Regenerating Regional Culture

A Study of the International Book Town Movement

Jane Frank

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9783319650357
• eBook ISBN: 9783319650364
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Social Sciences

This book explores the significance of the international book town movement and its impact on contemporary society. It examines how book towns have emerged and how their culture and unique characteristics help to explain a steadily growing phenomenon that has enabled peripheral communities around the world to reclaim their economic futures and impact on the cultural sphere as increasingly powerful sites and sources of creativity.

Regenerating Regional Culture assesses why, at a time when the book industry is experiencing a profound transformation, book towns are proliferating in Europe and across the globe. It acknowledges the role of the book as a catalyst for this significant cultural activity and development. The book is shown to be a unique and pivotal item of cultural consumption, a remarkable artefact and, more than ever before, a springboard for contemporary cultural debate. This work investigates how the reanimation of these 'down-on-their-luck' towns is attracting, through a combination of nostalgia, history and cultural heritage, a growing middle class cohort who seek both intellectual stimulation and opportunities for serious leisure and wellbeing.

This book will prove to be a useful resource for understanding the impacts of book towns on art, culture and society while also offering insightful research for those involved in existing or future development of book towns and other community cultural projects.

© The Author(s) 2018

Jane FrankRegenerating Regional CultureSociology of the Arts https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65036-4_1

Begin Abstract

1. Book Towns: Expanding Literary Connections

Jane Frank¹

(1)

Griffith University, Nathan, QLD, Australia

End Abstract

What Is a Book Town?

A book town or a location that has forged a new life through the book business—secondhand and antiquarian bookselling, writing, reading, festivals, publishing and celebration of the written word—uses its book-based economy to provide a unique, themed identity to the town or village, bolstering local, national and international tourism. In particular, book towns both rely on and contribute to the global increase in cultural tourism. Their existence means not only that the survival of hard-copy books is assured, but also that the specialized crafts and skills associated with their historical production are kept alive. This is because they appeal to an emergent nostalgia for preserving traditional print culture in an age of new technology and globalization that threatens the potential loss of traditional books. This nostalgia stems from a general renewal of interest among the middle class in handcrafted goods, in models of how people previously lived, in historic technologies and in ‘slow food’, found in farmers’ markets in cities, hinterland areas, coastal resorts and local produce stalls in rural areas. The book town concept—particularly as it has evolved in Europe—has proven its capacity to revitalize communities via multiplier effects from a book-based economy, cultural tourism and increased social capital for communities. It has therefore emerged as an innovative tourism solution to the economic, social and cultural issues associated with geographic peripherality and unification.

As an international phenomenon, book towns¹ are also known as Boekenstad (in the Netherlands), Paese dei Librai (in Italy), Villages ² du livre (in France and Belgium), Bücherstadt (in Germany) and Noshe Bokbyen (in Norway) and dozens of other names in the languages of their various host countries around the world. Booth (1999, p. 274) makes the crucial point that it is hard to provide an exact definition of a book town because they are all so different. Book towns developed through unique processes and by dint of their own geographic, topographical and book-generated uniqueness—by the coast (Bécherel, France; Wigtown, Scotland; Sidney-by-the-Sea, Canada), far inland on prairies and in (almost) ghost towns (Archer City, USA; Clunes, Australia), on islands (Gotland, Sweden); in mountainous terrain (Montereggio, Italy); in forests (Redu, Belgium; Waldstadt Wünsdorf, Germany); with cross-border emphasis (Bredevoort, the Netherlands); as districts or quarters in larger regional locations (Montolieu, France); with seasonal limitations (Fjærland, Norway); as eco-experiments (Torup, Denmark); focused on children (Kembuchi and Miyawaga, children’s picture book villages , Japan; Mellösa, Sweden); as a small cluster of communities all focused on book-related activities (Southern Highlands, Australia); specializing in theology (Stillwater, USA); related to graphic arts (Montolieu, France); education-oriented (Kampung Buku, Malaysia); and connected to publishing (Paju, South Korea). This book will demonstrate that their differences and their ability to embrace national, regional and local particularities and cultural uniqueness are what make book towns attractive and successful holiday and leisure destinations.

When Seaton (1999) first defined the book town, he provided an account of how these towns initially had developed across Europe—the cradle of the concept—with a retail emphasis focused on economic development and the tourist profile of certain towns:

The basic concept of a book town consists in converting a substantial amount of commercial properties , or defunct public ones, in declining rural towns and peripheral regions, into units for the retailing of second hand and antiquarian books , thus creating a critical mass of single-commodity retailing which ultimately allows the town or region to be packaged and marketed as a novel and unique entity – a town of books. Through the attraction of this kind of specialist retail development visitors are motivated to visit peripheral areas that previously offered no unique raison d’être as tourist attractions. (p. 390)

Seaton and Alford (2001a, b) later broadened the scope of the concept beyond retail to embrace complementary cultural facets of these literary townships related to memory, identity and tradition. These included artisan retail enterprises associated with the production of books: paper production, calligraphy, printing, book design and illustration and traditional bookbinding. This expanded definition also includes the staging of events with a literary or artistic theme that allows book towns to be centres of cultural tourism. Seaton and Alford regard book towns as places that particularly appeal to the educated, affluent audiences who constitute the market for antiquarian and secondhand books. Other authors have focused more holistically on what a book town is able to provide and how it establishes a point of difference that transforms the character of a village or town, and propels the rejuvenation and renewal of towns in need of economic rescue. Hanna (2005, p. 1), for example, remarks:

What is a book town? It depends who you ask. A few definitions follow: a small rural village with lots of bookshops; a themed village with books as a focal point; lots of businesses selling books alongside their other stock; a village or town whose economy is bolstered substantially by the sale of books; a place of culture, of books and music and theatre. If I am asked, I will answer all of the above. I care less about the definition than I do about the overall effect a book town has upon the village or town where it is born … Book towns benefit the local economy by giving an identity to the town or village and increasing local, national and international tourism. The theory is that people won’t go out of their way to visit one bookshop but will travel many miles to visit a book town. To light a fire when a town is ‘down on its luck’ it needs a new image and a fresh start; the book town initiative provides that.

Hanna emphasizes the multiplier effect that book town projects have on regional economies, impacting not only on book-related businesses, but on a host of other—often unrelated—businesses in the community. What is implied, but not directly stated, in this definition is that book town projects are valuable for kick-starting the sense of a town’s growing social capital . Macaskill (2007, p. 2) describes what many contemporary book towns try to achieve in this regard, stating that a book town is a location that celebrates the written word and welcomes travellers whether they are avid readers, writers or merely browsers, wanting to visit a town with an extra twist. These towns and villages have a delightfully disproportionate number of secondhand and antiquarian bookshops, and sometimes also have other associated businesses based on writing, reading and publishing. The idea is that a mainly rural town—in attractive surroundings and with historic interest—will find a new life through the book business by attracting well-read visitors.

Any contemporary definition of a book town needs to be inclusive of a range of valid models and viewpoints, and this book will contribute a further dimension to these understandings. For example, Wigtown Festival Director Adrian Turpin (personal interviews 2011, 2017) is interested in the ‘grassroots’ role of the book town as a resilient literature organization for a region, a national resource and destination for cultural tourism and a point of diversity and connection. He emphasizes the evolving role of the book town as it adapts to a range of broad local and global influences, forecasting that book towns will increasingly become centres of learning and places where ideas are traded. This is so despite the peripheral locations of these towns, or even because of their geographic situations. In contrast, Hay-on-Wye founder Richard Booth (personal interview 2011) identifies the market for secondhand books primarily as an international one, driven by special interests and scarcity of certain secondhand titles in specialized subject categories. His broad view is that book towns need to be the axis points of an international economy and a springboard for greater international understanding through educational exchange. He argues that the advantage of specialized subject areas and linkages with wider international networks is that they will improve the service provided by book towns and widen their global market share.

The emergence of the Book Town Movement is inextricably tied to the key role of individuals—often eccentric ones—beginning with Booth, the founder of the concept. Beginning in 1961, he single-handedly inspired the development of the world’s first book town, Hay-on-Wye in Wales. I investigate how others were inspired by his lead and how book towns emerged in Europe and beyond, leading to the formation of international networks and collaborations. Book town founders have identified and developed the potential of their community and region to sustain book-centred activities and attract a book-loving public, as well as understanding and utilizing interac...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Frontmatter
• 1. Book Towns: Expanding Literary Connections
• 2. Hay-on-Wye: ‘A Town of Travellers Who Stopped’
• 3. Slow Books: Book Towns as Third Places
• 4. Edge-of-the-Map Locations: Outposts of Sustainable Culture
• 5. Sacred Objects and Magic Encyclopaedias: Books in Book Towns
• 6. Occasional Errata: Book Towns That Fail or Falter
• 7. Book Towns: An Unfolding Story
• Backmatter