Daily Transan
Kansas Union Book Store
Paperback Edition
Wednesday, March 6, 1963
FOR ALL KINDS OF READERS-This random assemblage of recent paperback titles, with everything from Laurence Sterne to a 1962 best-seller, illustrates the diversity of the paperback field, which has soared to such prominence that today it even controls the entire publishing industry.
Gunn Proves With Science Fiction He Practices What He Preaches
By Linda Machin
George Bernard Shaw certainly didn't have James Gunn in mind when he said: "Those who can, do, those who can't, teach."
Gunn, instructor of English and administrative assistant to the Chancellor for University Relations, has put his knowledge of English to profitable use. He has written 50 stories, three novels, plays, radio scripts—nearly all science fiction.
Though no longer a full-time free lance writer, Gunn still finds time to write—his latest work being a screen play, "The Reluctant Witch," a fantasy based on one of his short novels.
Gunn, a tallish man, wearing a dark blue suit, the coat opened casually, said he expected the screen play to be filmed later this year by a local film company.
Gunn's five books, all science fiction, the latest published in 1932, have sold between 500-600,000 paperback copies.
"After my first two books, which were hardbacks, I found that it's much more profitable for me as a
Leaning back on the two hind legs of his chair, and propping his foot on the table, he explained that the writer must share half the royalties with the hardback publisher if his books are first printed as hardbacks, then later reprinted in paperbacks.
science fiction writer to 'sell to paperback publishers."
However, he added, leaning forward and gesturing broadly with both hands that the market for science fiction in paperbacks has increased, while science fiction in magazines has "gone into a slump in the last ten years."
"Because of the limited market for mysteries, westerns and science fiction, a writer in those fields is more assured of the cheaper paperback publication."
He attributed the slump in magazine science fiction to the bad impression created from the covers of the magazines. "The lurid covers with bright yellow backgrounds and bug-eyed monsters had no relationship to the content."
He added that there are almost no good science fiction movies today and pointed out a distinction between monster movies and real science fiction.
Monster movies, he said, are intended for the child-like mind and are largely fantasy. Good science fiction, on the other hand, is aimed toward the mature adult, or sometimes the high school student who is discovering, for the first time, new concepts in science.
People sometimes limited their writing to spaceships and astronauts, Gunn said, but space is only one large phase. Science fiction involves scientific progress in biology, psychology, sociology and their impact on man.
"Good science fiction," he said, "is serious speculation about the nature of man and life centered around scientific progress."
"Science fiction is the only literature pertinent to life today. It incorporates our ideas, reflects the themes of our times, and points out problems that man must solve.
For instance, "The Immortals" (Gunn's latest book), tackles the problem of immortality, he said.
Paperback Boom Paces Publishing
By Trudy Meserve
If paperback sales should sneeze, the entire book industry would catch pneumonia.
Book companies are publishing about 5,000 different paperbacks every year. "Paper Bound Books In Print" listed 19,500 reprints and originals last summer, with 1,700 new paperbacks added during the summer.
The success of the paperback boom is based on the traditional profit motive. Both the Harvard professor and the milkman in St. Louis want quality at low cost.
Lots want the demand, book publishers have swarmed into the paperback field. Readers have absorbed millions of copies of the handsomely bound volumes.
And the revolution is a solid hit on campuses. Paperbacks have made booksellers out of college bookstores — notorious for selling only required hard bound textbooks and the usual line of sweatshirts, stationery and mugs emblazoned with the school emblem.
In the past 10 years, college bookstores have arranged and rearranged their wares to make room for quality paperbacks.
The Kansas Union Book Store reflects the nationwide trend.
James H. Stoner, manager of the union bookstore, said:
"About a year ago we revamped our book display area and expanded our selection of paperbacks. But still we are cramming paperbacks on the shelves with only the spines visible."
Though the book display may be imperfect, it has not affected paperback sales.
Since the display change, paperback sales at the Union have climbed $2^{1/2}$ per cent. Stoner said students and faculty bought $80,000 worth of paperbacks in the last fiscal year.
Paperbacks required for classroom work account for a sizable amount of the sales. Some professors have eliminated hardbound texts in favor of several paperbacks. Other courses use a hardbound text and paperbacks for supplementary reading.
The KU Western Civilization program is based entirely on reprint and original paperbacks. For about $13 a semester, a student may buy nine books, from John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty" to Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World Revisited."
The books are useful not only during the two-semester course, but make handsome additions to a student's private library.
Even though the students may obtain the books from Watson Library, many students prefer to own their own books—especially when the books are reasonably priced paperbacks.
A glimpse at the shelves which hold reading materials for English courses shows that this department also engages on paperback books. For about 65 cents, the student of English may purchase Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" and, for $1.15, Defoe's "Moll Flanders." Contemporary authors familiar to English classes are Eugene O'Neill, Henrik Ibsen, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway and Henry Miller.
Text and supplementary text sales are impressive, but the union bookstore sells more paperbacks for the leisurely reader.
Stoner, manager of the KU bookstore, said sale of paperbacks is at its "height" before vacations, especially summer, and when students sell their texts at the end of both semesters.
"Many students use some of their sale book money to buy paperbacks for leisure reading," he said.
Science fiction paperbacks are favorites with KU students. Ignatius Donnelly's "The Anteedluvian World" seems to be quite popular. Two other books available at the bookstore are Arthur Clarks' "Fall of Moondust" and Jack Vance's "Dying Earth."
Some of the collections and anthologies make excellent gifts or starters for a home library. One of the best collections is Milton Crane's "Fifty Great Short Stories." Students also may enjoy the anthologies and collections of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ambrose Bierce, Charles Dickens, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville and D. H. Lawrence.
The reader who enjoys drama will find a gold mine of paperbacks. From medieval plays and Shakespeare to screen and television plays and Tennessee Williams, the selection is complete.
Once available only in expensive hard bound volumes, students may buy Plate's "The Republic," Milton's "Paradise Lost," Max Lerner's "America as a Civilization" and William L. Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" in low-priced paperback volumes. Ernest Jones' "The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud" is a worthwhile addition to any private library.
For lovers of poetry, paperback issues of "Beowulf," Dante's "The Inferno," T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land and Other Poems," and Edgar Lee Masters' "Spoon River Anthology" are interesting selections.
Commentaries on world affairs provide both leisure reading and background information on current affairs. President Kennedy's "Strategy of Peace," Howard K. Smith's "Last Train from Berlin," and Edward Stein's "Cuba, Castro and Communism" are all available in paperbacks.
Whether it's psychology or art, criticism or adventure, it is at the union bookstore. And more important, it's probably issued in paperback.
Hemingway Still Popular Writer
the novels of Ernest Hemingway, always popular, have taken on new status since the novelist's death. Several of them are in paperback, including:
"A Farewell to Arms," the celebrated story of an American ambulance driver and an English nurse in Italy in World War I
"For Whom the Bell Tolls," the author's description of how one American identified himself with the cause of anti-fascism in the Spanish Civil War.
"Green Hills of Arrica," hunting and literary reflections.
"In Our Time" and "The Snows of Kilmanjaro and Other Stories," some of the author's best short stories.