Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:19:22 -0500
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Jean Webster's play /Daddy Long Legs /was publicized by public relations
pioneer Edward Bernays. I discovered when I researched an article on
book advertising for /A History of the Book in America/ that Bernays had
learned his book publicity techniques from his experience as a
theatrical promoter -- specifically in publicizing the play _Daddy Long
Legs_. He helped form college "Daddy Long Legs" societies for the
adoption and care of orphan children, and attracted newspapers to write
about those societies. This went on to become a common technique,
familiar now: The work became enmeshed with the issue it was in some
sense "about," making it difficult to talk of the issue without
reference to the play or book, while talk of the play or book became a
natural segue to the issue. The book, in other words, was not primarily
an artifact to be appreciated by knowledgeable readers for its literary
qualities, or even for the emotional experience the reader might hope to
have reading it, but rather as another source of information on a
subject on which up-to-date people ought to have an opinion. I believe
Bernays's publicity about the play mentioned Jean Webster's connection
to Mark Twain a good deal.
I have some references on this if anyone wants to follow up.
-- Ellen
--
Ellen Gruber Garvey, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of English, New Jersey City University
Author, /Writing with Scissors: American Scrapbooks from the Civil War
to the Harlem Renaissance
<http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/LiteratureEnglish/?view=usa&ci=9780199927692>/
Visit the Scrapbook History website <http://scrapbookhistory.wordpress.com/>
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