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CONNECTIONS
Each signature may be linked to the others by up to 53 thematic connections. Some are common to many signatures; others highlight unusual, yet notable, associations and interests. Friendships are not represented because so many signers were friends. Go to "The Bohemians" to view and interact with all 53 connections.
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THE DOOR
This is one of the largest communities represented on the bookshop door, and includes individuals who worked for a range of publications, from pulp magazines of popular fiction to music periodicals and avant-garde little magazines. Their positions ranged in significance from the assistants to executives. Manhattan was then, as now, the center of magazine publishing in the United States. Most of the poeple who signed the bookshop door came to New York from somewhere else, and a striking number of them worked at magazines when they first arrived, such as Theodore Dreiser. Some got their break by being hired to write or draw for the magazines they edited, and some left the profession when they were able to write for a living. A handful remained in the magazine business for their entire careers, such as Roy Dickinson, while others used it as a stepping stone into book publishing, such as John Farrar.
The cover of an issue of the American Mercury, 1924
This magazine was edited by two of the best known editors of the time: H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan, who had previously edited the Smart Set. Notably, neither seems to have signed the bookshop door. A humorous poem about the two men was taped to the door, penned by signer Berton Braley.