Oprah launches influential book club
On September 17 1996 daytime talk show host Oprah Winfrey launches a television book club and announces The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard as her first selection.Oprahs Book Club quickly became a hugely influential force in the publishing world with the popular TV hosts endorsement capable of catapulting a previously little-known book onto best-seller lists.When Oprahs Book Club first launched some in the publishing world were skeptical about its chances for success.As The New York Times noted Winfreys projectrecommending books even challenging literary novels for viewers to read in advance of discussions on her talk showinitially provoked considerable skepticism in the literary world where many associated daytime television with lowbrow entertainments like soap operas and game shows.
However the club proved to be a hit with Winfreys legions of fans and many of her picks sold over 1 million copies.(She earned no money from book sales.) Winfreys ability to turn not just books but almost any product or person she recommended into a phenomenon came to be known as the Oprah Effect.Winfrey gave her stamp of approval to books by first-time novelists including Mitchard Wally Lamb (Shes Come Undone) and David Wroblewski (The Story of Edgar Sawtelle) as well as established authors such as Maeve Binchy (Tara Road) Cormac McCarthy (The Road) and Jeffrey Eugenides (Middlesex).Toni Morrison had four works selected for the clubThe Bluest Eye Paradise The Song of Solomon and Sulamore than any other author.In 2001 after Winfrey chose novelist Jonathan Franzens The Corrections he famously offended her by publicly suggesting that some of her selections were schmaltzy and that being picked for the club might alienate a books potential male readership.
Franzens invitation to appear on Winfreys TV show to discuss his work was rescinded however he got a second chance nine years later when his best-selling novel Freedom was selected for Oprahs Book Club.In December 2010 he went on her show to talk about his novel which Winfrey called a masterpiece.In 2003 Winfrey switched her recommendations from contemporary titles to classic tomes including The Good Earth by Pearl S.Buck East of Eden by John Steinbeck and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.
In 2004 when Winfrey chose Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy the novels publisher printed an additional 800000 copies.In 2005 Winfrey reversed her nothing-but-the-classics policy in part so she could have in-person discussions with the authors whose work she endorsed.Her first contemporary title was James Freys A Million Little Pieces a 2003 memoir about addiction and recovery.After appearing on Winfreys show to promote the book Frey was later forced to admit that parts of the story were fiction.
He appeared on the show again in early 2006 and faced tough questioning from Winfrey.Freys fabrications sparked a national debate over the definition of memoir.By the final season of Winfreys TV show in 2011 more than 60 titles had been chosen for Oprahs Book Club.
