bookstores to remain in business. With the consoli-
dation of the publishing industry through mergers
and acquisitions, the majority of top-selling books
came from fewer publishers every year, and the num-
ber and types of books published also diminished.
Further Reading
“Book Sales Flat in ’90’s—Report.”Publishers Weekly
244 (October 27, 1997): 14. Provides an overview
of the publishing industry up to 1996, including
areas of strong sales, the impact of chain book-
stores, and return rates.
Greco, Albert N.The Book Publishing Industr y. 2d ed.
Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,
- Examines the major issues in the book pub-
lishing industry: return rates, mergers, and the
Internet. Provides a good historical overview, but
much of book deals with the post-2000 industry.
Has an excellent glossary of publishing terms.
Jones, Margaret. “Mergers-and-Acquisition After-
shocks.” Publishers Weekly 246 (September 20,
1999): 25-28. Provides an overview of the after-
math of the major mergers of the 1990’s.
Lofquist, William S. “Economic Outlook for the U.S.
Printing and Publishing Industry.”Publishing Re-
search Quarterly12, no. 3 (Fall, 1996): 22-28. Exam-
ines the state of the publishing industry up to
1996 and anticipates the impact the Internet will
have on the industry.
Whitten, Robin. “Growth of the Audio Publishing
Industry.”Publishing Research Quarterly18, no. 3
(Fall, 2002): 3-11. Covers the growth of the
audiobook industry in the 1990’s.
Julie Elliott
See also Amazon.com; Audiobooks; Bezos, Jeff;
Blogs; Business and the economy in the United
States; Harry Potter books; Internet; Left Behind
books; World Wide Web.
Pulp Fiction
Identification American crime film
Director Quentin Tarantino (1963- )
Date Released on October 14, 1994
Drawing on the conventions of hard-boiled pulp fiction,
auteur Tarantino brought independent film to the forefront
of the American imagination with this stark, complicated
crime drama.
Quentin Tarantino, a video store clerk turned
writer-director, fusedPulp Fictiontogether from a
wide array of influences: undervalued American
crime fiction, samurai films, the French New Wave,
the work of directors Martin Scorsese and Brian De
Palma, blaxploitation films, and 1950’s, 1960’s, and
1970’s pop culture. The film, cowritten with Roger
Avary, was successful, in part because it was an hom-
age to Tarantino’s favorite writers, directors, and
singers. It was also challenging in a time when Holly-
wood was pushing safe, formulaic blockbusters, and
it stood out because it relied heavily on dialogue and
challenged standard conventions of storytelling.
Pulp Fictionwas also a tremendous success for the
actors and actresses involved. John Travolta, the star
of one of Tarantino’s favorite films—Brian De
Palma’sBlow Out(1981)—had long been resigned
to mediocre Hollywood fare and made his come-
back with this film, playing the type of character he
had played early in his career.Pulp Fictionalso served
as a breakthrough for Samuel L. Jackson, who built
an entire career around his performance as Jules
Winnfield. The film also solidified Uma Thurman’s
place as Tarantino’s muse and showcased Bruce Wil-
lis, who was recovering from a series of commercial
flops, as a punchy boxer straight out of a classic film
noir.
Pulp Fictionwon the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) at
the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, and it grossed
$107.93 million at the U.S. box office, making it the
first independent film to surpass $100 million. It was
also nominated for several Academy Awards, includ-
ing Best Picture and Best Director. The decision by
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to
award the Best Picture Oscar toForrest Gump, a film
that was the polar opposite ofPulp Fictionin both in-
tention and execution, spoke to a divide in the
American consciousness and revealed a hesitation to
give highest honors to a film that reveled in vulgarity,
dark humor, and B-movie conventions. Tarantino
and Avary did, however, receive the award for Best
Original Screenplay.Impact Pulp Fictioninspired a generation of young
filmmakers to forego film school and to simply make
their own movies, and it had a deep impact on the
conventions of crime films, as more and more writ-
ers and directors began to experiment with time and
point of view. It also helped to launch a prolific de-
cade for independent films, and Tarantino, who re-692 Pulp Fiction The Nineties in America