author
Bob Brown
1886–1959
A restless, inventive American writer and publisher, he moved easily from pulp fiction and journalism to avant-garde experiments and food writing. He is especially remembered for the playful, forward-looking ideas behind The Readies, his vision of a faster, more modern way to read.
1 Audiobook
The Complete Book of Cheese
by Bob Brown
About the author
Born Robert Carlton Brown II in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1886, he built an unusually wide-ranging career that touched fiction, poetry, advertising, publishing, and journalism. Reliable archival and reference sources describe him not just as a writer, but also as an editor, publisher, and traveler, which fits the adventurous shape of his life and work.
In the early 20th century he wrote popular fiction, including What Happened to Mary and The Remarkable Adventures of Christopher Poe, and later became an energetic figure in literary modernism. His best-known experimental project is The Readies, a 1930s proposal for a machine-assisted, high-speed style of reading that now feels surprisingly ahead of its time.
He also spent years abroad, helping launch English-language magazines in places including Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, and London. That mix of commercial savvy, curiosity, and formal experimentation gave his writing a distinctive character: lively, funny, and always willing to try something new.