Reviewing our book reviews: fifty years and counting.

The editorial team of The Gerontologist has been committed to providing its readers with up-to-date information about recently published books focused on gerontological science and practice since the inception of the journal in 1961. The initial issue of the journal included a list of recently published books. The first formal book review (of You Can't Count on Dying, by Natalie Harris Cabot) was written by Joseph T. Freeman, MD, and appeared in the September 1961 issue. Early reviews were sporadic, brief, and featured a single book. By the 1970s, several issues of the journal included multiple book reviews, each written by a separate reviewer. In August 1974, a " Book Briefs " section was initiated in which several books of a similar genre were reviewed together. The June 1979 issue of The Gerontologist introduced S. Donna Lind, PhD, as its first book review editor. Recognizing the voluminous magnitude of materials emerging about aging, The Gerontologist sought to provide broad coverage and usable information to its readers. The journal used multiple formats, including brief overviews, conventional book reviews, and in-depth critiques. In the early days, the size of the gerontological community was so small that it was difficult to identify reviewers who were not best friends and/or competitors of the book authors. By the end of her term as book review editor, Lind noted that the explosion of new books on aging made it impossible to review all of them. She described forming a book review panel of about 20 gerontologists who agreed to receive publications and evaluate them for review consideration. She observed that " it is easy to write bland uncritical reviews—less so if criticism seems warranted in the reviewer's opinion. But it does take some courage and one does run a risk when criticizing a so-called senior scholar. " (December 1981). 1989) continued to present review essays of related books, conventional book reviews, and a " Briefly Noted " section of short reviews. The " Books Received " section was categorized and presented by topic. In their jointly authored editorial, Applebaum and Markson (October 1986) reported that the journal received approximately 300 books per year of which there was space to review only about 45. Prior to 1988, book reviews were published by the Journal of Gerontology as well as The Gerontologist, with careful coordination on the part of the editors to avoid duplication. In 1988, the Journal …