the long tail as classic americana
One of the best parts of Chris Anderson’s book The Long Tail is the section on the Sears Roebuck catalog and the way it changed shopping, especially for rural America. Couldn’t find any originals for sale on eBay, but there have been plenty of reproductions published; you can buy a repro of the 1897 catalog from Amazon for a mere $13.62. It’s worth it if you’re at all a student of catalog copy; those writers knew how to sell.