A potboiler is an artistic work (usually written) created for the sole purpose of making money quickly or to maintain a steady income for the artist, thus implying that artistic values were subordinate to saleability.

The word was derived from "to boil the pot": in other words, the author wrote the book to keep a pot of food boiling. (See pot boiler.)

One of the most famous potboilers is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, demonstrating that works written primarily for money are not always of subpar quality. Even Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven", now so famous, was written as a potboiler. Television host Mike Wallace used the term while interviewing writer Rod Serling about his upcoming show, The Twilight Zone. At that time, science fiction writing was considered amateurish and juvenile, and Wallace questioned whether or not Serling was moving away from "serious" writing.

References

• Sander, Gordon F.:Serling: The Rise And Twilight of Television's Last Angry Man. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.

External links

• "Potboiler" at World Wide Words

Writing