‘Not to everybody's palate’: Advertising Proust and More Pricks Than Kicks

Abstract

This essay analyses the marketing of Beckett's first two commercially published books, Proust and More Pricks than Kicks, through an examination of the advertising records held in the archives of Chatto & Windus. It establishes the context in which the firm advertised the books in newspapers and literary periodicals by outlining contemporary attitudes towards the marketing of literature and the increased expenditure on book advertising by publishers in the 1930s. Proust is discussed within the context of the exposure afforded to other titles in the Dolphin Books series, while the unusual campaign mounted for More Pricks is assessed in light of Chatto's efforts to find a new way of announcing its list in what was an increasingly competitive environment. The essay assesses the location of the advertisements and their associated costs in order to draw conclusions about Beckett's position in the ‘literary field’ of the time.