London booksellers and American customers : transatlantic literary community and the Charleston Library Society, 1748-1811 /
In 1994, James Raven encountered a letterbook from the Charleston Library Society detailing the ordering, processing, and shipping of texts from London booksellers to their American customers. The 120 letters, covering the period 1758-1811, provided unique material for understanding the business of...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Columbia :
University of South Carolina Press,
©2002.
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| Series: | Carolina lowcountry and the Atlantic world.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Table of contents Book review (H-Net) |
| Summary: | In 1994, James Raven encountered a letterbook from the Charleston Library Society detailing the ordering, processing, and shipping of texts from London booksellers to their American customers. The 120 letters, covering the period 1758-1811, provided unique material for understanding the business of London booksellers (for whom very little correspondence has survived) and Raven decided to publish an annotated edition of the letters. The letterbook, reproduced in its entirety, forms an appendix to the present volume, but Raven's study has blossomed from a relatively narrow examination of booksellers and their customers to a larger exploration of the role of books and institutions such as the Library Society in the formation of elite cultural identity on the fringes of empire. As a result, this meticulously researched book has much to offer scholars of gentry culture and community in the eighteenth-century British Atlantic world as well as historians of the book--Publisher's Description. |
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| Physical Description: | xxii, 522 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 453-472) and index. |
| ISBN: | 1570034060 9781570034060 |