Description
Book SynopsisThe history of a short-lived professional writers' organization.
Trade Review...by rescuing the AAA from obscurity and exploring its significance, Fine has performed a useful service for scholars interested in writers and books in modern America. * Journal of American History *
Begun as a movement to assure American writers of their rights to their own intellectual properties, the American Authors' Authority disintegrated after charges that it was a Communist plot. . . Fine has written a reliable, immensely detailed account of how James M. Cain became point man for the movement, and how it polarized writers—all writers in the country—into a New York versus California dichotomy that is a useful index to American culture of the time. * Choice *
Table of Contents
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part 1. The Profession of Authorship
- 1. The Origins of the Profession of Authorship
- 2. James M. Cain and the Literary Marketplace
- 3. Writers Organize (1883–1946)
- Part 2. The American Authors’ Authority
- 4. The Genesis of the American Authors’ Authority (January 1945–July 1946)
- 5. A War of Words (August–October 1946)
- 6. The Second AAA Plan (November 1946–April 1947)
- 7. The Muse and the Mug (May–June 1947)
- 8. The End of the AAA
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
