Oprah Travels With the Classics

Posted on March 4, 2003

In a move that has the beleaguered book industry down on its knees thanking the publishing gods, media mogul Oprah Winfrey has announced that she is bringing back her popular book club, although in a different form.

In a speech to the Association of American Publishers, Ms. Winfrey said that she will soon be "back in the business of recommending books...but with a difference." This time around, the focus will be on classic literature. The new book club is tentatively titled "Traveling with the Classics," and will air three to five times a year, a slower pace than the grueling monthly schedule of the old club. Another difference is the location of the broadcast. Oprah will travel to a location connected with the book or the author and broadcast from there. Full support materials will be found on Oprah.com, as well as companion study guides.

Of course, the big question for the publishers is: what constitutes a "classic"? Are we talking public domain works like Shakespeare here, or will the show include modern classics, such as Catcher in the Rye, which are still copyrighted and have exclusive print rights? The news had publishers flipping through their backlists immediately, hoping to find some "classic" gems.

Oprah has publicly stated that she misses doing the old show, but wanted to do something different. And why, you may ask, did she cancel the first book club? I have two words for you: Jonathan Franzen. This is only my opinion, of course, but I think that the Franzen debacle really hurt Oprah's feelings. I mean, here she is doing an unprecedented, wonderful thing for literacy and the book industry, and she gets kicked in the teeth for her troubles by the World's Most Ungrateful Author himself. (After being invited to be a Book Club honoree, the National Book Award-winning Franzen wouldn't let his publisher put the Oprah sticker on his precious literary masterpiece, made fun of the Book Club format and its female readership, then dissed Oprah's taste in books to any media outlet that would listen, calling the books she picked "schmaltzy", among other things. So Oprah uninvited Franzen from the show.)

The great thing about doing classics is that, generally speaking, the authors are dead and cannot make insulting comments about one's taste/readers/tv show format. I, for one, think that this is a wonderful idea. The classics are a part of our history, our language and our culture. Yet, they are sadly being forgotten in the pop culture of the new millennium, by generations who would rather watch an episode of MTV's Cribs than dive into Dickens. And if anyone can get people to discover the joys of Shakespeare, Twain and the Bronte sisters, it's Oprah Winfrey. More power to her.