The Time Reading Program

Started around 1962, this series from Time, Inc. republished nearly 100 titles, mostly from the 20th Century, each with original cover art and an introduction by well-known writers such as John Hersey, Frank O’Connor, and Harold Nicolson or the author himself (Loren Eisley, Vladimir Nabokov). Although classed as paperbacks, the books were, in fact, plastic-backs, bound in stiff plastic covers with distinctive wrap-around artwork. The books were originally sold through mail-order or given away as promotions to Time magazine subscribers. Although some of its titles (Walden, 1984, Brave New World, and others that have been omitted from the list below) are anything but neglected, the program included a number of the most often-recommended neglected books (Eastern Exposures, Richer By Asia, Delilah).

• The American Character, D.W. Brogan
• The American Presidency, Clinton Rossiter
• Apes, Angels, and Victorians, William Irvine
• Attending Marvels: a Patagonian Journal, George Gaylord Simpson
• The Beast of the Haitian Hills, Philippe Thoby-Marcelin & Pierre Marcelin
• The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder
• Bring Out Your Dead:The Great Plague of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in 1793, J.H. Powell
• Christ Stopped at Eboli, Carlo Levi
• Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee
• The Crime of Galileo, Giorgio de Santillana
• Cross Creek, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
• The Decline of Pleasure, Walter Kerr
• Delilah, Marcus Goodrich
• The Devils in Massachussetts: A Modern Inquiry Into the Salem Witch Trials, Marion L. Starkey
• Disraeli, Andre Maurois
• Doctor and the Devils, Dylan Thomas
• Eastern Approaches, Fitzroy Maclean
• Elizabeth the Great, Elizabeth Jenkins
• Fancies and Goodnights, John Collier
• The Financial Expert, R.K. Narayan
• The Forest and the Sea, Marston Bates
• A High Wind in Jamaica, Richard Hughes
• In Flanders Field: the 1917 Campaign, Leon Wolff
• In Hazard, Richard Hughes
• Kabloona, Gontran De Poncins
• Karl Marx: His Lift and Environment, Isaiah Berlin
• The Late George Apley, John P. Marquand
• Lions, Harts, Leaping Does and Other Stories, J.F. Powers
• Logbook for Grace: Whaling Brig Daisy, 1912-1913, Robert Cushman Murphy
• The Lost Weekend, Charles Jackson
• The Man of the Renaissance, Ralph Roeder
• Mistress to an Age: a Life of Madame de Stael, Christopher Herrold
• Naked to Mine Enemies: the life of Cardinal Wolsey, Charles W. Ferguson
• Napoleon’s Russian Campaign, Philippe, Count de Segur
• Notre Dame of Paris, Allan Temko
• The Reason Why, Cecil Woodham Smith
• Reveille in Washington: 1860-1865, Margaret Leech
• Richer by Asia, Edmund Fuller
• The River and the Gauntlet, S.L.A.Marshall
• The Roots of Heaven, Romain Gary
• Saints and Strangers, George Willison
• The Sea and the Jungle, H.M. Tomlinson
• The Sea of Grass, Conrad Richter
• Stalingrad, Theodore Plevier
• The Story of Philosophy, Will Durant
• Three Who Made a Revolution, Bertram D. Wolfe
• The Trial of Doctor Adams, Sybille Bedford
• The True Believer, Eric Hoffer
• The Universe and Dr. Einstein, Lincoln Kinnear Barnett
• The Voice at the Back Door, Elizabeth Spencer
• When the Cheering Stopped, Gene Smith
• Wind, Sand, and Stars, Antoine de Saint Exupery