1958: Cliff Notes were started by Cliff Hillegass of Nebraska.
American civilization starts its downward spiral.I'm away from the bulk of my library right now, but didn't the _Master Plots of Literature_ series see publication earlier? Can't even find the series listed on Amazon, but I think they date from the late '40s.
Of course they are unwieldy hardbacks, and may still have offered some cultural boost in plying those operose and dusty volumes.
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