Books & Writers

In the 1930s the federal government put writers on the payroll. It was a Depression relief program, and it produced some of the most useful books ever written about the United States.

The Federal Writers' Project was part of the Works Progress Administration, better known as the WPA. From 1935 until the early 1940s it hired thousands of out-of-work writers, teachers, librarians and researchers. Their best-known product was the American Guide Series, a guidebook for every state and many cities, full of local history, folklore, driving tours and the kind of detail nobody had bothered to write down. The project also recorded interviews with people who had been born into slavery, a record that would otherwise have been lost within a few years. Some of the writers on the project went on to fame. Others never published again. All of them were paid a modest weekly wage to look closely at the country.

The WPA also had an art program, and its poster artists turned out silkscreen posters by the thousands. Many of them promoted reading, library use, book weeks and adult education classes. They are bold and simple, made with flat colors that could be printed cheaply by hand, and they have become some of the most recognizable images of the decade.

Beyond the WPA, a collection on books and writers tends to hold author portraits, many of them made by the same studios that photographed politicians and actors. Photographers like Mathew Brady sat writers as well as generals, and by the end of the 19th century a famous author's face was sold on cabinet cards like any celebrity's. There are also book illustrations, publishers' posters and images of people reading.

The thing worth noticing in the author portraits is how carefully the setting was chosen. Writers were often posed with a book, a pen or a desk, and the props were part of the message. A portrait was meant to say what kind of writer this was before anyone read a line.