The Difficult Art of Giving rethinks standard economic histories of
the literary marketplace. Traditionally, American literary histories
maintain that the post-Civil War period marked the transition from a
system of elite patronage and genteel amateurism to what is described as
the free literary market and an era of self-supporting professionalism.
These histories assert that the market helped to democratize literary
production and consumption, enabling writers to sustain themselves
without the need for private sponsorship. By contrast, Francesca Sawaya
demonstrates the continuing importance of patronage and the new
significance of corporate-based philanthropy for cultural production in
the United States in the postbellum and modern periods.
Focusing on Henry James, William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, Charles
Chesnutt, and Theodore Dreiser, Sawaya explores the notions of a free
market in cultural goods and the autonomy of the author. Building on
debates in the history of the emotions, the history and sociology of
philanthropy, feminist theory, and the new economic criticism, Sawaya
examines these major writers' careers as well as their rich and complex
representations of the economic world. Their work, she argues,
demonstrates that patronage and corporate-based philanthropy helped
construct the putatively free market in literature. The book thereby
highlights the social and economic interventions that shape markets,
challenging old and contemporary forms of free market fundamentalism.
