Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

By its very definition, book history concentrates on the contents and artifact of the book. But to explore and understand the subject in all its dimensions, we need to extend beyond the book itself to consider a breadth of contextual issues. In addition to literary content and organization, we need to study topics such as printing and production; readership and the act of reading itself; the buying, selling, and distribution of books; the availability of, and discussion about, books, libraries, and literary societies. Printed ephemera can contribute to all of these areas of research, providing a rich and important source of information.What objects do we mean when we refer to ephemera? Even in the particular area of ephemera relating to the book, the range is enormous: prospectuses, catalogues, billheads and letterheads, bookmarks, posters announcing publications and literary events, handbills for circulating libraries, booksellers’ labels, galley proofs, book tokens, dust jackets, advertisements – the list goes on. Individually, items of ephemera might seem trivial and peripheral, but cumulatively they can throw a very particular light on history, offering not only factual detail but also an atmospheric and evocative direct link with the past.With the growth of literacy, communications, advertising, and marketing, there was a great proliferation of jobbing printing in the nineteenth ... log in or subscribe to read full text