Search

This paper examines the acquisitions records of the New York Society Library, which include correspondence between the Library and booksellers, receipts, lists of books purchased or needed, and records of trustee meetings, in order to ascertain how the Library established policies for acquiring books, and how these may have changed over time. It argues that, as membership of the Library increased, collection practices changed, and did so with the intent of appealing to and pleasing a broader subset of readers, in part to stabilize the Library's financial position. Coupled with data from the Library's surviving circulation records, which date from 1789 to 1792 and from 1799 to 1806, these bookseller records provide insight into the information-seeking behaviours of readers, and how the Library worked to meet the dual demands of entertaining and informing. The Library's goal - getting the most in-demand contemporary works at the lowest cost - was a necessary one as the cultural landscape shifted and competitor libraries came into existence. Even as the Society Library held to the principle of supplying readers with intellectually useful books, the acquisitions records show that, as its members' tastes changed, the Library had to evolve in order to attract and keep members, and so fulfil its financial commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the development of the 'chapbook' in Scotland between 1680 and 1760. Chapbook is here defined as a publication using a single sheet of paper, printed on both sides, and folded into octavo size or smaller. The discussion focuses on production in Edinburgh which at this time was the centre of the Scottish book trade. While very few works were produced in these small formats in the city before the last quarter of the seventeenth century, the three generations thereafter witnessed their emergence as an important part of the market. This chapbook literature included 'penny godlies' and 'story books', poems and songs, which had long been staples of the London trade. Indeed, much output north of the border comprised titles pirated from the south. It is suggested, however, that an independent repertoire of distinctively Scottish material also began to flourish during this period which paved the way for the heyday of the nation's chapbook in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Edinburgh trade is shown to be much more extensive than has been appreciated hitherto. Discovery of the testament of Robert Drummond, the Edinburgh printer who died in 1752, reveals that he produced many such works that are no longer extant. It demonstrates not only that a number of classic English chapbooks were being reprinted in Scotland much earlier than otherwise known, but also that an indigenous Scottish output was well established before the reign of George III. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the partnership between the female printer-bookseller Tace Sowle-Raylton (1666-1749) and the library of the Society of Friends (Quakers) between 1680 and 1750. It situates the London Quaker community in its immediate geographical and economical context to examine the connections of Quaker networks to the book trade. Under Tace Sowle-Raylton's influence the Quaker book trade adopted modern commercial techniques, a professionalization visible through the collections of the depository library. Continuing the literary defence put in place by the early Quakers in the 1650s, the library constituted a place of reading and writing for the community leaders, while Tace Sowle-Raylton opened more largely to the market of ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses bookseller, antiquarian, and historian Charles Heath of Monmouth, Wales, focusing particularly on his efforts to promote heritage tourism to the Wye River Valley region in England and Wales. He was author of the book "Historical and Descriptive Accounts of the Ancient and Present State of Tintern Abbey," a guide to Tintern Abbey that was published in eleven editions between 1793 and 1828. Topics considered include guidebooks, the picturesque, print culture, and oral history.