There’s a lot going on in the news these days. The international twin hot spots in Ukraine and Gaza, the presidential campaign and related court cases in the United States, and the actions of the Virginia General Assembly as it closes in on the end of its 2024 session all vie for our attention. But one article in today’s paper caught my eye – the centennial of Simon & Schuster, one of the world’s largest and most influential publishers.
To mark the centennial, the publisher has unveiled a list of 100 notable releases – a blend of bestsellers, prize winners, headline makers, and cultural sensations. The Gazette article didn’t provide a link to the list itself, but it wasn’t hard to find. Here’s a link if you want to take a look. https://www.simonandschuster.com/p/simon-and-schuster-100th-anniversary-titles
The Gazette article talks about the “lively” discussions that took place within the committee charged with selecting the volumes for the list. The committee was given some ground rules – no author could be included twice, and books no longer available through Simon & Schuster were left off.
The first book published by Simon & Schuster – and the item at the beginning of the list – was The Cross Word Puzzle Book. The story of how this came to be published reveals a modern twist. As Wikipedia tells us, in 1924, Richard Simon's aunt, a crossword puzzle enthusiast, asked whether there was a book of New York World crossword puzzles, which were very popular at the time. After discovering that none had been published, Simon and Max Schuster decided to launch a company to exploit the opportunity. At the time, Simon was a piano salesman and Schuster was editor of an automotive trade magazine. They pooled US$8,000, equivalent to $137,000 today, to start a company that published crossword puzzles. The twist is that Richard Simon was the father of singer-songwriter Carly Simon
You should take a look at the entire list because it reveals a lot about the changing culture of the past century. But here are some of the books that made the cut to be included in this list:
From the 1920s and 1930s (in addition to the crossword puzzle book): F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.
From the 1940s and 1950s: Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care (I bet you owned a copy), Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country, and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (if you haven’t read this one for a long time, you should take a look at it – it’s theme is book-burning.).
From the 1960s: Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and William Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
From the 1970s: Woodward and Bernstein’s All the President’s Men, Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, and Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
From the 1980s: Thomas Keneally’s Schindler’s List and Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove.
From the 1990s: Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, Hillary Clinton’s It Takes a Village, and Stephen E. Ambrose’s Band of Brothers.
From the 2000s: Diane McWhorter’s Carry Me Home and Jimmy Carter’s An Hour Before Daylight. (I didn’t know much about the books from this time. I’m not sure why.)
2010-present: Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See and Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run.
Since I’m very good at creating reading plans, I’m going to try to read this entire list in the next year. I’m not as good with following through on these plans, so I may not accomplish this. But while I’m trying, I’ll probably encounter some books I didn’t know about before.
Interesting list. I think I have read at least 26 of those listed. Some sound so familiar (The Emperor of All Maladies) that I'm not sure, and some I really need to read.
Karen, an excellent plan. It’s funny, but I decided to do the very same thing as I was reading your essay. I’ve enjoyed reading your Monday and Tuesday essays, too. I don’t always respond, but please know I am keeping track of you!! Enjoy your day! 😎