Year
1990
Degree Name
Master of Arts (Hons.)
Department
Department of English
Recommended Citation
North, Marilla, The anatomy of a best-seller: the making of "Come in spinner", Master of Arts (Hons.) thesis, Department of English, University of Wollongong, 1990. https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/2201
Abstract
Although I had, like many female readers of my generation, read and re-read Come In Spinner as a teenager in the late 1950s, the book first actively engaged me in 1978 when I assisted in setting up the methodology for a market research project aimed at establishing its viability as a twentieth century film. I went on to research the biography of Florence James, one of the book's co-authors, a task I have been engaged in more intensively since late in 1986. The tentative title of that biography is The 'Spinner Years, for I became increasingly fascinated by the strong influence which the book has had on the life of Florence James herself, and, to a lesser extent, on the lives of her daughters and grand-daughters. It was as if the book had taken on a life of its own and exercised a power which drew others into its net. As Jean-Paul Sartre observed, a book "is an emanation of inter— subjectivity, a living bond of rage, hatred or love between those who have produced it and those who receive it." This dissertation is the immediate result.
Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Wollongong.