Melville House Books

“In the annals of amateur fanaticism there is nothing quite like the English literary society,” says Robert McCrum. “Forget the quotidian fervour of the common or garden reading group, here the dedicated bookworm’s piety is marvellous to behold.” In his weekly column for The Observer, he asks, “Who, for example, reads Angela Thirkell these days? Yet there is a society devoted to her memory which organises group outings, promotes group discussion, and — I’ve no doubt — in the nicest possible way, gives Thirkell’s publishers hell about out-of-print titles.” McCrum goes on to survey fan clubs for writers from Auden to Wodehouse, although he says “Not every writer is honoured with a society. George Eliot is remembered by a ‘fellowship’. Gissing has a ‘centre’, Greene a ‘trust’ and Stevenson a ‘club’.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.