Tuesday, September 29, 2009

American Humor Magazines book


I stumbled across this book while putting a search for humor magazines and was quite surprised that such a periodical existed. After tracking down the book's author David Sloane (a professor if I'm not mistaken, who has written other books) we exchanged lists of humor magazine titles.
I was able to order it from my local library who had to get it from elsewhere in the country. The book was published in '85 and at 683 pages has an immense listing of literally 100's of different humor magazines, from The Harvard Lampoon to MAD and everything in between. There is a detailed introduction and then in depth essays on the 100 most influential titles with shorter chapters dedicated to many others. The appendix also includes a complete listing. I feel the book is highly detailed and in depth from a researchable point of view and would therefore be a welcomed addition to most University libraries. I personally would have felt the entire book and its content would have been majorly enhanced if it had some visuals of different magazine covers, mascots, interior pages, anything really just to break up the text.
Still I would recommend it to the die hard humor magazine fan. I looked into purchasing it but it is very rare and has a $200 price tag last time I checked Amazon. Try your library.

No comments:

Post a Comment