(wood-)pulp literature (1928-29)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Fri, 6 May 2005 21:32:14 -0400, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:

>-----
>1908 _Washington Post_ 26 Jan. R8/3 There appear in the magazines three
>or four stories each month which, years ago, would have attracted wide
>attention. In those days, when there was not so much writing they would
>have been considered almost as marking an era in literature. But now they
>are hidden -- buried nearly -- by the great mass of material which is
>produced -- wood pulp literature I call it.
>[quoting Edmund Clarence Stedman]
>-----
>
>Even if Stedman coined the term "wood pulp literature", I would still
>conjecture that the shortening to "pulp" and the proliferation of
>combining forms can be ascribed to the popularity of Robinson's 1928
>_Bookman_ article.

More from The Bookman... a "wood-pulp" variant predating Stedman's quote:

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1906 _Bookman_ 23(4) June 447/1 So they go, filling the visible world with
reading matter that sells and is faithfully consumed by millions who never
look into a real book or encounter a real article but feed contentedly
upon this modern wood-pulp of literature.
-----

And a "pulp" variant predating the Robinson article:

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1925 _Bookman_ Apr. 61(2) 160/2 Consequently, there is an ever present
temptation to progress easily from situation to situation -- "shot to
shot" in studio terminology -- after the manner of a pulp paper magazine
melodrama.
-----


--Ben Zimmer