Abstract/Summary

This article explores the previously unknown transatlantic dimensions to the operations and cultures of reading of the American BOMC and the British Book Society between 1929-49. These two book sales clubs were major distributors of new books to wide audiences through the mid-twentieth century, disrupting previous patterns of consumption, with a significant impact on book sales and global distribution. Drawing on extensive archival research, this essay shows how the clubs were part of a broader transatlantic print culture of distribution and reading. Using archival evidence of exchanges among authors, judges, publishers, and texts - as well as new quantitative data on book choices - it demonstrates how the BOMC and the Book Society were part of a transatlantic publishing ecosystem that shaped interwar and mid-twentieth century reading patterns across the Atlantic and wider Anglophone world. As such, it is the first research to offer a comparative, transatlantic examination of two major book distributors that revolutionised how we read and think about books.