A hundred years ago, headlines in the Book Review did not mince words.
From its very first issue in October 1896, the Book Review liked to deliver blunt edicts — and, as you’ll see, even blunter headlines. An 1898 review of George Bernard Shaw’s collected plays asserted that “he has not a touch of the poetical in his composition, and the critic and satirist who is not a bit of a poet cannot reasonably hope to win wide renown as a dramatist.” In 1907, Theodore Dreiser’s “Sister Carrie” was dismissed as “a book one can very well get along without reading,” and in 1908, L.M. Montgomery’s “Anne of Green Gables” was panned because the main character “greatly marred a story that had in it quaint and charming possibilities.”
These reviews all had one thing in common: They weren’t signed, which led — no surprise! — to an abundance of potshots. In fact, it wasn’t until 1924 that the Book Review decreed all reviews had to have bylines.
February 25, 1912
March 10, 1900
June 14, 1902
March 14, 1908
December 3, 1904
October 3, 1908
July 20, 1907
September 19, 1908
May 25, 1907
March 14, 1908
June 15, 1913
September 28, 1907
June 14, 1902
February 22, 1908
May 14, 1911
May 5, 1912
Tina Jordan is the deputy editor of the Book Review and co-author of “The New York Times Book Review: 125 Years of Literary History,” which will be published in the fall.
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When the Book Review Went Really Harsh - The New York Times
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