The Most Disreputable Trade: Publishing the Classics of English Poetry 1765-1810A publishing phenomenon began in Glasgow in 1765. Uniform pocket editions of the English Poets printed by Robert and Andrew Foulis formed the first link in a chain of literary products that has grown ever since, as we see from series like Penguin Classics and Oxford World Classics. Bonnell explores the origins of this phenomenon, analysing more than a dozen multi-volume poetry collections that sprang from the British press over the next half century. Why such collections flourished so quickly, who published them, what forms they assumed, how they were marketed and advertised, how they initiated their readers into the rites of mass-market consumerism, and what role they played in the construction of a national literature are all questions central to the study. The collections played out against an epic battle over copyright law, and involved fierce contention for market share in the 'classics' among rival publishers. It brought despair to the most powerful of London printers, William Strahan, who prophesied that competition of this nature would ruin bookselling, turning it into 'the most pitiful, beggarly, precarious, unprofitable, and disreputable Trade in Britain'. Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets were part of such a collection, dubbed 'Johnson's Poets'. The third edition of this collection, published in 1810, brought the national project to its high water mark: it contained 129 poets, plus extensive translations from the Greek and Roman classics. By this point, all the features that characterize modern series of vernacular classics had been established, and never since has such an ambitious expression of the poetic canon been repeated, as Bonnell shows by peering forward into the nineteenth century and beyond. Based on work with archival materials, newspapers, handbills, prospectuses, and above all the books themselves, Bonnell's findings shed light on all aspects of the book trade. Valuable bibliographical data is presented regarding every collection, forming an indispensable resource for future work on the history of the English poetry canon. |
From inside the book
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Page 2
... define subsequent canonical collections had been rehearsed in the marketplace . When Oxford University Press advertised ' The World Classics ' one hundred years ago , it detailed an Ordinary Edition and a Pocket Edition ( printed on ...
... define subsequent canonical collections had been rehearsed in the marketplace . When Oxford University Press advertised ' The World Classics ' one hundred years ago , it detailed an Ordinary Edition and a Pocket Edition ( printed on ...
Page 16
... definition institutional , that is , if they can exist only in a practical alliance with a body or institution committed to their dissemination , can we recognize such bodies in the universities and academies of eighteenth - century ...
... definition institutional , that is , if they can exist only in a practical alliance with a body or institution committed to their dissemination , can we recognize such bodies in the universities and academies of eighteenth - century ...
Page 17
... definition of ' classick ' : ' An author of the first rank : usually taken for ancient authors ' . Granting , as Johnson does , that the term is open to modern authors , one nevertheless spots many poets in the list who fall short of ...
... definition of ' classick ' : ' An author of the first rank : usually taken for ancient authors ' . Granting , as Johnson does , that the term is open to modern authors , one nevertheless spots many poets in the list who fall short of ...
Page 20
... defined by Ross as enforcing an ' ideology of civic humanism ' . Its currency was ' symbolic capital — fame , prestige , honour , recognition ' — and poetry functioned within the system to support a network of social relations ...
... defined by Ross as enforcing an ' ideology of civic humanism ' . Its currency was ' symbolic capital — fame , prestige , honour , recognition ' — and poetry functioned within the system to support a network of social relations ...
Page 25
... define their cultural functions'.35 The usual ' jumbled quality ' of miscellanies was thought to be more inviting to consumers than a formal mode of arrangement would have been . Given that poetry could be intimidating to the novice ...
... define their cultural functions'.35 The usual ' jumbled quality ' of miscellanies was thought to be more inviting to consumers than a formal mode of arrangement would have been . Given that poetry could be intimidating to the novice ...
Contents
1 | |
7 | |
Robert and Andrew Foulis | 39 |
The Classics Spread Across Scotland | 68 |
4 John Bells Little Trifling Edition Revisited | 97 |
5 Johnsons Prefaces and Bells Connected System of Biography | 134 |
William Strahan Joseph Wenman et al | 169 |
7 Robert Andersons Comprehensive View of English Poetry | 199 |
8 Charles Cookes Pocket Library | 227 |
A Body of Standard English Poetry | 266 |
10 Splinter Canons Fugitives and Empire | 309 |
A Library to Every House | 344 |
Select Bibliography | 353 |
Index of Booksellers Printers Publishers | 371 |
General Index | 375 |
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Common terms and phrases
Addison advertisement Akenside Ambrose Philips Anderson Andrew Foulis anthology Apollo Press authors Beattie Bell’s Bell's edition biographical Britain canon Chalmers Chaucer Churchill Cooke Cooke's copy Cowley Creech critical cultural Denham Dryden duodecimo Edinburgh editor Eighteenth-Century elegant Elzevir English poetry English Poets engraved Garth Glasgow Gray illustrations imprint James James Beattie James Thomson July letter Library Library of America literary literature lives London London booksellers Lyttelton Mark Akenside Milton miscellany multi-volume collections octavo original Paradise Lost Parnell Pocket Edition Poems Poetical Poets Pope portraits Prefaces printed printers proprietors prospectus publication published purchasers readers reprinted Robert Robert Foulis Samuel Johnson Scottish Select British Poets Sept Shakespeare Sharpe's Shenstone Spenser Strahan Strahan to Creech Swift Thomas Thomas Parnell Thomson title-page Tonson translations verses Vignette vols volumes Wenman William wrappers writing