Little Big World: Collecting Louis Marx and the American Fifties
by Jeffrey Hammond
University of Iowa Press, 2010 Cloth: 978-1-58729-910-0 | eISBN: 978-1-58729-943-8 Library of Congress Classification TS2301.T7H29 2010 Dewey Decimal Classification 688.72097309045
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Jeffrey Hammond’s Little Big World: Collecting Louis Marx and the American Fifties is the story of a middle-aged man’s sudden compulsion to collect the toys of his childhood: specifically themed playsets produced by the Louis Marx Toy Company. Hammond never made a conscious decision to become a collector of any kind, so he was surprised when his occasional visits to web sites turned into hours spent gazing at, and then impulsively purchasing, the tiny plastic people and animals in the Civil War set, the Fort Apache set, Roy Rogers Ranch, and Happi-Time Farm—just a few of the dozens of playsets the Marx Company produced.
Hammond interweaves childhood memories with reflections on what they reveal about the culture and values of cold war America, offering an extended meditation on toys as powerful catalysts for the imagination of both children and adults. Never sentimentalizing his childhood in an effort to get his old toys back, Hammond exposes the dangers of nostalgia by casting an unsettling light on the culture of the fifties and the era’s lasting impact on those who grew up in it.
Writing in a lovably quirky voice, Hammond not only attempts to understand his personal connection to the Marx toys but also examines the psychology of his fellow eBay denizens. In this warm, funny, and contemplative work, the reader encounters an online community of serious adult collectors who, as the author suspects, are driven to obsession by middle-aged nostalgia. When Hammond questions this preoccupation with the past, he comes to realize that his own collecting has prevented him from moving forward. With this insight, he offers an insider’s take on the culture and psychology of collecting.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Jeffrey Hammond is the George B. and Willma Reeves Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. He is the author of Small Comforts: Essays at Middle Age, This Place Where We Are, Ohio States: A Twentieth-Century Midwestern,The American Puritan Elegy: A Literary and Cultural Study, Sinful Self, Saintly Self: The Puritan Experience of Poetry, and Edward Taylor: Fifty Years of Scholarship and Criticism.
REVIEWS
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
1. Faces I Remember
2. The Prospero of Fifth Avenue
3. Animal Husbandry
4. No Time Like the Present
5. Little Big World
6. Left-Handed Jesus
7. Getting and Spending
8. Collecting Myself
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
Little Big World: Collecting Louis Marx and the American Fifties
by Jeffrey Hammond
University of Iowa Press, 2010 Cloth: 978-1-58729-910-0 eISBN: 978-1-58729-943-8
Jeffrey Hammond’s Little Big World: Collecting Louis Marx and the American Fifties is the story of a middle-aged man’s sudden compulsion to collect the toys of his childhood: specifically themed playsets produced by the Louis Marx Toy Company. Hammond never made a conscious decision to become a collector of any kind, so he was surprised when his occasional visits to web sites turned into hours spent gazing at, and then impulsively purchasing, the tiny plastic people and animals in the Civil War set, the Fort Apache set, Roy Rogers Ranch, and Happi-Time Farm—just a few of the dozens of playsets the Marx Company produced.
Hammond interweaves childhood memories with reflections on what they reveal about the culture and values of cold war America, offering an extended meditation on toys as powerful catalysts for the imagination of both children and adults. Never sentimentalizing his childhood in an effort to get his old toys back, Hammond exposes the dangers of nostalgia by casting an unsettling light on the culture of the fifties and the era’s lasting impact on those who grew up in it.
Writing in a lovably quirky voice, Hammond not only attempts to understand his personal connection to the Marx toys but also examines the psychology of his fellow eBay denizens. In this warm, funny, and contemplative work, the reader encounters an online community of serious adult collectors who, as the author suspects, are driven to obsession by middle-aged nostalgia. When Hammond questions this preoccupation with the past, he comes to realize that his own collecting has prevented him from moving forward. With this insight, he offers an insider’s take on the culture and psychology of collecting.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Jeffrey Hammond is the George B. and Willma Reeves Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. He is the author of Small Comforts: Essays at Middle Age, This Place Where We Are, Ohio States: A Twentieth-Century Midwestern,The American Puritan Elegy: A Literary and Cultural Study, Sinful Self, Saintly Self: The Puritan Experience of Poetry, and Edward Taylor: Fifty Years of Scholarship and Criticism.
REVIEWS
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
1. Faces I Remember
2. The Prospero of Fifth Avenue
3. Animal Husbandry
4. No Time Like the Present
5. Little Big World
6. Left-Handed Jesus
7. Getting and Spending
8. Collecting Myself
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE