KCTOS: Knowledge, Creativity and
Transformations of Societies

Vienna, 6 to 9 December 2007

<<< Knowledge Production, Cultural Discourses and Media

 

Publishing in Wartime: Doubleday in WW I and II

Eva-Marie Kröller (University of British Columbia) [BIO]

Email: emk@mail.arts.ubc.ca

 


 

ABSTRACT:

In times of crisis, publishers may be called upon to contribute to the “national effort,” by making available their print media as purveyors of information and propaganda, entertainment of the military and other patriotic purposes, along with using diplomatic relationships initially developed to further their business. This paper proposes to look at Doubleday publishers Walter H. Page, F. N. .Doubleday, George Doran (both at the helm of his own publishing company and as Doubleday Partner), and Nelson Doubleday, with a special emphasis on their activities during WW I and II. Page was appointed Ambassador to the Court of St James by Woodrow Wilson in 1913 and was considered, at least by contemporaries, a major influence on Wilson in his decision to join the war: the Pulitzer-Prize winning edition of his letters (1922) bears witness to the enormous esteem in which Page was held. For his part, N. F. Doubleday collaborated with authors such as Rudyard Kipling to work towards US participation in the war; George Doran – in addition to consulting with the British War Ministry – closely tailored his list to needs arising from WW I, and Nelson Doubleday sheltered authors like Somerset Maugham on his estate. Some of the publishing practices developed under the duress of wartime provided incentives for future directions in the production of knowledge. In addition to publishers’ memoirs, the sources for this paper will be the Doubleday archives at Princeton and the Library of Congress.

 

KCTOS: Knowledge, Creativity and
Transformations of Societies

Vienna, 6 to 9 December 2007