Joy Street (novel)

Last updated
Joy Street
Joy Street (novel).jpg
First edition
Author Frances Parkinson Keyes
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
Publisher Julian Messner (US) / Eyre and Spottiswoode (UK) [1]
Publication date
December 1, 1950
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages490 pp

Joy Street is a 1950 novel by Frances Parkinson Keyes. Despite only being released on December 1, 1950, it was ranked as the second best-selling novel in the United States for 1950. [2] Over two million copies were in print by the mid-1950s. [3] [4] [5] It also topped the New York Times Best Seller list for eight weeks in 1951.

The novel is set in Boston and explores a married couple facing the elitist expectations and norms of Boston society. Kirkus Reviews described it as a "meticulously caparisoned romantic novel." [6] William Darby's 1987 review of the popular literature of the 1950s describes the novel as "a characteristic woman's novel", which "unfolds at an excruciating pace." [7]

The novel was also serialized in Good Housekeeping magazine in November and December 1950. [8]

Major characters

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paperback</span> Book with a paper or paperboard cover

A paperback book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardback (hardcover) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, leather, paper, or plastic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Greene Balch</span> American economist, academic, and Nobel Laureate

Emily Greene Balch was an American economist, sociologist and pacifist. Balch combined an academic career at Wellesley College with a long-standing interest in social issues such as poverty, child labor, and immigration, as well as settlement work to uplift poor immigrants and reduce juvenile delinquency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Brahmin</span> Upper class Bostonians

The Boston Brahmins or Boston elite are members of Boston's historic upper class. They are often associated with a cultivated New England or Mid-Atlantic dialect and accent, Harvard University, Anglicanism, and traditional British American customs and clothing. Descendants of the earliest English colonists are typically considered to be the most representative of the Boston Brahmins. They are considered White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs).

<i>Clarissa Oakes</i> 1992 novel by Patrick OBrian

Clarissa Oakes is the fifteenth historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series by British author Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1992. The story is set during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Doyle (critic)</span> Canadian writer

John Doyle is a Canadian writer who is a television critic at The Globe and Mail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fawcett Publications</span> American publishing company founded in 1919

Fawcett Publications was an American publishing company founded in 1919 in Robbinsdale, Minnesota by Wilford Hamilton "Captain Billy" Fawcett (1885–1940).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Sherman Hoar</span> Politician and writer

Roger Sherman Hoar was an American state senator and assistant Attorney General, for the state of Massachusetts. He wrote and published science fiction under the pseudonym of Ralph Milne Farley.

<i>The Bostonians</i> 1886 novel by Henry James

The Bostonians is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Century Magazine in 1885–1886 and then as a book in 1886. This bittersweet tragicomedy centres on an odd triangle of characters: Basil Ransom, a political conservative from Mississippi; Olive Chancellor, Ransom's cousin and a Boston feminist; and Verena Tarrant, a pretty, young protégée of Olive's in the feminist movement. The storyline concerns the struggle between Ransom and Olive for Verena's allegiance and affection, though the novel also includes a wide panorama of political activists, newspaper people, and quirky eccentrics.

Roger Lamport Treat was an American sportswriter and novelist. As a newspaper columnist, he was a vocal critic of segregation policies in baseball and American football. Treat also edited a major reference work on football, first published in 1952.

<i>The Bostonians</i> (film) 1984 film based on the novel by Henry James

The Bostonians is a 1984 historical romance drama film directed by James Ivory. The screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is based on the 1886 American novel The Bostonians by Henry James. The film stars Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Reeve, Madeleine Potter, and Jessica Tandy.

Lawrence Edward Watkin was an American writer and film producer. He was known primarily as a scriptwriter for a series of 1950s Walt Disney films.

<i>The Californians</i> (film) 2005 American film

The Californians is a 2005 American independent drama film starring Noah Wyle. It is a modern-day adaptation of the 1886 Henry James novel The Bostonians, with the location moved from Boston to Marin County, California, and with the political topic driving the plot changed from feminism to environmentalism. The Californians is the second film adaptation of The Bostonians, after the 1984 film The Bostonians.

<i>Betty Crocker Cookbook</i> Cookbook by General Mills

The Betty Crocker Cookbook is a cookbook written by staff at General Mills, the holders of the Betty Crocker trademark. The persona of Betty Crocker was invented by the Washburn-Crosby Company as a feminine "face" for the company's public relations. Early editions of the cookbook were ostensibly written by the character herself.

Kate Quinn is an American writer, known for her works of historical fiction.

<i>Anthropology of an American Girl</i>

Anthropology of an American Girl is the first novel by American author Hilary Thayer Hamann. It is the story of a search for authenticity told in the first-person voice of teenaged protagonist Eveline Auerbach. The semi-autobiographical literary novel contains an examination of the social and cultural pressures that prevent individuals from living meaningfully. It was independently published in 2003, and re-released in 2010 by Spiegel & Grau, a division of Random House, both times to critical praise. The novel has been compared to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pearl Schiff</span> American novelist

Pearl Schiff was an American author from Boston, Massachusetts. She is best known for her first novel, Scollay Square, which made The New York Times Best Seller list in 1952. The novel, about an upper-class woman's affair with a sailor in Boston's red-light district, was considered scandalous at the time.

<i>Since We Fell</i> 2017 book by Dennis Lehane

Since We Fell is a psychological thriller novel by American author Dennis Lehane, published in May 2017.

The history of the American legal profession covers the work, training, and professional activities of lawyers from the colonial era to the present. Lawyers grew increasingly powerful in the colonial era as experts in the English common law, which was adopted by the colonies. By the 21st century, over one million practitioners in the United States held law degrees, and many others served the legal system as justices of the peace, paralegals, marshals, and other aides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christine N. Govan</span> American novelist

Christine Noble Govan was an American writer. She was born in New York City and lived most of her life in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

"Sincerely, Willis Wayde" was an American television play broadcast on December 13, 1956, as part of the CBS television series, Playhouse 90. It was the 11th episode of the first season of Playhouse 90.

References

  1. (28 July 1951). An Engrossing Modern Story (review), The Age
  2. Hackett, Alice Payne. Seventy years of best sellers, 1895–1965, p. 185 (1967) ("second in fiction sales, it reached its place in only one month in the bookstores. It was published on December 1 with an advance of 110,000. Re-orders makes its total, by the end of the year, 140,285.")
  3. The Publisher, Volume 170, Part 1, p. 34 ("Joy Street has been Mrs. Keyes' most popular novel, and it has sold over 2,000,000 copies in the English language alone.")
  4. Cournos, John. Middle-Drawer Brahmins (review), The New York Times (subscription required)
  5. Branswell, Mary (23 December 1950). Charms of Boston Colors New Novel (review), Manitoba Ensign
  6. (12 December 1950). Joy Street (review), Kirkus Reviews
  7. Darby, William. Necessary American Fictions: Popular Literature of the 1950s, p. 166 (1987)
  8. Pawley, Christine. Reading Places: Literacy, Democracy, and the Public Library in Cold War America, p. 228 (2010)