The first successful mass-market paperback.

In the early 1800's, the paper-making machine, originally invented in France, found its way into the United States via England, the cost of paper declined, and the stage was set for serious attempts to sell paper-only books.

Many historians accept The American Library of Vital Knowledge, a collection of books on self-improvement subjects such as husbandry and carpentry, as the forerunner of the modern paperback in the United States; however, the point is debatable, largely because the books in the series had soft cloth covers. Their claim lies primarily with their size. At 4x6 they were the approximate size of today's mass produced paperbacks.

That same year, Carey's Library of Choice Literature offered the public reprints of English novels one chapter per week. The chapters were distributed to subscribers by mail, bound in paper, sold for ten cents each, were about the size of modern paperbacks, but consisting of only one chapter, they can hardly be considered "books". Nonetheless, the United States Post Office ruled they were books, charged a higher rate, and killed the Library in its tracks./P>

Taking note of Carey's experiment, two entreprenaurs, Park Benjamin and Rufus Griswold, decided there might be a growing market for books sold by mail. Several factors were contributing to this new market, the rise in general if limited educations and the spread of populations westward into rural areas without access to regular book-stores. Shipping weight became factor, and here boardless books had an advantage. But the Post Office had already ruled that paperbound books had to be shipped in the same category as hardback books. So, to skirt the Postal System, Benjamin printed his books in large quarto or newspaper format, and convinced the postal authorities they were newspaper matter. They launched "Brother Jonathan", a newspaper of weekly installments of a particular English novel. Usually 24-48 pages, they sold for 12 and a half cents.

Benjamin reasoned they needed 5,000 regular subscripers to survive. By the end of the first month they had over 30,000 subscribers. They offered works by Dickens, Bulwer, Marryat, and others. Of course, foreign authors were chosen because Benjamin did not have to pay royalties, a practice largely dictated by ethics rather than law.

Their astonishing success immediately spawned imitators, and the so-called "Paperback Revolution" was soon in full force. Men with more money moved in, such as Benjamin Day, owner of the New York Sun, who quickly acquired Brother Jonathan and fired Benjamin and Griswold.

The two men contacted the famous Horace Greeley of Sun's rival Tribune, and with Greeley's help launched New World. The paper books each carried a motto on the masthead: "The greatest good to the greatest number".

The competition proved beneficial to American authors. As the two publishers competed they sought new writers with appeal to their audience, the folks in the rural and backwoods area. Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Fenimore Cooper, and Edgar Allan Poe are among those whose work appeared in these over-sized paper bound series.

In June, 1840, Benjamin took the next step in the competition when he issued a full length novel. Charles O'Malley is, technically speaking, the first paperbound full-length novel published in America. Again, Benjamin proved the midas touch; he received over 15,000 orders.

Day, at the Sun, followed Benjamin, but evidently unsure what the people wanted in a full-length novel, issued the same title. He sold some 10,000 copies, so historians often combine the two and report that Charles O'Malley sold 25,000 copies.

That total, in less than a month, was staggering. Others lept in. The New York Mirror offered full-length novels as extras mailed inside their newspaper. The Boston Nation, the Philadelphia Public Ledger, and other papers followed. Harper's magazine got into the game by offering subscribers Bulwer's "Zanoni" in paper binding.

The furious competition forced Park Benjamin to lower the price of his books and to find new ways of lowering production costs. Shrinking the size of the books was the obvious answer. As the books got smaller, they got thicker with more pages and looked more and more like ordinary board books.

Regular book publishers, alarmed by the obvious threat to the traditional book, appealed to Congress for legislation to outlaw paperbound books. They were joined by preachers and citizens concerned with the ever more sensational content.

In 1843 Congress responded by increasing postal rates for all publications with book inserts and for paperbound books.

Brother Jonathan, New World, and all the imitators were driven out of business within the year.

They literally vanished, and so did this first Paperback Revolution.