It is a highbrow hardback that chronicles the carnage of war, and the grim and grisly work of disposing of the dead, in unflinching detail. It is a dense, well-documented history suffused with a sense of profound loss and grief. It is written by a soft-spoken scholar more accustomed to combing through musty archives than seeing her work on display at big-box bookstores.
"This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War," the roundly acclaimed new book from Harvard University president Drew Gilpin Faust, is also a fast-rising bestseller.
With 35,000 copies sold since early January, the scholarly book has vaulted to seventh on the
Those are strange bedfellows for a book academics hail as a major historical breakthrough. That is a clear sign that Faust's work has accomplished the rare feat of bridging the steep divide between the ivory tower and mainstream readers. Its commercial success has caught the eye of publishers and academics alike, who say its brisk sales and widespread public attention are strikingly rare for an academic, and nearly with out precedent for a sitting university president.
"It's just a crying shame, but most scholarly books are lucky if they hit [sales of] four figures," said Lorraine W. Shanley, a principal at Market Partners International, a New York City consulting firm specializing in book publishing. "This is definitely unusual, and in the realm of uncharted waters."
Knopf, the book's publisher, said it had returned to press six times to meet the unexpected demand, with 50,000 copies now in print.
"I don't think we imagined the book would be a bestseller," said Paul Bogaards, a Knopf spokesman. "It's a tribute to the writer."
Bogaards said strong reviews and positive word-of-mouth had allowed the book to cross over into the mainstream and find a broad cross-section of readers. "Not just tweed jackets," he said.
The surprisingly strong sales have cast Faust, an eminent Southern historian who became president of Harvard last year, into the somewhat unusual position of publicly promoting her book. She recently discussed the book on National Public Radio and at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and last week spoke before a standing-room-only crowd at the Harvard Coop, even sticking around to sign copies.
More than 100 people crowded the Harvard Square bookstore on a bitterly cold night, with many arriving a half-hour early to snag a seat. Most had not read the book but were taking one home.
The book tour, such as it is, has a decidedly sophisticated and sober tone - with no strip-mall Borders or Barnes & Nobles in sight. In the next 2 1/2 months, Faust is scheduled to appear at the American Philosophical Society, the New York Historical Society, and The Museum of the Confederacy, and to speak at Mount Auburn Cemetery, a leisurely schedule that departs from the usually frenetic book tour pace.
A Virginia native who grew up visiting Civil War battlegrounds, Faust wrote the book, her sixth, over the past decade.
Those in the book industry are divided over how much the Harvard spotlight has boosted sales. Some say her visibility as president of the world's most famous university has given the book a unique platform, while others doubt the name carries much cachet beyond the academic community.
The Harvard name is not a key part of the book's marketing; it appears nowhere on the cover or in the full-page ad in a recent Sunday New York Times Book Review.
But industry observers and academics agree a bestseller from a sitting head of a college is rare. "I can't remember the last time the president of a major university did so well with a scholarly book," said Tom Nissley, senior books editor at Amazon.com.
Serious histories have made the bestseller list before, particularly those focused on the founding fathers, the Civil War, or World War II. Some professors now eschew the university presses in favor of commercial publishers in hopes of reaching a broader audience, although the academy derides some popular histories as breezy reads with minimal substance.
Many observers cite a confluence of causes for the success of Faust's book: a well-respected scholar with unusual name recognition, particularly as Harvard's first female president; a readable writing style; a story that amid great loss is often uplifting; and the contemporary relevance of a book about the toll of war and what it means to die for a cause.
"We live in a world now where we wonder what the cause is," said William Fowler, a history professor at Northeastern University. "We're searching back for a time when there was a reason for death, a reason for sacrifice. If there's ever glory in war, there's glory here."
Where many Civil War books focus on military tactics, "This Republic" takes a broader, more humanistic approach.
"There's a universal aspect to it," said Paul Slovak, publisher of Viking Press.
Uniformly glowing reviews have also propelled sales, publishers say. A review in the influential New York Times Book Review called it "profoundly moving," and said it is "too richly detailed and covers too much ground to be summarized easily." Newsweek hailed it as "one of those groundbreaking histories in which a crucial piece of the past, previously overlooked or misunderstood, suddenly clicks into focus."
The Harvard Coop this week drew a mottled mix of scruffy graduate students, well-groomed middle-aged couples, and older readers who would have looked at home in a university faculty club.
Faust, who is 60, spoke quickly and crisply, with passion for the topic. At the end of her remarks, she struck a wistful tone as she recalled visiting Harvard's Memorial Hall and seeing the name of a fallen Union soldier she had researched, a man she "knew well." Later, she told the audience she had just learned that another man she had studied and written about is buried in Massachusetts, and that she would soon visit his grave.
She smiled when an audience member asked her why she omitted the grisliest details of handling casualties. Many reviewers of the book, she noted, had felt otherwise.
"I didn't want to be unrelievedly sentimental," she acknowledged. "On the other hand, I didn't want it to be a horror show."
As for future books, Faust said this would probably be her last.
"I don't know what I'd write after this, because this meant so much to me," she said.
