
Mad Men is a television series set in the 1960s that follows characters working in advertising on Madison Avenue. Literature is often referenced or appears in the series and fans have been taking note. There is even a Twitter hashtag #MadMenReading so anyone can tag literature seen or referenced on the show. Many public libraries keep track of this list and have created companion Òyou might also likeÓ lists of books that were influential in the 60s or help fans appreciate the culture depicted in ÒMad MenÓ.
A lot of work is put into making the television series historically accurate from the costumes to the soda in the vending machines (there has been
great debate about the actual date Dr. Pepper was released in New York City). The literature on the show is certainly not there by accident. There are even a few made-up titles like
SterlingÕs Gold by Roger Sterling and
Something by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Many of the titles give insight into the characterÕs lives or historical events. Billy Parrot, a librarian at the New York Public Library, has been meticulously documenting every reference to and sighting of literature in the series:
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/02/27/mad-men-reading-list. In addition to stills from episodes where a book was sighted or referenced, this link will also lead you to a ÒSally Draper reading listÓ and a list of books ÒYou Might Also LikeÓ if you are interested in Mad Men.
Here is ParrotÕs list, including links to copies in WittenbergÕs EZRA catalog or in OhioLINKÕs catalog (if there is no link, the book is unavailable from EZRA and OhioLINK):
1. The View from Chivo / H. Allen Smith
OhioLINK
2. The Peking Man is Missing / Claire Taschdjian
OhioLINK
3. La Presidenta / Lois Gould
OhioLINK
4. Masterpieces of World Literature in Digest Form / Frank Magill
OhioLINK
5. The Crisis of the Old Order / Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (Volume 1 of The Age of Roosevelt)
EZRA
6. Lady Chatterley's Lover / D. H. Lawrence
OhioLINK
7. Italy / Herbert Kubly and the editors of Life
EZRA
8. Nursery Friends from France / translated by Olive Beaupre Miller
OhioLINK
9. Exodus / Leon Uris
EZRA
10. The Best of Everything / Rona Jaffe
OhioLINK
11. Atlas Shrugged / Ayn Rand
EZRA
12. The Americans: The Colonial Experience / Daniel Boorstin
EZRA
13. Meditations in an Emergency / Frank OÕHara
OhioLINK
14. The Agony and the Ecstasy / Irving Stone
EZRA
15. Marjorie Morningstar / Herman Wouk
EZRA
16. ÒA Diamond as Big as the RitzÓ from Babylon Revisited and Other Stories / F. Scott Fitzgerald
EZRA
17. Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies / C. S. Forester
OhioLINK
18. Ship of Fools / Katherine Anne Porter
EZRA
19. Junior Classics Volume One (Fairy Tales And Fables) and Volume Seven (The Animal Book)
OhioLINK
20. The Sound and the Fury / William Faulkner
EZRA
21. The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary
OhioLINK
22. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire / Edward Gibbon
EZRA
23. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer / Mark Twain
EZRA
24. Be My Guest / Conrad Hilton
OhioLINK
25. Confessions of an Advertising Man / David Ogilvy
EZRA
26. The Bible
EZRA
27. Helping Yourself with Psychiatry / Frank Caprio
OhioLINK
28. Set Theory and Logic / Robert Stoll
OhioLINK
29. Meeting with Japan / Fosco Maraini
EZRA
30. The Corps / W.E.B. Griffin [Note: ParrotÕs blog explains this is an anachronism; although not published until 1994, Òa compilation of the first three books in the Corps seriesÓ in the episode ÒThe Color BlueÓ 3.10.]
a. Book I, Semper Fi (1986)
b. Book II, Call to Arms (1987)
c. Book III, Counterattack (1990)OhioLINK
d. Book IV, Battleground (1991)EZRA
e. Book V, Line of Fire (1992)OhioLINK
f. Book VI, Close Combat (1993)OhioLINK
g. Book VII, Behind the Lines (1996)OhioLINK
h. Book VIII, In Danger's Path (1999)OhioLINK
i. Book IX, Under Fire (2002)OhioLINK
j. Book X, Retreat, Hell! (2004)OhioLINK
31. The Group / Mary McCarthy
EZRA
32. The Horse That Liked Sandwiches / Vivian L. Thompson
33. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword / Ruth Benedict
EZRA
34. The Clue of the Black Keys / Carolyn Keene
OhioLINK
35. The Miracle Worker / William Gibson
EZRA
36. Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships / Eric Berne
EZRA
37. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / Mark Twain
EZRA
38. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold / John Le Carr
EZRA
39. You Are Not the Target: A Practical Manual of How to Cope with a World of Bewildering Change / Laura Archera Huxley
OhioLINK
40. Gazella / Stuart Cloete
OhioLINK
41. The Sand Pebbles / Richard McKenna
EZRA
42. A Thousand Days / John F. Kennedy in the White House / Arthur Schlesinger
EZRA
43. Johnny Got His Gun / Dalton Trumbo
OhioLINK
44. Mein Kampf / Adolf Hitler
EZRA
45. Where Love Has Gone / Harold Robbins
OhioLINK
46. The Life of Greece / Will Durant (Volume 2 of The Story of Civilization)
EZRA
47. The Tibetan Book of the Dead
EZRA
48. The Berlitz Self-Teacher: French
OhioLINK
49. The Fixer / Bernard Malamud
EZRA
50. The Crying of Lot 49 / Thomas Pynchon
EZRA
51. "Ozymandias" / Percy Bysshe Shelley
EZRA
52. Odds Against / Dick Francis
OhioLINK
53. The Black Cauldron / Lloyd Alexander
EZRA
54. Nature / Ralph Waldo Emerson
Online (Gutenberg) OhioLINK
55. Goodnight Moon / Margaret Wise Brown
EZRA
56. Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion / Herbert Aptheker
OhioLINK
57. Twice 22 / Ray Bradbury
OhioLINK
58. Tai-Pan / James Clavell
EZRA
59. The Smokejumpers / Randle M. Hurst
60. The Sunday Gentleman / Irving Wallace
OhioLINK
61. Third Girl / Agatha Christie
OhioLINK
62. Julius Caesar / William Shakespeare
EZRA
63. The Inferno / Dante Alighieri
EZRA
64. Topaz / Leon Uris
OhioLINK
65. The Last Picture Show / Larry McMurtry
OhioLINK
66. Valley of the Dolls / Jacqueline Susann
OhioLINK
67. I Ching : The Book of Change / John Blofeld
EZRA
68. Rosemary's Baby / Ira Levin
EZRA
69. How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success In Selling / Frank Bettger
OhioLINK
70. Bhagavad Gita
EZRA
71. Nicholas and Alexandra / Robert K. Massie
EZRA
72. Evolution / Ruth E. Moore
EZRA
73. The Penny Wars / Elliott Baker
OhioLINK
74. A Small Town in Germany / John Le Carr
EZRA
75. Better Homes and Gardens Junior Cook Book: For the Hostess and Host of Tomorrow
EZRA
76. Frankenstein / Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
EZRA
77. Dracula / Bram Stoker
EZRA
78. The American Way of Death / Jessica Mitford
EZRA
79. The Detective / Roderick Thorp
OhioLINK
80. Listen to the Warm / Rod McKuen
OhioLINK
81. From the Earth to the Moon / Jules Verne
EZRA
82. Portnoy's Complaint / Philip Roth
EZRA