The authors gratefully acknowledge permission to use, in chapter 6, excerpts from Beulah W.
Hagen's Oral History, Oral History Research Office, Columbia University, 1976; and infor-
mation provided by Elizabeth Geiser in an interview with Michele Caplette in May 1978.

Excerpts from Publishers Weekly reprinted by permission from R. R. Bowker Com-
pany, a Xerox company. Copyright © by Xerox Corporation.

Portions of the manuscript draw upon the following previously published articles:

Lewis A. Coser, "Publishers as Gatekeepers of Ideas," Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science, vol. 421, September 1975, pp. 14-22; "Asymmetries in Au-
thor-Publisher Relations," Society 17 (1 [November/December 1979]), pp. 34-37; "The
Private and Public Responsibilities of the American Publisher," 4 April 1979, Library of
Congress seminar reprinted in John Y. Cole, Responsibilities of the American Book Com-
munity (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress), pp. 14-19.

Charles Kadushin, "Managed Texts: Prose and Qualms," Change, March 1979, pp. 30-35,
64.

Walter W. Powell, "Publisher's Decision-Making: What Criteria Do They Use in Deciding
Which Books to Publish?" Social Research 45 (2 [summer 1978]), pp. 227-52; "The
Blockbuster Decade: The Media as Big Business," Working Papers for a New Society,
July/August 1979, pp. 26-36; "Control and Conflict in Publishing," Society 17 (I [No-
vember/December 1979]), pp. 48-54; "Competition versus Concentration in the Book
Trade," Journal of Communication 30 (2 [spring 1980]), pp. 89-97.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Coser, Lewis A., 1913—

Books : the culture and commerce of publishing.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

I. Publishers and publishing—United States. 2. Books
industries and trade—United States. I. Kadushin, Charles.
II. Powell, Walter W.

Z47I.C69 070.5'0973 81-66100

ISBN 0-465-00745-7 AACR2

Copyright © 1982 by Basic Books, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
DESIGNED BY VINCENT TORRE
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