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The Enlightenment and the Book

Scottish Authors and Their Publishers in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and America

The Enlightenment and the Book

Scottish Authors and Their Publishers in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and America

The late eighteenth century witnessed an explosion of intellectual activity in Scotland by such luminaries as David Hume, Adam Smith, Hugh Blair, William Robertson, Adam Ferguson, James Boswell, and Robert Burns. And the books written by these seminal thinkers made a significant mark during their time in almost every field of polite literature and higher learning throughout Britain, Europe, and the Americas. 

In this magisterial history, Richard B. Sher breaks new ground for our understanding of the Enlightenment and the forgotten role of publishing during that period. The Enlightenment and the Book seeks to remedy the common misperception that such classics as The Wealth of Nations and The Life of Samuel Johnson were written by authors who eyed their publishers as minor functionaries in their profession. To the contrary, Sher shows how the process of bookmaking during the late eighteenth-century involved a deeply complex partnership between authors and their publishers, one in which writers saw the book industry not only as pivotal in the dissemination of their ideas, but also as crucial to their dreams of fame and monetary gain. Similarly, Sher demonstrates that publishers were involved in the project of bookmaking in order to advance human knowledge as well as to accumulate profits. 

The Enlightenment and the Book explores this tension between creativity and commerce that still exists in scholarly publishing today. Lavishly illustrated and elegantly conceived, it will be must reading for anyone interested in the history of the book or the production and diffusion of Enlightenment thought.

Read an excerpt.


842 pages | 45 halftones, 16 line drawings, 7 tables | 6 x 9 | © 2007

History: British and Irish History

Library Science and Publishing: Publishing

Literature and Literary Criticism: British and Irish Literature

Reviews

The Enlightenment and the Book is the missing link in the history of publishing. It connects the traditions of Britain and America and explains how the people and practices of the book trade shaped the very culture of intellectual tolerance that defined the Enlightenment. This is a remarkable achievement of social and intellectual history that will become a classic.”<Barbara M. Benedict, author of Curiosity: A Cultural History of Early Modern Inquiry>

Barbara Benedict

“This is a pioneering work that constitutes a really important contribution to book history and Enlightenment studies.”<Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, University of Michigan>

Elizabeth Eisenstein

“Sher provides a richly detailed map of the Scottish Enlightenment’s progress across the Atlantic, using book history as a navigational tool. Historians of the book in America will find here a wealth of new information and a fresh transatlantic perspective on the development of book publishing in the late eighteenth century.”<James N. Green, Library Company of Pennsylvania and coauthor of Benjamin Franklin, Writer and Printer>

James N. Green

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
Preface
Author’s Note
 
Introduction
Toward a Book History of the Scottish Enlightenment
Designs and Disclaimers
 
Part I. Scottish Authors in a World of Books

 
1. Composing the Scottish Enlightenment
            Progress through Print
            Building a Database of Scottish Enlightenment Authors and Books
 
2. Identity and Diversity among Scottish Authors
            The Social Contexts of Authorship
            Unity and Representation
 
3. The Rewards of Authorship
            Patrons, Publishers, and Places
            Copy Money and Its Uses
 
Part II. Publishing the Scottish Enlightenment in London and Edinburgh
 
4. Forging the London–Edinburgh Publishing Axis
            The Framework of Collaborative Publishing
            The Founding Publishers and Their Firms
 
5. The Heyday of Scottish Enlightenment Publishing
            The House of Strahan and Cadell
            Successors and Rivals
 
6. The Achievement of William Creech
            The Career of a Bookseller
            The Reputation of a Bookseller
 
Part III. Reprinting the Scottish Enlightenment in Dublin and Philadelphia 

7. The Rise and Fall of Irish Reprinting
            Publishers or Pirates?
            In the Company of Dublin Booksellers
 
8. Making Scottish Books in America, 1770–1784
            The Scottish Enlightenment and the American Book Trade
            The Emergence of Scottish Enlightenment Reprinting in America
 
9. “A More Extensive Diffusion of Useful Knowledge”: Philadelphia, 1784–1800
            Atlantic Crossings: Carey, Dobson, Young, and Campbell
            Immigrant Booksellers and Scotch Learning
 
Conclusion
            The Disintegration of the London–Edinburgh Publishing Axis
            The Pattern of Scottish Enlightenment Book History
 
Bibliography
Index

Awards

Economic and Social History Society of Scotland: Frank Watson Book Prize
Won

American Historical Association: Leo Gershoy Award
Won

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