Tip of the Hat to Colbert

Among the many tributes to the nine-year run of The Colbert Report, which aired its final episode last week, comes Vulture’s tip of the hat on behalf of “book nerds.” The Colbert Report interviewed two authors a week, on average, introducing their work to what was arguably the publishing industry’s best audience; Boris Kachka reports that, aside from Oprah’s Book Club, no other celebrity endorsement delivered such a reliable bump in sales. The real reward, though, was the interview itself; Colbert’s conversations kept authors on their toes, demanding an earnest defense of their work through his hyperbolistic on-air persona while telegraphing his own true, warm-hearted support for the ambassadors of literature, history, and the rest of the written word.