Quadrat
A periodical bulletin of research in progress
on the history of the British book trade
Issue 25
Summer 2012
CONTENTS
Editor’s Note
Catherine Armstrong
Print Networks conference: report from Leicester
Catherine Armstrong
Progress report on the Print Networks series
John Hinks
William Blight and Daughters: Booksellers of Bideford
Ivor Blight
Report on the Book History Research Network
Catherine Armstrong, Giles Bergel and Sophie Butler
Printing Historical Society news
Francis Cave
Book Reviews
Bibliographical Society Grants available
Printing Historical Society Grants available
2
3
5
6
16
21
22
31
33
The British Book Trade Index on the Web
www.bbti.bham.ac.uk
Editor: Catherine Armstrong, Department of History,
Manchester Metropolitan University, Geoffrey Manton Building, Rosamond
Street West, Manchester M15 6LL
Email: C.M.Armstrong@mmu.ac.uk
ISSN: 1357-6666
3
Important message for Quadrat subscribers
W
elcome to another issue of Quadrat containing articles, book
reviews and reports from conferences and workshops, all
designed to give you an indication of the vibrancy of our topic of
book and printing history.
This is the first issue of Quadrat that has been produced in
electronic format only. This will also open up Quadrat to a new
avenue of scholarship. Live links can be placed within the text of
articles and reports. Reviews of websites and electronic resources
can now be accepted. If you have any ideas on how to improve
Quadrat and make it more interactive, then please do let me know.
For the very few of you who do not have access to a computer, it
will be possible to request a printed version, but this will only be a
print out from the e-copy and not a professionally printed
pamphlet. If you are in this position, please write to: Dr Catherine
Armstrong, Editor of Quadrat, Dept. of History, Manchester
Metropolitan University, Geoffrey Manton Building, Rosamund
Street West, Manchester, M15 6LL.
Any queries about anything in this journal or suggestions for
future material, please contact me: C.M.Armstrong@mmu.ac.uk
Catherine Armstrong
4
Report on Print Networks conference,
Leicester 2012
This summer we held the annual Print Networks conference at the
University of Leicester and the conference was co-organised with
the School of Historical Studies at Leicester which is the home of
the Chapbooks project. The theme of the event was ‘Cheap Print,
Popular Culture and the Book Trade’. The conference opened
with papers on the connection between cheap print and national
identity from Sandro Jung (on Scotland) and Gervase French (on
England). The second session explored the folk history tradition,
as two of its practitioners, David Blamires and David Atkinson,
discussed their research on the survival of ballads and Robin Hood
ballads.
The following morning, the first panel including three Print
Networks regulars, David Stoker, Iain Beavan and Barry McKay,
addressed the issue of ballads and the book trade through three
important case studies: the Aldermary printing press, Chalmers &
Co. of Aberdeen and Anthony Soulby, printer of Penrith. The
second day also included papers by the two keynote speakers,
Sheila O’Connell and Adam Fox. Sheila O’Connell reminded us in
her discussion of mezzotints that ‘cheap print’ includes images as
well as texts, while Adam Fox’s survey of the late seventeenth- and
early eighteenth-century Scottish chapbook trade revealed the
depth of his scholarship and breadth of archival sources used. In
the afternoon sessions, four papers by Angela McShane, Claire
Labarbe, Kate Bates (the conference fellow) and Barbara Crosbie
discussed the geographical, performative and theatrical aspects of
street print.
On the final day, the politics and financial structure of cheap
print businesses were discussed by Charles Benson, Lisa Peters and
James M’Kenzie-Hall, while the final session brought both
titillation and transatlantic perspective as Caroline Archer
discussed ‘street literature for street walkers’ and Jesse Erickson’s
paper examined a late twentieth-century use of cheap print by the
African-American alternative press in the United States.
5
The conference was proclaimed a great success by all in
terms of the quality of the speakers, including the keynote
speakers, the unifying theme, and the practicalities such as
accommodation and food (in both quality and quantity). Many
thanks must go to the local organiser John Hinks, who was ably
assisted by Leicester PhD student Gervase French, and to their
colleagues at Leicester who helped us to organise such a successful
event.
Catherine Armstrong, Chair of the Print Networks Committee
***
Forthcoming Print Networks conferences
Future events in the Print Networks series:
July 23-25 2013: University of Chichester (Chichester campus).
The theme will be Travel and the Book Trade. A call for papers
will be issued in Autumn 2012.
Summer 2014: Oxford, theme to be confirmed
6
Progress report on Print Networks Series
From Compositors to Collectors: Essays on Book-Trade History, edited by
John Hinks & Matthew Day, was recently published by the British
Library and Oak Knoll Press. At just under 400 pages, this is our
largest volume to date, which is why the cover price has risen to
£45. It has been well received and the publishers report steady
sales, rather better in fact than previous volumes.
There are two volumes in preparation: The Early Modern Book
Trade*, edited by John Hinks & Victoria Gardner, and Religion and
the Book Trade*, edited by John Hinks & Lisa Peters. These two
volumes will include selected papers from our Stratford 2010 and
Aberystwyth 2011 conferences respectively. We hope that the
Early Modern volume will be published in early 2014 by our usual
publishers but this is subject to confirmation. The Religion volume
is to be offered to a different publisher, probably also to be
published during 2014. At its meeting next month, the Committee
will consider publication of selected papers from the recent
conference on ‘Street Literature: Cheap Print, Popular Culture and
the Book Trade’.
Also in the pipeline, though not a ‘Print Networks’ volume,
is Historical Networks in the Book Trade*, edited by John Hinks &
Catherine Feely. This volume will comprise updated versions of
some of the papers delivered at three one-day Workshops held at
the University of Leicester between Dec 2005 and March 2009
plus some excellent additional contributions.
For more information on any of these volumes please contact
John Hinks: jh241@le.ac.uk
*working title
7
William Blight and Daughters:
Booksellers of Bideford
W
illiam Shortridge Blight was born in 1797 the son of
John Blight, a mason in Woolfardisworthy, and his wife
Elizabeth. In December 1821 he married a Plymouth
girl and was working as a schoolmaster in that city. But by 1824 he
had moved back to North Devon to become the schoolmaster in
Woolfardisworthy and, with the opening of the National School in
Bideford in 1824 or 1825, he and his family moved again to set up
the school in Old Town, a continuation of High Street.
The salary of the National School master at that time was
£35 per annum1, although that probably included a dwelling place
and other perquisites such as a free supply of candles or coal.
However, not enough, one would imagine, to raise the capital to
start a bookselling or printing business. Nor were his parents in a
position to help him, as far as we know.
Pigot's Directory of 1830 shows him as still the master at the
National School, but it is probable that within a few years he had
set up his own school. Certainly, in 1839 Robson's Directory
shows William Blight, now also the Parish Clerk (a post
commanding various fees), as living in Maiden (sic) Street, not
where the National School was situated. It also shows John Blight
as a schoolmaster living in Maddon (sic) Street. This must be an
error for William, who, at the time of the 1841 Census, was a
schoolmaster living in Meddon Street. There was a John Blight in
Meddon Street in 1841, but he was the six year old son of James
Blight an agricultural labourer. No John Blight of the time could
possibly be Robson's schoolmaster. Both Maddon and Maiden are
alternatives for Meddon Street.
In 1840 William sent his oldest surviving son Robert Henry
to the Exeter Diocesan Training School, which began in that year
1
Mentioned in "The Long Bridge of Bideford" Alexander G. Duncan. Published in the Reports and
Transactions of the Devonshire Association 1902. Page 251
8
and was the first English establishment for the training of teachers.
The annual fees for this school were a minimum of £10 and
probably £202, a sum which would have been beyond the reach of
a National Schoolmaster on his salary alone.
We know William was prospering. In the 1841 Census his
household includes a female servant and a nurse for his recently
born son Albert. Shortly after this he started the bookselling and
printing business. We know this indirectly from two
advertisements. One by William in December 1857 thanks the
clergy and gentry etc for their custom over 16 years. The other,
penned by his daughter Caroline when selling up in 1869, talks of
nearly 30 years in the trade.3
By 1844 Pigot's directory shows William as having both a school
and a Booksellers in High Street and White's Directory of 1850
adds further detail. His school is still in High Street, but the
Bookshop is now in Mill Street, where he is also listed as an agent
for two insurance companies, The Church of England and the
Lothbury. William is also shown as a master at Bideford
Grammar School, presumably on a part-time basis. He had taken
up this post at least as early as 1839 when his Grammar School
pupils in mathematics presented him with a silver snuff box.4
When William and Mary Blight (I say the two of them because he
was still running his school and would continue to do so virtually
throughout his life) began their stationer's shop there were several
competitors working in Bideford.
In the 1841 census there are six households headed by
printers, not journeymen, in Bideford and one by a bookseller.
Another, Thomas Griffiths of High Street calls himself a druggist,
but comes from a family of printer-booksellers and by 1851 is a
druggist and bookseller.
Amongst these, John Hayman was described as a Bookseller,
Stationer and Printer employing one man and an apprentice in
1851, having been a printer with two members of the Hayman
family as apprentices in 1841. Frederick Hayman, the minister at
the Bideford Wesleyan Chapel, is a lodger in his house and they
2
"Proposed Regulations for the Exeter Diocesan Training School" 1840, York St. John University
Archive YDS/TS/1/11
3
North Devon Journal 25.2.1869
4
North Devon Journal 3.10.1839
9
have two female servants. In 1852 he moved to Barnstaple to take
over the North Devon Journal5. In later life he wrote "A History
of Methodism in North Devon" and a revised edition. One can
surmise that he was well placed to take the nonconformist
business in the town.
By contrast, John Wilson, who in 1841 was a Printer in High
Street, a few doors down from William Blight's future residence,
may well have been rather notorious in the neighbourhood. We
know him now largely through the Allegro Collection of Ballads in
the Bodleian Library, but the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, in a
nice juxtaposition on New Year's Day 1842, shows him in a less
professional light.
There was a Tee-total festival held in this town [Bideford] on Tuesday.
... they perambulated the town bearing numerous banners..... partook of
an excellent tea... adjourned to the Baptist chapel where....upwards of
seventy new converts signed the pledge. Mr. John Wilson, printer of
Bideford, was charged by the Rev. A. Ray with making a disturbance
at the Methodist school room and assaulting Mrs. Walters of Bridge
Street : he was fined £2. 17s. including expences(sic) and 5s. for being
drunk. He was also bound over in £80 to appear at the Sessions, to
answer a charge of drawing a knife on John Williams of Northam,
while he was being conveyed to the Station-house.
In 1845 Wilson was subject to bankruptcy proceedings, which
were still going on in 18496. By the latter year his premises had
moved to Allhalland Street and in 1851 to Chapel Street at which
time the household had shrunk to Wilson and his two sons. A
decade previously there was an assistant printer, Charles Stone,and
an apprentice, William Cadd, as well as a maidservant. By 1861 the
three of them had moved to Bridge Street, whence is printed and
sold a broadside entitled "Christ offering living water, Anti-strongdrink"7. Perhaps the escapades of his younger self were at an end.
5
Western Times 1.11.1851
London Gazette 11.7.1845, Exeter and Plymouth Gazette 18.10.1845, Exeter Flying Post 31.5.1849
7
Bodleian Library. allegro Catalogue of Ballads
6
10
Roger Courtis, a bookseller in Meddon Street in 1841, remained a
bookseller in the 1851 Census, but because he was a visitor in
Falmouth at that moment, it is not possible to know where he was
living. Another printer William Heath was only 15 in 1841 and
living with his father Ellis, a retired exciseman and the rest of his
family in High Street . Presumably he was apprenticed to one of
the town printers; anyway, by 1851 he had married and moved to
Chatham to set up as a Printer, Compositer, Bookbinder.
William Cole was a printer in Allhalland Street in 1841 with a
maidservant to look after his wife and two children. In 1851, still
in the same street, he was employing one man and two boys, but
his son William Walter was living in Meddon Street described as a
printer and stationer. By 1861 William senior had retired to
Meddon Street and his son had taken over the business in
Allhalland Street. The son died in 1864 and his family moved to
Northam. William appears in the 1871 Census in his son-in-law's
house in Edgbaston. Here he describes himself as a retired
bookseller, perhaps nervous of taking the name printer when his
son-in-law Joseph Creese, who originally worked in Barnstaple,
was a lithographer employing 13 men, 8 boys and 6 girls.
Finally, we come to John Bishop, a printer, living with his
wife and infant son in Mill Street. Also living in the household was
a maidservant and, somewhat oddly, a governess, for whom is not
clear. By 1851 he had moved to Cooper Street next but one to the
Ship Inn. By then he had one man in his employment and by 1861
two boys as well.
One might have thought this to be fairly formidable
competition to be stepping into. Bideford's neighbour Barnstaple,
with a population half as large again, had only one more
bookseller-printer than Bideford. William Blight in his role as
Parish Clerk would have been a well known figure in the town,
which may have given him an advantage in the sale of religious
books. Although this role made him at least one potentially
influential enemy. Admiral John Cochet, a near neighbour in Mill
Street, took his animosity into his last will and testament, where he
wrote in a codicil "As Blight did not think it proper to attend my wife's
funeral it is my directions that he should not attend mine but any one
officiating as clerk except Blight". Perhaps, as a schoolmaster, whose
stock in trade was literacy, William recognised the opportunities
11
for bookselling that the rise in education was beginning to
produce.
In 1844 an advertisement for Morrell's Ink shows Cole,
Hayman and Wilson as the agents for Bideford.8 Three years later
a similar ad. for Dear's Ink has Cole, Hayman and Blight as
agents.9
We know that the Blights were also printing and publishing
works. There are several sermons published by them between 1843
and 1851. The earliest advertisement for W. S. Blight refers to the
publishing - "In compliance with the warmly expressed wishes of
many of the Inhabitants of Bideford" - of a sermon by Henry
Fortescue assistant curate of Bideford.10 This may sound to be
small beer, but both individual sermons and collections sold
substantially in the Victorian era. One observer11 at the time felt
able to say "the two most remarkable departments of modern
literature for extent.... are novels and sermons". Sermons tended
to sell for sixpence rather than the penny fetched by broadsides.
In March 1846 there is further evidence of William's possible
concentration on religious works when he is advertised as one of
four sellers in the west country of Tales for the Bush, a series of
homiletic tales by Mrs. Francis Vidal.12 On August 21st 1847 the
EPG reviewed T. N .Harper's sermon "Feed my lambs" just then
published by William.
We also know of at least one book that he sold from the Mill
Street shop. The British Library's copy of "Kelly's Practical
Builder's Price Book 8s.", which was published by Thomas Kelly
of Paternoster Row in 1846, has a very small gummed label
attached to the inside front cover which reads W. S. Blight Mill
Street Bideford. The 1849 edition of this book was advertised by
the publisher in the Exeter Flying Post in March of that year, so
this is likely to have been sold before then.
By September 1843, at the time of his son Percy's death,
William was living in High Street and, wherever we have
documentary evidence of his address, it continues to be the High
Street with the solitary exception of the 1851 Census when Mill
8
NDJ 28.3.44
NDJ 25.2.1847
10
Exeter and Plymouth Gazette 1.2.1845
11
Review of the Rev. T. Waite's sermons. The Monthly Review, March 1827 p. 225
12
EPG 21.3.1846
9
12
Street is the family residence. However, it is not clear where in the
High Street his school actually was. Number 10, which is definitely
the main branch of the bookshop in the late 1850s, was occupied
by Robert Grant, a tailor in the 1851 Census.
Between the Census and March 1852 the Blights had moved
to No. 10. In March 1852 an action, Tyeth vs Tardrew, concerned
the loss of light to the Blight tenancy at 10, High street caused by
the building of a 30-foot wall at No.9. As a result the plaintiff had
to spend nearly £11 to improve the light at the back of the house
with skylights and a further £125 in improvements to the front in
order to maintain the rental income, which stood at £23 p.a. At
the time the property was valued at between £400 and £500.13
There are fleeting glimpses of William Blight in the Devon
Press, in 1853 as the first mentioned publisher of letters to
Bideford parishioners by Theophilus Jones curate of Bideford.
Later he appears attending formal Grammar School dinners in
1850 and 1855, sitting on a jury in 1852 and agent for a piano
restorer in 1855.14
Another court case in 1853 had William as plaintiff claiming
£1.10s.6d. from Mr Fry, landlord of the Barley Mow in Mill Street,
on the latter having removed his three sons from school without
the required quarter's notice.15 William lost the case, but it shows
he was charging two guineas p.a. per pupil. On Christmas Eve
1857 an advertisement in the NDJ shows us, for the first time, the
full range of his retailing actitivites.
13
NDJ 18.3.1852 and 12.8.1852
NDJ 27.10.53
15
NDJ 17.3.1853
14
13
Unlike many other retail advertisements at the time William
addresses himself to the Clergy first and then the Gentry. He also
leads with and highlights his stock of BIBLES, PRAYER BOOKS,
AND CHURCH SERVICES, suggesting their use as gifts on
special occasions. However, he does not ignore secular works
showing quite an early association with Mudie's Library, the home
of the three volume novel.
"Printing and Bookbinding executed in every branch, at the
shortest possible notice" may be hyperbole, but it does suggest
that the Mill Street premises were still being used.
Finally, but also in capitals we have BERLIN WOOL
REPOSITORY. In the second half of the 1850s there is little
doubt that William came to rely much more heavily on his two
surviving daughters, Caroline, known in the family as Carrie, and
Elizabeth, known as Bessie. His son Francis (Frank) had died,"
deeply regretted" in 1852 (EPG 15.5.1852) and his wife in 1855.
Robert was in London, which left the two girls (there were nine
children originally). In the 1861 Census William has taken over his
wife's role as stationer, but the girls' occupations are shown as
"Berlin Wool and Fancy Goods".
Berlin wool was a craze which probably began in England
during the 1840s, but reached its height in the 1850s and 1860s.
Printed templates on canvas were used to sew designs using a
variety of coloured wools and often beads. It became a favourite
leisure pursuit of many young women, to the extent that Charles
Kingsley, a frequent visitor to Bideford, wrote in his book
Glaucus, a paean to the collection of objects of Natural History
published in 1855, as follows.
Your daughters....are more active, more cheerful, more self-forgetful over
it, than they would have been over novels , crochet and Berlin-wool. At
least... the abomination of 'Fancy-work - that standing cloak for
dreamy idleness (not to mention the injury which it does to poor starving
needlewomen) - has all but vanished from your drawing-room...
The book's dedication to a Miss Grenfell was actually written as
from Bideford. I like to imagine him leaving his hotel at East-theWater, crossing the bridge, and walking past the Berlin wool
14
display in the windows of the Misses Blight and shaking his head,
before offering a polite Good Morning to them. His view of the
potential decline of the pastime was also somewhat optimistic.
In August 1860 a third party advertisement for a housemaid
ends "Apply to Miss Blight. Library, Bideford".16 This is the first
time William is not mentioned in such circumstances; he was to die
of chronic phthisis in May of the following year and may already
have been taking little part in the business.
In his will William left £10 and his wearing apparel to his
surviving son Robert, my great grandfather. I think Robert must
have been a great disappointment to him. For whatever reason the
money he had invested in Robert's career had not borne fruit; he
was not a schoolmaster, but was working as a draper's assistant in
Islington.
To his two daughters he left everything else. The business
and all his household goods. He also made more personal bequests
to them. To Caroline he left his "watch with its appendants" and
to Elizabeth all his "old foreign china".
By this time he clearly owned the dwelling house and
premises in High Street
I give devise and bequeath unto my said daughters Caroline Jane Blight
and Elizabeth White Blight all that my dwellinghouse and premises in
which I now reside situate in High Street in Bideford aforesaid to hold
the same with the appurtenances ..... as tenants in common ..... subject
nonetheless to the payment of such mortgage debt and interest as may be
due thereon at the time of my decease
But the house in Mill Street is not mentioned. It seems likely that
Frederick Augustus Jones. a native of Bideford, who was shown as
a journeyman printer living variously in Bideford in 1841 and 1851,
was at the Blight's Mill Street premises in 1861. He is there
described as a Printer and Bookbinder. He may have taken over
the printing side of the business from the Blights, he may be
working for the Blights, he may be working for someone else and
living over the shop or it is sheer coincidence and he just happens
to have moved to their Mill Street address or very close to it.
16
EPG 25.8.1860
15
What is sure, however, is that the printing and publishing
capability of the Blight daughters no longer existed by the
beginning of 1863. A fund had been set up in 1862 to relieve the
distress of the Lancashire weavers during the cotton famine caused
by the American Civil War. The Misses Blight and a poetess
known only as F.G.J. decided to contribute to the fund by
producing a book for sale, the proceeds going to the fund.
The trio had already sold a poem by F.G.J. entitled "An
Appeal for New Hartley" following a mining disaster in that
colliery. According to the Exeter & Plymouth Gazette of
18.3.1863, "upwards of £32 [had] been realised by its sale in
Bideford alone". This may be an exaggeration, the Newcastle
Journal of 11th March 1862 shows "By Sale of Poem at Blight's
Library £10. 0s. 0d.", but that was less than two months after the
accident, perhaps more sales were made later.
The new venture was a slim volume "Jessy's Wedding Ring:
A Tale of Humble Life and Other Poems, By a Lady. At the
bottom of the title page is printed "Sold by C. and B. Blight 10,
High Street Bideford. N. Devon". However, the volume is
published by Arthur Hall and Company 26 Paternoster Row,
printed by J. S. Virtue City Road, London and bound by Westley’s.
Clearly, if the Blights had still been able to publish it themselves
they would have done so. It was advertised for sale at 6s. In the
EPG of 20.2.1863 and received a respectful review in the 6th
March edition as a “production of a well-known Devonshire lady”,
but as yet I have been unable to ascertain the amount that was sent
to the Lancashire Relief Fund or the full name of the lady.
In November 1865 the North Devon Journal begins a series
of advertisements that announce the dissolution of the partnership
between C & B Blight. As a result of this they “beg to acquaint
their Friends and the Public generally. That they have MARKED
DOWN the whole of their STOCK, which they now offer at
GREATLY REDUCED PRICES”.
Bessie was getting married to Walter Purdie, the brother of
Robert Blight’s wife and moving to Islington. Carrie was looking
for an apprentice in March.
16
EPG 2.3.66
There were further advertisements for an apprentice in March, July
and September 1868 and then in February 1869 a final
advertisement offering the business for sale at the end of March.
In 1871 the business was in the hands of James Ditchett Genn,
described as a Bookseller and Fancy Goods Dealer. In the 1861
Census the house next to the bookshop is described as
uninhabited; in 1871 it is occupied by John Bishop, the printer in
Cooper Street mentioned earlier. He is now described as a
stationer. I think it is probable that the Blight daughters sold the
business in two parts. At No.10 the bookshop and Fancy Goods
and the stationer and printer at No.11. This would also explain
the use of the words “in every branch” in the 1857 advertisement;
thus, Mill Street, Number 10 High Street and Number 11.
Bessie’s daughters, Florence and Eleanor Purdie, were
distinguished academically and each ended their careers as fairly
eminent schoolmistresses. The wheel had turned full circle.
Ivor Blight
17
Report on the Book History Research
Network
In 2011-12 we have hosted two very successful events both with
excellent attendance. In November 2011, Wim Van Mierlo
organised a study day at the IHR in London which was attended
by over 30 people, many of whom were encountering the Book
History Research Network for the first time. It was a very
enlightening day with papers of a high calibre, including
informative discussions on the directions taken by digital
humanities.
The Book Through Time: Book History Research Network
Conference 9 June 2012
Sophie Butler, New College, Oxford (sophie.butler@new.ox.ac.uk)
The second Book History Research Network conference of the
year took place at Merton College, Oxford, on 9 June 2012. The
theme was ‘The Book Through Time’, a topic chosen with the aim
of benefitting from the multi-faceted methods and topics which
the wide umbrella of ‘book history’ attracts, with the hope of
breaking down traditional boundaries such as those between
periods, faculties, and critical approaches by encouraging dialogue
and discussion between people who might not usually find
themselves on the same conference panel. The day was accordingly
divided into three sessions which were not only chronological, but
also thematic in focus. The ten papers were given by speakers who
ranged from graduate students to established academics, and who
came from both of Oxford’s universities, as well as from farther
afield in the UK, Europe, and the USA.
In the first paper of the day, Tom Roebuck (Oxford)
described the intricate publishing history of William Camden’s
Britannia in both Britain and Europe. Meaghan Brown (Florida
State) combined a historical discussion of the printing of The
Mirror for Magistrates with an analysis of the rhetorical use of the
printer within the text. Katherine Meier (European University
Institute) then brought the session out of the early modern period
with a paper on the Dublin Book Trade in the nineteenth century.
18
We began to see the fruits of cross-period panels, as the
connections between politics and publishing and the importance
of discussing book history in an international context began to
emerge as significant themes across the papers.
The second session brought the role of the reader and
collector more strongly into focus. John Tholen gave a paper on
the place of the private library in the seventeenth century, with a
discussion of the collection amassed by a Dutch lawyer in the
period. Kelsey Jackson Williams (Oxford) demonstrated how, even
when the physical library does not survive, it can be recreated
through following a paper trail, with his talk on the reading
practices of the seventeenth-century English virtuoso John
Aubrey. Liv Robinson (Oxford) provided a medieval viewpoint,
with her paper on the manuscript and print publishing history of
Alain Chartier.
In the afternoon panel, Lynda Yankaskas (Muhlenburg
College) combined social and book history with a paper on
apprentices’ libraries in nineteenth-century America, before the
final three papers took the day into the twentieth century.
Jonathan Roscoe (Oxford Brookes) spoke on the importance of
paratextual material in his discussion of the publishing history of
George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier. Catherine Feely
(Manchester) combined two of the conference’s strongest themes
– politics and readers’ habits – with a paper on British Marxism
and reading practices. Finally, Ruth Bush (Oxford) brought us
practically into the present day with a paper on late-twentieth
century Francophone African book history.
The papers were complemented by two practical sessions in
the early afternoon: the Merton Librarian, Julia Walworth, took a
group for a tour of the college library; and the Bodleian’s Paul
Nash gave a demonstration of hand-press printing, both of which
helped to bring to life some of the issues about printing and
collecting practices raised by the papers.
The conference was organized by Dr Giles Bergel, with the
help of a committee of graduate students: Peter Auger, Sophie
Butler, Hannah Field, Asha Rogers (English Faculty) and Emily
Kesling (History Faculty). We are very grateful for the sponsorship
and support we received from the Catherine Armstrong and the
BHRN, the Bibliographical Society, the Bodleian Library, the
19
Centre for the Study of the Book, and Merton College. Many
thanks are due as well as to our speakers, session chairs, workshop
leaders, and of course to our delegates for such an enjoyable and
stimulating day.
The workshop day involved many parts of the book history
community in Oxford - the two universities; the Centre for the
Study of the Book at the Bodleian Library; and the history of the
book group at Merton. This account of the day would not be
complete, however, without mentioning some of the other centres
of book-historical research in the city. The Oxford Bibliographical
Society is closely associated with the University, but its programme
of events is open to all (see www.oxbibsoc.org.uk). A seminar at
All Souls College, convened by Professor Ian Maclean, focusses in
particular on the book within early-modern intellectual history.
The annual Lyell and McKenzie Lectures, respectively honouring
one of the Bodleian's twentieth-century benefactors and the
pioneering book historian and bibliographer D. F. McKenzie, are
held each year: information on all these events, and many more, is
available through the Centre for the Study of the Book's website
(http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/csb/) and Ian Gadd's indispensable
HoBO site (http://www.hobo.org.uk). In 2012-13 it is hoped that
a seminar series in book history will be established, run jointly
between the University's Faculty of English and the Book History
and Publishing Culture postgraduate programme at Oxford
Brookes. For information on this initiative, contact
giles.bergel@ell.ox.ac.uk
Our next event will be held in Chethams Library, Manchester on
November 30 2012. For more information please see the call for
papers below.
Please visit the Book History Research Network website for more
information or if you would like to join.
http://www.bookhistory.org.uk/book-history-research-network
20
National Archive Publisher Deposits:
The list of publishers’ records deposited in English and Scottish
local and national archives has been updated for 2011 and can be
found on the Book History Research Network website.
Call for papers:
From the pamphleteers of the English Civil War to the library of
‘Occupy Wall Street’, the image of the book has often been a
central element of political propaganda. But in what ways have
cultures of books and reading impacted upon and shaped political
action and ideologies? Or, conversely, how has politics shaped the
form and understanding of texts?
We invite paper proposals relating to the theme of ‘Politics and
the Power of Print’, from any historical period or geographical
location, and relating to movements across the ideological
spectrum. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
 Political publishing, distribution and retailing networks
 The translation and editing of political texts
 Political libraries and reading groups, both physical and
digital
 Reading and local politics
 Censorship and the freedom of the press
 Political journals and newspapers
 Pamphlets, leaflets and political ephemera
 The occupational and industrial politics of
printing/publishing
 Politics and the novel
 The iconography of the book/printing press in political
communication
21
The Study Day will take place at the historic Chetham’s Library,
Manchester, where Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx gathered
material on English history and political economy in the 1840s.
Please send proposals of no more than 300 words to Catherine
Feely at cathfeely@gmail.com by 2nd October 2012.
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Printing Historical Society
F
ounded in London in 1964, The Printing Historical Society
fosters interest in the history of printing and encourages the
study and preservation of printing machinery, equipment and
records of historical value.
The Society’s Journal, issued twice annually, maintains a high
standard of scholarship and distinction in production, publishing
the results of original research in the histories of the machinery
and equipment, of the industry and its personnel, of the printing
processes, and of the design of its artefacts (books, newspapers,
journals, fine prints, and ephemera). A newsletter, Printing History
News, is published jointly with the Friends of St Bride Library and
the National Printing Heritage Trust and is issued four times
annually.
The Society welcomes individual and institutional members.
Current members include printers, designers, typographers,
publishers, librarians, collectors, booksellers, and historians.
Further information on the Society and how to become a member
can be found on the Society’s website:
http://www.printinghistoricalsociety.org.uk
23
BOOK REVIEWS
John Hinks and Matthew Day (eds.), From Compositors to Collectors:
Essays on Book-Trade History (New Castle and London: Oak Knoll
Press and The British Library, 2012), 226 x 152mm, pp. 382, ISBN
978 0712358729, £45 hardback, 53 black and white illustrations.
The 19 essays in this collection, from contributors to recent Print
Networks conferences, are divided into two sections split between
the process of textual production (From Compositors, Part One) to
circulation and consumption (To Collectors, Part Two). As Matthew
Day writes in his informative introduction, there are a number of
common features that reach across this artificial divide of
production and reception, such as authorial intention and
commercial interests.
Part One opens with Mariko Nagase's investigation of the
composition of the 1661 edition of Thomas Middleton's The Mayor
of Quinborough. Close examination of the text, such as comparing
decorative bands of florets and damaged type, enables her to
identify a particular printer. Conjecturing whether it was the editor
or printer who made decisions about spelling, typeface,
punctuation and the layout of the text, Nagase demonstrates that
such details only make sense when one looks at the whole context
of the production of a book as a manufactured object, and that a
practical and methodological approach is crucial in identifying the
different craftsmen involved in the processes of production.
Matthew Day considers the use of eighteenth-century
editors' use of prefatory material to shape and comment on the
text of travel collections and to discredit or criticize those of rival
publications. Issues of content, compilations, republications,
novelty, and developments such as cheaper production of both
illustrations and publication in separates or numbers greatly
increased competition. Quoting literary theorist Gérard Genette's
definition of 'paratexts', Day argues that subsidiary and secondary
material such as prefaces were an essential part of the book trade's
promotional strategies as a means of positioning their product.
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The eighteenth-century printer and anecdotist John Nichols
is the subject of Daniel Cook's 'Labor ipse voluptas: John Nichols's
Swiftiana'. Cook argues that Nichols, an obsessive collector of
Swiftiana for more than forty years, may not have been a great
editor, but was an excellent and inclusive discoverer of texts. Cook
concludes that Nichols's catch-all method was preferable to Deane
Swift's destruction of manuscripts.
Stephen W. Brown explores the fate of William Smellie's
Philosophy of Natural History. Initially published in Edinburgh in
1790, it took on a second life in the United States where, edited
and adapted by Dr John Ware as a textbook on natural history for
schools and colleges, it went through 35 different editions and
rewrites between 1791 and 1872. By 1860, and after the
publication in 1859 of Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species by
Natural Selection, keeping only thirty-nine pages from Smellie's
original 1790 text, Ware used the book to present his creationist
vision. Brown concludes that Smellie's Philosophy of Natural History
clearly demonstrates how an editor can redirect a book from the
intentions of the original author and publisher.
Thomas Ruddiman: Librarian, Publisher, Printer and Collector by
Brian Hillyard describes the career of Ruddiman (1674-1757),
librarian of the Advocates Library in Edinburgh, author
(Ruddiman's Rudiments), and publisher of legal papers, advocates'
theses and university dissertations, bookseller providing textbooks
and collector.
In The Poet and his Publishers: Shaping Tennyson's Public Image,
Jim Cheshire investigates the role of the publisher in mediating
between the author and his reading public. He argues that the
Moxon firm of publishers 'was a powerful influence on the
construction of Tennyson's image but that commercial pressures
created a conflict between how the publisher presented the poet
and how Tennyson wanted to be seen'. Cheshire considers the
impact of Moxon's new manager James Bertrand Payne, driven by
commercial pressures of the Victorian book trade, on his attempts
in the mid 1860s to promote editions to a largely female readership
through the traditional avenue of Christmas and New Years' gift
books and by publishing a lavish edition of Idylls of the King
illustrated by the French artist Gustave Doré. Cheshire also
discusses the ramifications of Tennyson's American editions,
25
whether endorsed or not, in the absence of any protection from
copyright law.
The serialization of Wilkie Collins' The Law and the Lady in
The Graphic Magazine is discussed in Catherine Delafield's Text in
Context: The Law and the Lady and the Graphic. The editor of The
Graphic, Arthur Locker, considering that part of the novel was
improper, sought to amend the end of the eighteenth instalment,
but was obliged to print a retraction as a clause in Collins' contract
forbade any alteration. At the end of the serialization Locker, in a
column adjacent to the final paragraph, commented that the story
was 'not one which we should have voluntarily selected to place
before our readers'. Delafield explores the reader's experience of
the serial as a text within the context of its printed appearance
including advertisements, illustrations and editorial comments
whether as a preface or 'across column' remarks.
The theme of serialization is continued in Boz versus Dickens:
paratext, pseudonyms and serialization in the Victorian literary marketplace.
Rob Allen states that 'The purpose of this essay is to examine how
far from 1836-1839 the relationship between the pseudonym 'Boz',
and the real author, Charles Dickens, was staged in the paratext to
work attributed to both of them'. Allen traces the emergence of
'Boz', Dickens' relationship with his early publishers Macrone,
Bentley and Chapman and Hall and how, in the passage from one
publisher to another, it was necessary for Dickens to assert his
own name above that of his pseudonym without losing the
valuable asset of the name 'Boz', which had made him famous.
The power of large publishers in the process of 'developing'
modern novels as a product is demonstrated in Rachel Bower's The
operation of Literary Institutions in the construction of National Literary
Aesthetics in Fadia Faquir's 'My Name is Salma' (2007). This novel
was published in sixteen countries and translated into thirteen
languages, but Bowers argues that although certain publishers
market 'transnational narratives across national borders',
paradoxically they reinforce cultural stereotypes, with the
marketing of twenty-first century Anglophone Arab literature,
particularly on book covers, using 'images of veils, deserts… and
solitary women,' insinuating 'exotic tales of oppressed Muslim
women' and 'strongly suggest they contain authentic accounts of
individual suffering, salacious tales of torture and triumph over
26
oppression'. The author plays little part in the 'book supply chain,'
market-driven objectives for selling books taking priority, with
even narrative and book titles being manipulated to create
sensation.
Part Two begins with 'La conquest du sang real': Edward, Second
Viscount Conway's quest for books by Daniel Starza Smith, who asks
'what, in fact, constituted a large library in the early modern
period?' One of the largest and best known was amassed by
Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel, the art collecting Earl,
comprising 4,500 books by the mid seventeenth century. However,
the libraries of Edward, 2nd Viscount Conway tripled Arundel's
1646 collection, his 1636 and 1641 library catalogues together
recording 13,000 volumes. Daniel Starza Smith shows how
Conway put his collection together, including even plays and street
ballads, the booksellers he frequented and the continental contacts
he made, concluding that 'Conway's libraries offer a more
democratic representation of the knowledge available in
seventeenth century Europe than almost every other private
repository'. They constitute 'the shortest and most accurate route
to knowledge of what was known in Renaissance England - and
Ireland - about virtually every subject'.
The book buying activities of Dr James Fraser of Chelsea
(1645-1731) is the subject of Iain Beavan's investigation. From
1688 to 1718 Fraser held the sinecure post of 'Secretary and
Register' of the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, which enabled him the
leisure to trade in books and other activities, such as licenser of the
press. Fraser also donated books to Scottish institutions, including
1000 books to his old college King's College Library, Aberdeen.
Tracing the types of book that Fraser collected Beavan reveals a
more varied collection than merely theological and political, and
suggests Fraser had much wider interests which merited his
nickname 'catalogus'.
Maureen Bell looks at the collection of Titus Wheatcroft
(1679-1762), a parish clerk and master of an elementary school in
Ashover, Derbyshire. The catalogue provides valuable evidence of
what printed books and other cheaper printed material were
accessible to a literate but relatively humble rural reader in the first
half of the eighteenth century and can be contrasted to the other
collectors in these essays. Bell demonstrates that, as a man of
27
limited means, Titus often copied and adapted other people's texts,
and had access to popular printed texts, such as cheap broadsides
and chapbooks (now lost). As some of the literature was dated
even for Wheatcroft's own time, Bell's essay reinforces comments
made by William St Clair about the division between those who
could afford 'new knowledge', and those who had 'surpassed
knowledge', with the caveat that 'surpassed knowledge' often
remained popular whatever socio-economic level one was in.
Stephen W. Brown's Singing by the Book: eighteenth-century
Scottish songbooks, freemasonry, and Burns contrasts the Scottish
Masonic song anthologies to compilations made by Ramsay and
Burns, showing that they were produced for mass consumption.
Regionally printed, owned representationally across the classes
because of the democratic nature of Scottish Masonry, and used by
Masons and non Masons, particularly women, they provided cheap
access to the most popular songs of the day. Few of these
songbooks have survived being cheaply produced and handled
until they disintegrated, but they provide evidence of the popular
culture, offering an alternative source to historians of the
genealogy of Scots songs.
The Sale of James West's Library in 1773 by William Noblett
considers the catalogue and sale of the library of the lawyer and
MP James West (1703-1772) from his Covent Garden house and
his villa in Warwickshire. Noblett identifies the important works
sold and the leading purchasers, and the prices paid. Among
strengths of the collection were early printing, early 'Navigators,
discoverers and improvers', a 'History' section of interest to
antiquarian collectors with annotated copies by Le Neve, Stukeley,
and Dugdale, and extra-illustrated books. The dealers who
attended the London sale read like a Who's Who of the London
book trade. George Nicol being the most prominent, buying 320
lots including six Caxtons aquired for George III. Among leading
collectors was John Ratcliffe who bought 119 lots including ten
Caxtons and the bibliographical scholar William Herbert who
bought 304 lots.
The Linen Hall Library: Provincial-Metropolitan connections in the
late eighteenth century by S.C. Arndt offers an insight into the
establishment of the Belfast Reading Society in the 1790s, what
works the collection should comprise and the influences of trade
28
and politics. Belfast in the 1790s was developing from a country
town into a manufacturing centre with a port. The Enlightenment
tradition thrived in an environment full of radicals and reformers
eager for self-improvement. Arndt suggests that connections
between metropolitan London and provincial Belfast were more
complicated than merely supplying books, and opted for the
model established by Benjamin Franklin's Library Company of
Philadelphia founded in 1731. The 1793 catalogue of 135 titles
consists the essential reading of the society comparable to similar
institutions in Scotland and America and those at Manchester and
Liverpool. Religious works and Novels were noticeably absent, and
the overall aim being self- improvement. The 1795 catalogue
comprises mainly of scientific and philosophical works, travel,
history, fine arts and literature and some foreign language titles.
Arndt examines how books were purchased and in 1793 a decision
was taken to deal through Belfast booksellers and not direct with
London. After the 1798 rebellion and 1801 Act of Union the
Society seems to continue to favour the purchase of books from
Belfast or Dublin sources, and specified that for Roscoe's Life of
Lorenzo de' Medici they preferred a Dublin edition.
Lindsay Levy's essay Was Sir Walter Scott a Bibliomaniac?
considers his Abbotsford library as an 'autobiographical' one
which includes his books both as a personal reference library and
as a collection. In 1827 Scott refers to his 'old bibliomanical
hobby', a phrase which became popular after Thomas Dibdin's The
Bibliomania (London, 1809). Dibdin is usually credited with the
invention of the term 'bibliomania' although Levy points out that
John Ferriar's poem Bibliomania (London, 1809) had been copied
out by Scott.
In 'Several tons of Books': The creation, travels and rediscovery of
Thomas Cassidy's Recusant Library Joseph Marshall traces the history
of Thomas Cassidy's collection of mainly Catholic theology
including sixteenth and seventeenth century English recusant
books. Cassidy was a Franciscan friar in Dublin who created his
collection between the 1820s and his death in 1873. In 1885 the
'several tons of books' were incorporated into the library of Fort
Augustus Abbey in Scotland. In 1992 the National Library of
Scotland received on deposit a collection of 5000 books from Fort
Augustus Abbey. Marshall informs us that the cataloguing of
29
books is still ongoing, but the Cassidy collection seems to be a
coherent collection and, although religious books are dominant, it
includes editions of the classics, pamphlets, poetry, maps and
scientific works. The many duplicate texts may indicate that
Cassidy acquired whole libraries, there being many marks of
former ownership such as bookplates, marginalia, inscriptions and
library stamps.
K. A. Manley investigates the Twopenny Libraries of the
1930s, whose origins lay in the circulating libraries of the previous
centuries. In the first thirty years of the twentieth century larger
companies such as Mudie's, Boots and W. H. Smith were lending
books. However, in 1928 the publisher Victor Gollancz launched
inexpensive 'yellow-jacket' novels, and the same year saw Mills &
Boon deciding to concentrate on romantic fiction at low prices. To
cater for this new demand cheap private enterprise 'Twopenny
Libraries' providing 'the lower forms of fiction' became popular in
the 1930s. The book trade disliked these 'other traders' as they
took away business from libraries run by booksellers. However,
'partial remaindering' was extended by booksellers to twopenny
libraries, as well as public libraries. Objections were made in
Parliament to libraries 'lending for reward' but distinguishing
between different kinds of library presented a problem. Manley
concludes that although, in the end Twopenny Libraries quietly
faded away, in their time they encouraged an increase in the level
of readership in fiction.
Helen Smith's essay on the American Armed Services Editions
investigates how the Americans distributed 123 million copies of
1322 titles to their military personnel between 1943 and 1947. The
books were designed to be expendable, printed on cheap paper
with flimsy cardboard covers. However, people during and after
the war collected them, and Smith explores how cultural value
became attached to them.
James M’Kenzie-Hall
30
Printing and the Press: a history of printing in Newark-onTrent, Carolyn Drury. Privately published, 2012. A4 spiralbound, 42 pp, illustrated in colour.
Copies available for £5.00 (including P&P) from Millgate Museum,
Newark – tel. 01636 655730.
Carolyn Drury ran a project last year with school children in
Newark, which included a performance by the children of a
‘docudrama’ on the history of printing and the newspaper press in
the town. This publication is a valuable permanent reminder of the
project and makes for a fascinating read. It is good to see children
being encouraged to take an interest in the history of printing in
their town and Carolyn Drury is to be congratulated on her
achievement. Though clearly aimed at a popular readership the
booklet includes a wealth of information, surely for the most part
unavailable elsewhere, to interest the serious printing historian.
31
The story of local printing in this provincial market town is well
told in this very readable and generously illustrated (mostly in
colour) booklet, ranging from Newark’s first printer, James
Tomlinson, who set up his press in 1768, to lively interviews with
people working in the printing and newspaper trade in present-day
Newark. Anyone interested in provincial printing should obtain a
copy while they are still available. I am grateful to Maureen Bell for
alerting me to this publication which she found in her local
museum. A copy has been donated to St Bride Printing Library.
John Hinks
32
The Bibliographical Society
Research Grants and Fellowships 2013
Katharine F. Pantzer Jr Research Fellowship in the History of
the Printed Book
Katharine F. Pantzer Jr Research Scholarship in the History
of the Printed Book
The Bibliographical Society has received a generous bequest from
the estate of the distinguished bibliographer Katharine F. Pantzer
Jr. and has established two research awards in her memory: a
Fellowship of up to £4,000, and a Scholarship of up to £1,500, to
be awarded annually.
Applicants' research for either of the Pantzer awards must be
within the field of the bibliographical or book-historical study of
the printed book in the hand-press period, that is up to c.1830.
Applicants should be established scholars in the field but may be
university-based or independent researchers. There are no
restrictions as to age or nationality of applicants. The Pantzer
Fellowship, worth up to £4,000, is intended to assist with both
immediate research needs, such as microfilms or travelling
expenses, and longer-term support, for example prolonged visits
to libraries and archives. Applicants may use a part of the
Fellowship money to pay for teaching cover.
Major Grants for Bibliographical Research
Applications are invited from scholars engaged in bibliographical
research (on, for example, book history, textual transmission,
publishing, printing, bookbinding, book-ownership and bookcollecting) for Major Grants to be awarded in 2013. The Society
hopes to make awards both for immediate research needs, such as
for microfilms or travelling expenses, and for longer-term support,
for example to assist with prolonged visits to libraries and archives.
Several Major Grants, up to £2,000 each, will be awarded.
33
Applications for all of the above-mentioned awards must be
received by 11 January 2013.
The Society also accepts applications at any time during the year
for Minor Grants (£50-£200) and for Subventions (up to £250)
for conference organizers.
Further details of all awards and application forms may be found
on the Society’s website: www.bibsoc.org.uk
Ed Potten
Secretary to the Fellowships and Bursaries Subcommittee
The Bibliographical Society
c/o Cambridge University Library
West Road
Cambridge
CB3 9DR
Email: ejp62@cam.ac.uk
34
Printing Historical Society Small Research
Grants for 2013
The Printing Historical Society is pleased to continue its limited
number of small grants in 2013, including:
* Research on topics relating to the history of printing
* Publishable reports on archives relating to the history of printing
Grants are limited to historical research in: printing technology,
the printing and related industries, printed materials and artefacts,
type and typefounding, print culture, and printing processes and
design.
Applications for research funding may be up to £ 1,000;
applications for publishable reports on archives, up to £ 500. In
both cases grants may be used to cover material or other expenses,
including travel, subsistence, photography, etc. Applications
should specify the amount requested and offer a budget for the
use of the funds envisaged; costs incurred before application are
unlikely to be successful, as are projects that are deemed to be
primarily bibliographical. Students, academics and independent
researchers may apply. Some preference will be given to
independent researchers.
The application should consist of: 1) a covering letter of up to 500
words, containing a brief curriculum vitae, and the name, address
and email address of one referee (who has agreed to serve as your
referee), and 2) a description of the project and budget, of up to
1,000 words. The project description should state its purpose
clearly, and succinctly. Please also state whether your project is
part of a larger one, and whether you are applying elsewhere for
funding. You will be expected to submit a written report one year
after the award of your grant.
35
Submit your application to the Chairman of the PHS Grants &
Prizes Sub-Committee, Dr Peggy Smith, via email:
m.m.smith1@btinternet.com.
Hard copy submissions are no longer encouraged, but consult Dr
Smith if this is necessary.
Application deadline: 1 January 2013. Awards will be announced at
the PHS AGM in Spring 2013, for disbursal the following month.
36