BOOKS & LITERATURE – 1900 - 1920

Between 1900 and 1910 the larger American newspapers changed to the four-column, tabloid style paper. During this time the newspaper industry was largely controlled by two competing business leaders , William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, These two men turned producing newspapers into a rivalry when they began adding special sections such as sports and cartoon strips. The Christian Science Monitor was founded in 1908 and quickly became a popular media reference of its time.
Many of the novelists produced 'happiness novels' because the women during this time period were the majority readers of fiction. Best selling authors produced many fine books we still enjoy; Jack London's Call of the Wild - Mary Johnson's To Have and T0 Hold, and Owen Wister's The Virginian were best sellers during this decade. Zane Grey, William Dean Howells, and Carl Sandberg were publishing extensively during this decade. As in other decades, books reflected the times in which people lived. Notable books covered topics like big business, urban problems, racism, women's issues and worker's problems.
Between 1910 and 1920 some people began to express their discontent with what was perceived as a materialistic society. Much of the literature of the time reflected this discontent. As an example: The Education of Henry Adams assailed the nation's failure to live up to its founders' ideals. Popular authors included Walter Lippman and John Dewey.

Other best sellers of the decade included The Secret Garden (Francis Hodgson Burnett), Sons and Lovers (D.H. Lawrence), Of Human Bondage (Somerset Maugham), Wild Fire (Zane Grey), Tarzan of the Apes (Edgar Rice Burroughs),
The number one fiction of 1919 was The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, which was later made into a movie. A single copy sold for $1.90 - industry insiders felt the public would never pay $2 for a book but were happy to be proved wrong! (Oh for the good old days!) Margaret Sanger became a controversial figure when she published information on birth control and women during this time.

References:
Maltby, R. (1989). In Maltby R. (Ed.), Passing paradeA history of popular culture in the twentieth century. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
Whitley, P. (2006). American cultural history the twentieth century. Retrieved November 15, 2007, 2007, from http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade00.html