Although popular on both sides of the Pond with women of all ages, and some men, it is American women from a couple of hundred years ago who could claim to be the first to start what we would today recognise as book clubs. They were called reading circles initially and then, as now, needed little more to get going than a hunger for reading books, a desire to discuss them with like-minded women, and a suitable venue.
American women had been getting together to study the Bible since the 17th century, but it wasn’t until the late 18th century that secular reading circles emerged, around the same time as their European counterparts.
The reading circles often had a political or social conscious leaning – Hannah Mather Crocker, for example, who founded a circle in 18th century Boston, was an advocate for women’s participation in freemasonry and author of Observations on the Real Rights of Women.
A later proponent was the journalist Margaret Fuller who held her inaugural session of what she called her “conversations” in 1839. Fuller was the first American female war correspondent, a magazine editor and feminist. She saw her club as a meeting place for women to debate “the great questions: what were we born to do? How shall we do it?”
Clearly many reading circles were not cosy alternatives to a genteel ‘knitting and natter’ type circle! Until relatively recently, women were excluded from philosophical clubs and universities, so intelligent and inquisitive women found these groups were a way of educating themselves and engaging with literature on a variety of topics.
Reading circles were not just for the white middle class female. They crossed racial and class lines, too. In 1827, black women in Lynn, Mass., formed one of the first reading groups for black women – the Society of Young Ladies. Black women in other cities on the East Coast soon followed suit.
Women’s interest in book clubs has helped shape the book landscape in other ways too. Once on the fringes of the commercial side of the industry, women are now one of the most important driving forces in the book world, chiefly because they buy more books – especially fiction, where they account for around 80% of sales. As one commentator wrote: “Without women, the novel would die.”
When celebrities, like Oprah Winfrey in the US, and Richard and Judy in the UK, promote a book in their ‘reading circle,’ sales rocket – far more than they normally would after a favourable review from a professional, but lesser known, literary critic.
The modern book club may take itself a little less earnestly than many of the early reading circles, but its roots in the exclusion of women from other intellectual spaces are not hard to find. Even though many women now go on to higher education, book clubs remain useful settings for more radical activity and are still places where women can continue to engage with the transformative power of books.
Book clubs have survived the pandemic too, with many going on-line – and acquiring an increased membership in the process. As the pandemic eases (surely it will one day, won’t it?), we will be able to see if the numbers remain high. Also if Zoom book clubs will remain ‘a thing.’
(I have drawn on a recent article in The Washington Post by the American journalist Jess McHugh for much of this post).
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