Copyright by Amy Louise Root 2010 The Dissertation Committee for Amy Louise Root certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Inventing the Borzoi: Alfred and Blanche Knopf and the Rhetoric of Prestige in Modern American Book Publishing, 1915–1929 Committee: ________________________________ Michael Winship, Supervisor ________________________________ Brian Bremen ________________________________ Diane Davis ________________________________ Linda Ferreira-Buckley ________________________________ Mark Smith Inventing the Borzoi: Alfred and Blanche Knopf and the Rhetoric of Prestige in Modern American Book Publishing, 1915–1929 by Amy Louise Root, B.A.; B.S.; M.F.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2010 In memory of my parents, Jesse and Gwen, with gratitude for their love of language and learning Acknowledgements I wish to acknowledge the generosity of my colleagues at Concordia University Texas, particularly Susan Stayton, a gracious mentor to so many; the Bibliographical Society of America and its New Scholars Program; Anne Lake Prescott, who provided unfettered access to notes and drafts of an unpublished Knopf history written by her husband, the late Peter Prescott; John Thornton, who is writing a comprehensive biography of Alfred and Blanche Knopf and kindly shared many findings with me; Nancy Kuhl and her colleagues at the Beinecke Library; Richard Oram and Patrice Fox at the Harry Ransom Center; G. Thomas Tanselle, a dedicated champion of scholarship in twentieth-century bibliography; and Michael Winship, whose devotion to the history of the printed word is a boon for all who are fortunate enough to study under his direction. In addition, I am lucky to have five sisters who pledged long ago to support me in all endeavors: Nikki Dowd, Paula Mara, Wendy Savage, Carolyn Daugherty, and Mary Virginia Dowdle. I am also grateful to Andrew Clements, the wise and patient architect who so beautifully renovated my life during my final year as a graduate student. v Inventing the Borzoi: Alfred and Blanche Knopf and the Rhetoric of Prestige in Modern American Book Publishing, 1915–1929 Amy Louise Root, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2010 Supervisor: Michael Winship Signified by an eye-catching wolfhound logo (the borzoi), the Alfred A. Knopf publishing company holds considerable prestige in the American book trade, having released works by twenty-one Nobel Prize winners, forty-nine Pulitzer Prize winners, and twenty-nine National Book Award winners to date. Founded in 1915, the firm developed a reputation for excellence in less than a decade, despite the fact that the husband-and- wife team at the helm—Alfred and Blanche Knopf—were young novices. At once a literary history and an analysis of a unique form of marketing rhetoric, Inventing the Borzoi traces the company‘s status to the early acquisition of books written by noteworthy European authors, the use of distinctive design and production elements that gave Borzoi books an artisanal appearance, and marketing messages that touted Alfred Knopf himself as a new arbiter of literary standards for an audience that comprised not only consumers but also literary agents, authors, critics, booksellers, and other members of the trade. vi Synthesizing bibliographical research with Kenneth Burke‘s theories of rhetoric and identity, this dissertation yields a multi-faceted account of the Knopf company‘s first fourteen years, culminating at the cusp of the Great Depression. Burke‘s notions of dramatism provide a useful means for exploring the Knopfs‘ performance of a distinctive literary role. This study extends Burkean principles to a medium through which much complex language is transmitted—the book-publishing machine—uniting the philosophies of the father of modern rhetorical studies with the early history of a publishing firm whose success was largely built on the mastery of rhetorical strategies. Each chapter in this study concludes with an interpretation of Knopf history as illuminated by the pentad of Burkean dramatism: act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose. The first comprehensive examination of the company‘s rapidly achieved stature, this study argues that the Borzoi identity was shaped not only by conventional marketing motivations but also became a consistent extension of the way Alfred and Blanche perceived themselves. vii Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter One, Acquired Tastes: The Literary Education of Alfred A. Knopf ..................................... 18 The Narratives of Alfred Knopf‘s Youth .............................................................................. 21 At Columbia and in Europe ................................................................................................... 26 Alfred Knopf‘s Introduction to Publishing and to Blanche Wolf ......................................... 48 The Company‘s Cornerstones ............................................................................................... 63 Dramatism at Play ................................................................................................................. 75 Chapter Two, ―Books for Just a Few Intelligent People‖: The Evolution of the Borzoi List ............ 80 Blanche Knopf Enters the Publishing Business .................................................................... 82 Acquiring Books from Abroad .............................................................................................. 86 The London Office ................................................................................................................ 109 Producing American Literature ............................................................................................. 115 Exoticism and the Symbolic Role of Transatlantic Connections .......................................... 123 Selling to Scholars ................................................................................................................. 134 The Investors ......................................................................................................................... 141 Performing Prestige on the Transatlantic Literary Stage ....................................................... 144 Chapter Three, Distinctive by Design: Knopf and the Promotion of Production ............................... 150 Costumes and Commerce ...................................................................................................... 168 Chapter Four, Knopf in the Marketplace: Building the Borzoi Brand ............................................... 174 Knopf and the Bookselling Community ................................................................................ 175 Capitalizing on Modern Media .............................................................................................. 189 Scripting the Scene Through Marketing................................................................................ 229 Chapter Five, ―This Is a Borzoi Book‖: The Legacies of Prestige ..................................................... 233 Works Cited ........................................................................................................................................ 241 Vita ..................................................................................................................................................... 250 viii Introduction ―BORZOI BOOKS ARE BOOKS DE LUXE! In the refinement of the format—in the stability of the binding—in fact, in all those things that make a book worth while—its intellectual appeal, its ornamental appeal, and its appeal as a desirable permanent possession, Borzoi Books are Books de Luxe, equally a delight to the mind and an addition to the home!‖ 1 —1923 NEW YORK TIMES ADVERTISEMENT The Alfred A. Knopf publishing company holds high status in the American book trade, having released works by twenty-one Nobel Prize winners (including Thomas Mann, Sigrid Undset, Albert Camus, and Gabriel García Márquez), forty-nine Pulitzer Prize winners, and twenty-nine National Book Award winners to date. Knopf books easily can be identified on store shelves because of the company‘s eye-catching logo, which depicts a leaping Russian wolfhound, the borzoi. Founded in 1915, the firm and its Borzoi Books developed a reputation for excellence in less than a decade, establishing a legacy whose endurance was demonstrated as recently as 2008, when the New York Times Book Review published its annual list of the ten best books of the year. Seven of those titles were published by Knopf.2 Although Borzoi Books have maintained a consistently prestigious image, the firm‘s early history is marked by intriguing contradictions.3 At the heart of the narrative is the image a garrulous, flamboyantly dressed, twenty-two-year-old Columbia graduate 1 Fletcher, Frank Irving. The Meaning of Borzoi: A Series of Advertisements and a Preface. Promotional Booklet. New York: Knopf, 1923. AAKI Series II: Alfred A. Knopf, Personal, 563:2, HRC. 2 ―The 10 Best Books of 2008,‖ New York Times Book Review, 14 December 2008, BR9. ProQuest Historical Newspapers Online Database (PHN). 3 Though the term ―Borzoi Books‖ implies a subcategory, series, or imprint