"In post-World War I America - a world teeming with magazines, newspapers, radio broadcasts, and movies - many feared that the survival of traditional, serious books was in peril. This concern led to a publishing boom in fine editions - books valued primarily for their beauty, craftsmanship, extravagance, status, or scarcity. Beauty and the Book is a lively cultural history of the explosion in demand for these deluxe books during the 1920s and 1930s. Megan L. Benton argues that the clamor to own fine books reflected the anxieties and desires of those who mourned the rise of a modern mass culture. For them, such volumes not only affirmed a preindustrial ideal but also imparted social distinction and cultural superiority."--BOOK JACKET.