The Hucksters by Frederic Wakeman
Originally published in 1946.
The Hucksters was amongst the top ten bestselling novels of 1946, and its success initiated a mini-trend of fiction about advertising (Madison Avenue no doubt employed any number of aspiring novelists who saw their chance to upload their bosses’ quirks into the public consciousness). In fact, a year later when Herman Wouk published Aurora Dawn, he felt the need to state in the introduction that he had started writing his book about a morally troubled adman selling soap over the radio before the publication of Frederic Wakeman’s book about a morally troubled adman selling soap over the radio.
Like many of the bestsellers of six decades ago The Hucksters and Aurora Dawn have been forgotten, though Wouk is still known for his later war novels. Also obscure is the 1947 film version of The Hucksters, starring Clark Gable. (Who demanded that the novel’s scandalous bits, which are difficult these days to locate, be left out of the script.) But the advertising business, as it existed in the early 1960s, is once again visible in pop culture, due to the AMC show Mad Men. In fact, a copy of The Hucksters is visible on the bookshelf of the series’ hero, Don Draper in one scene. I’m also pretty sure that an exchange five pages into the book was quoted on that show:
He pulled out a pack and Kimberly said, “I see you’re smoking our brand.” He meant the brand for which his agency handled the advertising.
“I had to go to three night clubs last night, before I found ‘em. Cost me a buck, just to impress you.”
While there are some similarities between the Hucksters and the TV show–both focus on the advertising business and feature a womanizing main character–Mad Men is a period piece, set nearly 50 years in the past, and concerned with evoking and satirizing that semi-distant era, while The Hucksters is a novel of its own time, and it draws an interesting connection between WWII military propaganda services and mass advertising. But make no mistake–this is not a social novel but a potboiler.
The novel’s hero, Vic Norman, is a self-styled non-conformist, or what passed for one in the pre-Beat era, cocksure and casual around the tyrannical boss of the soap company, whose contradictory orders and firing binges keep Norman’s co-workers in a constant state of fear. Norman claims he will quit if he ever becomes as fearful as his colleagues–but when he begins to feel the pressure in his job he resorts to conventional methods–antisemitism among them–to please the higher-ups. The disparity between how Norman sees himself and what he is willing to become to get what he wants begins to tear away at his soul.