Not considered to be part of the cultural enterprise of book publishing

From A Golden Age of Books? There Were Only 500 Real Bookstores in 1931 by Alexis Madrigal.

I am a keen fan of maintaining perspecitive. It is too easy to lose sight of what factual realities were even a short while ago. Taking 1931 as a base year, here is what the book buying and reading environment looked like in the US (quoting a contemporaneous study).

"In the entire country, there were only some four thousand places where a book could be purchased, and most of these were gift shops and stationary stores that carried only a few popular novels," Davis writes. "In reality, there were but five hundred or so legitimate bookstores that warranted regular visits from publishers' salesmen (and in 1931 they were all men). Of these five hundred, most were refined, old-fashioned 'carriage trade' stores catering to an elite clientele in the nation's twelve largest cities."

Furthermore, two-thirds of American counties -- 66 percent! -- had exactly 0 bookstores. It was a relatively tiny business centered in the urban areas of the country. Did some great books come out back then? Of course! But they were aimed only at the tiny percentage of the country that was visible to publishers of the time: sophisticated urban elites. It wasn't that people couldn't read; by 1940, UNESCO estimated that 95 percent of adults in America were literate. No, it's just that the vast majority of adults were not considered to be part of the cultural enterprise of book publishing. People read stuff (the paper, the Bible, comic books), just not what the publishers were putting out.

I get somewhat exercised about the statistic that 10% of the population does 80% of the reading, 40% read 20% of the books and 50% of the population reads no books electively in a year. In an intellectually open and connected world, those numbers seem an affront. However, just seventy years ago, perhaps only 5% of the popualtion was reading 90% of books consumed. It is always worth remembering, no matter where we want to get to, where we are starting from.