包邮白领:美国中产阶级(英文版)

It is as a secretary or clerk，a business woman or career girl，that the white—collar girl dominates our idea of the office.She isthe office，write the editors of Fortune：“The male is the name onthe door，the hat on the coat rack，and the smoke in the cornerroom.But the male is not the office.The office is the competentwoman at the other end of his buzzer，the two young ladieschanting his name monotonously into the mouthpieces of a kindof gutta—percha halter，the foury girls in the glass coop peckingout his initials with pink fingernails on the keyboards of fourvoluble machines，the half dozen assorted skirts whisking throughthe filing cases of his correspondence，and the elegant miss in thereception room recognizing his friends and disposing of his antipathies with the pleased voice and impersonal eye of a presidentialconsort.'
Novels about white—collar girls，appearing mainly in the 'twenties，were very popular.Kitty Foyle's time is from 1911 through the middle 'thirties； Minnie Hutzler，another Morley character in Human Beings，is followed from 1889 to 1929； the story of Janey Williams of Dos Passos' USA runs from 1900 to 1920； Tarkington's Alice Adams and Sinclair Lewis's Una Golden lived before World War I.Ten years on either side of the First World War—that was the time of the greatest literary interest in the white—coUar girl.The images are tied to the scenes of that period of white—collar work，and many of the images presented are strilangly similar.
Sinclair Lewis's Una Golden，Booth Tarkington's Alice Adams，and Christopher Morley's Kitty Foyle—each was thrown into white—collar work after the death or failure of her father and in each case the father was an old middle—class man who had not been doing well.