

July 22, 2020

Forgotten Best Sellers

By Lapham’s Quarterly

Lapham’s Quarterly explores the history of the best seller.

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From Déja Vu

August 07, 2023

Monumental Mistakes

2023:

Fitness instructor carves his girlfriend’s name into the Colosseum.

c. 1850:

Thompson of Sunderland makes his mark on Pompey’s pillar.

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May 22, 2023

Revolutionary Lovebirds

2023:

Writers on strike search for romance at the picket line.

c. 1945:

Young communists engage in party matchmaking.

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