Oral History: Publisher Harry Abrams

This Paul Cummings' interview with book publisher Harry Abrams relates to my thesis in various ways, although Abrams was in the book publishing, not magazine industry and worked during the depression of the 1930s. Still, he found himself working in the related fields of book advertising and production. In this oral account, Abrams describes his involvement in the mail order process, advertising the book before publishing, and handling layout -- all aspects that pertain to magazines as well.

Below are excerpts form the interview that are most pertinent to my thesis. Below that is a link to the full oral account, which I found through one of the links Professor Delmont sent us.

PAUL CUMMINGS: Where did you get interested in book design and production?

HARRY N. ABRAMS: When I left the Art Students League I got a job with an art service
(Rice Studios) where Albert Dome worked. He was the man who later organized Famous Artists Schools. He was about three or five years older than I and was a top illustrator in his early twenties. I was running the errands there, and working in an art service made me more aware of the advertising agency. I felt I could never learn to become as good a commercial illustrator as Albert Dome —— and so I left and got a job with an advertising agency.

PAUL CUMMINGS: What year was that?

HARRY N. ABRAMS: I believe it was about 1928 or 1929. I was about twenty—three or twenty— four at the time. This agency prepared advertising for book publishers. It was the first year of the Depression and they had to fire a good part of their staff. I started with them at no salary at all, which for me was not a hardship because I earned enough money working as an “extra” in a shoe store on Saturdays and Sundays. After about a year or two when the advertising agency did start to pay me, I was running errands, handling production, doing layouts and helping Bob Beatty—the boss—with space buying. When he became too busy to see people he’d send them in to see me and I’d give Bob Beatty a written report of our conversation. So all of a sudden I found myself doing comparatively important work with a good and reputable advertising agency at the age of twenty—four, when, only a year before I had hardly known what an advertising agency was or how an advertising agency functioned. Some of our publishing accounts were Doubleday and Simon & Schuster. In addition to my other duties, I also handled the Simon & Schuster advertising. I think that I along with Richard Simon and Max Schuster was responsible for their advertising which was admired at the time. My function was to care for the layout and typography. Both Mr. Simon and Schuster wrote the copy and contributed the ideas.

HARRY N. ABRAMS: The mail order business was fascinating because all ads had coupons and the coupon response gave one an insight as to why people responded in greater or lesser number to different advertising appeals.

http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-harry-n-abrams-13015