The Sunday New York Times was a fixture in the homes of most educated New Yorkers in 1946 and its Book Review was one of the most widely read sections. It was filled with ads from publishers as well as with reviews, columns and features. Started in 1896, The New York Times Book Review was considered middlebrow by many of the literarati and academics who claimed it reflected an inflated commercial sensability more than promoting the canon of high art.
The New York Times did cast a much wider net in the choice of books that it reviewed in 1946 than it does today. For instance, all of the books on the bestseller list in the April 14 issue had been reviewed by the Times, most of them in both the Sunday supplement and the daily book column, unlike today when few of the Times bestsellers are considered worthy of review. But the 1946 bestseller list was somewhat more "literary" than its present day counterpart. It did include a number of potboilers. The Times reviewers did not often like the potboilers, but the publication did not ignore them either.
The coveted page one position of the April 14 issue of the Book Review went to Delta Wedding, the first full-length novel by Eudora Welty, who would become one of the major literary figures of the second half of the century. Charles Poore, one of the two book columnists for the newspaper, heaped praise on this slice-of-life tale of a Mississippi family. The rest of the fiction reviewed this week has been long forgotten, although a few of the books were popular enough at the time to be made into movies. FICTION REVIEWS ►
More attention was paid in the Review this week to non-fiction than to the crop of mostly undistinguished novels. A significant percentage of the non-fiction titles reviewed are still in print today. Among the non-fiction books reviewed was journalist Robert Lasch's assessment and prescriptions for the nation's severe housing crisis, a pressing area of concern in the immediate postwar years, and two books on the Soviet Union, a wartime ally and increasingly a postwar rival. NON-FICTION REVIEWS ►
Regular Review sections included
A weekly column devoted to publishing news by John K. Hutchens, editor of the Book Review, see PEOPLE WHO READ AND WRITE ►
A round-up of the week's mystery and detective fiction, see CRIMINALS AT LARGE ►
The Bestseller Chart. See BESTSELLERS FICTION and BESTSELLERS NON-FICTION
Other regular features included "Treasure Chest," "Speaking of Books,""The Poets Corner." "Queries and Answers" and "Latest Books Received." For more on these sections see OTHER BOOK REVIEW FEATURES ►
A number of interesting books were advertised in the supplement, including future bestsellers, other titles that are familiar today as well as a number of oddities of the day. See THIS WEEK'S ADS ►