Literary Dollars & Social Sense shows common Americans apprehending the newly industrialized literary marketplace through their reading and gossiping, addressing it through their writing and editing, and serving it through their vending and distributing. Using diaries and letters, the Zborays uncover a neglected, yet pivotal moment in the history of modern mass-market publishing. 'Overall, this is a significant, highly readable, and exhaustively researched study of a particularly dynamic period in the history of American authorship.' - The Journal of American History