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Excerpted from neh.gov:

To skip ahead a few centuries, the Fourdrinier papermaking machine and other industrial-age innovations helped democratize books and periodicals by making their production faster and cheaper. Three-volume Victorian novels flourished as a staple of the rental library—until railroads came along and passengers sought shorter, more portable light fiction for their now daily commutes. For half the twentieth century, the Book of the Month Club transformed reading into a mail-order business: No longer did you need to visit a store to acquire the latest best-seller. Since the 1930s, mass-market paperbacks have extended the life of popular hardcovers and resurrected older masterpieces: What Baby Boomer doesn’t remember the clean, elegant feel of Signet Books, the distinctive design of Penguin Classics?

The structure of "What Baby Boomer doesn’t remember the clean, elegant feel of Signet Books, the distinctive design of Penguin Classics?" is strange to me.

What is this question asking about? I don't see how its meaning fitting in context, and shouldn't "what" be followed by "is/does" to form a question? If I group "What Baby Boomer doesn’t remember" together, then it seems to me "What Baby Boomer doesn’t remember was the clean... Classics." but if so it shouldn't end with a question mark.

So how does it work?

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3 Answers 3

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What Baby Boomer doesn’t remember the clean, elegant feel of Signet Books, the distinctive design of Penguin Classics?

It's a rhetorical question. Its meaning is:

(Almost) all Baby Boomers remember the clean, elegant feel of Signet Books, the distinctive design of Penguin Classics.

It's kind of saying to the reader: "if there is at least one baby boomer who does not remember that, show him/her to me! I doubt that there are such baby boomers in existence!"

...shouldn't "what" be followed by "is/does" to form a question?

Why, it is followed by doesn't:

What Baby Boomer doesn’t remember the clean, elegant feel of Signet Books, the distinctive design of Penguin Classics?

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In your highlighted question, What Baby Boomer refers to persons of a particular generation and can be replaced by Who in this negatively asserted rhetorical question

Who doesn't remember...?

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  • This explains it better than the accepted answer, but it doesn't go into as much detail. Normally detail wins out, however as this is English Language Learners, I think this answer is more useful.
    – wizzwizz4
    Jan 1, 2016 at 20:49
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What Baby Boomer is here used with the meaning of which Baby Boomer.

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  • Do the downvoters want to suggest, that the meaning is more "what kind of Baby Boomer"? I would like to learn, The OP seemed confused by the grammatical role of "what".
    – Carsten S
    Jan 1, 2016 at 22:25

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