NOTE: With the exception of efolletts.com, all of the on-line textbook sellers mentioned in this piece, originally published in 2000, have gone out of business

by Jay Vandergelt

I LOVE TENNESSEE Williams's work. My favorite of his plays is "A Streetcar Named Desire." The complex and manipulative Blanche DuBois and the equally as complex and brutishly stubborn Stanley Kowalski face off. On a related topic (you'll see how in a moment), I have been following the recent surge in online textbook sales with some interest, and have come to the conclusion that these textbook vendor dot.coms (bigwords.com, ecampus.com, varsitybooks.com, textbooks.com, efolletts.com, etc...) market to faculty the way Blanche DuBois lived her life. That is to say, these dot.com businesses pitch to faculty by relying on the kindness of strangers. "Do something nice for your students...." the ads all clamor. Pshaw.

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