Beth Blum traces how two genres influenced each other
The New York Public Library recently reported that Dale Carnegie’s 1936 bestseller, “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” was one of the library’s most requested books of all time. But despite the success of Carnegie and other self-help authors over the decades, scholars and literary authors often dismiss the genre as poorly written and commercial. By contrast, literature has historically been framed by self-improvement advocates as an unproductive distraction for readers seeking personal growth. In a new book, “The Self-Help Compulsion: Searching for Advice in Modern Literature,” Harvard Assistant Professor of English Beth Blum traces the historical relationship between “ambivalent shelf-fellows” of self-help and literature from the 19th century to the present, highlighting the different ways the two kinds of writing have influenced one another, and how readers have engaged with books as guides for becoming better people. Q&A Beth Blum GAZETTE: Why did you choose this topic? BLUM: The seeds of this project...