The most striking feature of U.S. publishing in 1955, as of U.S. life generally, was prosperity.

In a business which talks poor almost from habit, there was little to be heard but complacency. For once, some of the gravy was trickling down to the bookstores. The book clubs were booming, Hollywood was paying fancy prices for books again ($300,000 for Robert Ruark's Something of Value, $250,000 for MacKinlay Kantor's Andersonville, a $1,000,000 deal for Herman Wouk's Marjorie Morningstar). High-priced, quality paperbacks were having the year of their lives.

Of the 12,000 or so titles published, there was the usual quota of fiascoes, but those that made the grade did so in great style. Nor were things too bad for the reader. No one book would make 1955 memorable, but there were enough good ones in all departments to have kept a discriminating reader busy.

Africa threw a shadow over the entire year in both fiction and nonfiction. Religion was probably the leading single subject: the Bible may have had its biggest year of all time. Inspirational books kept booming, e.g., How to Live 365 Days a Year and The Answer Is God. Norman Vincent Peale's Power of Positive Thinking dominated the bestseller lists for the second year, with no end in sight.

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