Billy Parrott, an NYPL librarian, has a fabulous post about what Sally Draper would have been reading in 1964-65. I have to agree with the commenters who suggested Marjorie Morningstar, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (two of my favorites!), Peyton Place, and the works of e.e. cummings and Rachel Carson.
Today Betsy Bird has a follow-up post with a challenge to identify what Sally is actually reading in photographic stills from the Mad Men TV Show.
Go, check them both out and add your thoughts!
I enjoyed your links and all the commenter's ideas. Two books that came to my mind were 'Catcher in the Rye' which might have piqued her curiosity by 1964 (especially if it were on her parent's bookshelf) and the British author, Rumer Godden's novels. Rumer wrote some of the best teen fiction around in the 50's and 60's and The Greengage Summer (called The Loss of Innocence in the US) was made into a movie in 1961.
ReplyDeleteAND, I wonder if she would've discovered Daphne du Maurier by then? I remember hoovering up her novels as a young teen even though they were written decades earlier. 'Rebecca', 'Jamaica Inn' and Maurier's short stories, 'The Birds' and 'Don't Look Now' still rank as a few of my all time favorites. Hitchcock had made the movies by 1964, too.
Thanks for getting me to reminisce! Some older fiction has really stood the test of time.
These are great ideas, too! I only know Rumer Godden from her books about dolls for a slightly younger audience but you are the second person to mention her teen fiction to me - I'll have to check it out. And I love du Maurier's Rebecca!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing these links - I so enjoyed reading all the comments on Parrot's post. I especially agree with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. In one of his replies, he mentions how interesting it would be to see a 7th grade reading list from then, and wow - wouldn't it be?
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I read Marjorie Morningstar much earlier than 64. Ditto for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Peyton Place was written in the fifties and I never wanted to read it. My third father was one of those Mad Men and we lived in the model for Peyton Place.
ReplyDeleteI think she would have been reading Candy by Terry Southern and Happiness Is a Dry Martini - Johnny Carson
Here are some best sellers from 64:
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John Le Carrre
Candy - Terry Southern, Mason Hoffenberg
Herzog - Saul Bellow
Armageddon - Leon Uris
The Man - Irving Wallace
The Rector of Justin - Louis Auchincloss
The Martyred - Richard E. Kim
You Only Live Twice - Ian Fleming
and from 1965"
tion Best Sellers
The Source - James A. Michener
Up the Down Staircase - Bel Kaufman
Herzog - Saul Bellow
The Green Berets - Robin Moore
Those Who Love - Irving Stone
The Man with the Golden Gun - Ian Fleming
Hotel - Arthur Haileyy
Nonfiction Best Sellers
How to Be a Jewish Mother - Dan Greenburg
A Gift of Prophecy - Ruth Montgomery
Games People Play - Eric Berne, M.D.
Word Aflame - Billy Graham
Happiness Is a Dry Martini - Johnny Carson
Markings - Dag Hammarskjold
My Shadow Ran Fast - Bill Sands
Kennedy - Theodore C. Sorenson
The Making of the President, 1964 - Theodore H. White