H-100. The Eighteenth-Century Book - Advance Reading List

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  • Required Reading

    Amory, Hugh and David D. Hall, eds. A History of the Book in America, Volume 1: The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World. Worcester & Cambridge: American Antiquarian Society & Cambridge University Press, 2000; reprinted in paper by University of North Carolina Press). See especially chapter 5 (in 3 parts: by David D. Hall, John Bidwell, and James Raven), pp. 152–198; chapter 8.1 (by James N. Green), pp. 248–297, and chapter 9 (by Hugh Amory), pp. 314–346.

    Brewer, John. The Pleasures of the Imagination. London: Harper Collins, 1997. Read chapters 3 and 4, pp. 125–197. (You may wish to read other chapters as needed.)

    Carter, John. ABC for Book Collectors. London: Hart-Davis, 1952. 9th edition, revised by Nicolas Barker and Simran Thadani. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2016. The 8th edition (2004) is available free of charge as a PDF. An elegant and witty guide to essential terminology. Use any later edition.

    Chappell, Warren and Robert Bringhurst. A Short History of the Printed Word. Revised and updated edition. Vancouver: Hartley & Marks, 2000. Read chapter VII, pp. 158–190. (You may wish to read earlier sections as needed.)

    Gaskell, Philip. A New Introduction to Bibliography. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972, corrected 2nd printing, 1974; paperback edition, New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 1995.Use any printing except the 1st, uncorrected printing (1972). Please read pp. 1–185 (“Book Production: The Hand-Press Period 1500–1800”), 313–335, and 368–380, but don’t get bogged down in the technical details.

    Suarez, Michael F., S.J. and Michael L. Turner, The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Volume V, 1695–1830. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Read chapter 3 (by James Raven), pp. 85–117. (You may wish to read other chapters as needed.)