Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work: Front Page Review in the New York Times Book Review

It was our first day back in the office after a long and much-needed Christmas vacation when I heard a cry of whoa! (not the usual woe) from Pete, the editorial assistant who opens the mail, among a thousand other duties. Monday morning, January 3rd, just after 11. A moment later, he was at the door, waving the New York Times Book Review that would land, enfolded by the massive Sunday paper, on a million doorsteps six days hence. (Publishers get their copies a week early.) There, right on the front page, was a review of our biography of the tech prophet Marshall McLuhan, You Know Nothing of My Work!, by Douglas Coupland, himself a notable seer; his novel, Generation X, coined a term as recognizable as McLuhan’s famous axiom, “the medium is the message.”

The review was by David Carr, the Times media critic (himself a prophet in that particular wilderness), and he liked the book—I mean, like, really liked it. Carr, the author of a highly praised memoir, is too subtle a writer to have supplied a blurb (“I couldn’t put it down!”), but I’ll quote one nice sentence that sums up our publishing strategy: “Rather than offering a doorstop-size addition to the Great Man canon, it comes in at just over 200 pages that nonetheless sprawl and unfold to their own idiosyncratic rhythm.”

Just right. Our books don’t have to be short; it’s not a requirement. Even in the age of electronic distraction, a good enough writer can go long. What we’re looking for is a strong voice—that “idiosyncratic rhythm” Carr finds in Coupland’s biography. It’s hard to describe, but I know it when I hear it.