Sublime

The standard hardcover bestseller nowadays is 6'' x 9'' and an inch and a half in bulk, leading to that larger-than-life brick of a book sensation that writers of long works like Baldacci, DeMille, and others are given.

Their books represented self-betterment or continuing education delivered to your door, enabling the busy workingman or woman to keep up with the culture of the day as chosen by these companies. The publishers served as curators, as they do today.