Sponsored
British Writers, Popular Literature and New Media Innovation, 1820-45 - (Nineteenth-Century and Neo-Victorian Cultures) by Alexis Easley (Hardcover)
About this item
Highlights
- The emergence of a mass reading public during the early decades of the nineteenth century sparked a period of creative innovation in the popular press.
- About the Author: Alexis Easley is Professor of English at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.
- 336 Pages
- Literary Criticism, Modern
- Series Name: Nineteenth-Century and Neo-Victorian Cultures
Description
About the Book
The first edited essay collection of its kind to focus on innovators and innovations in the mass-market press from 1820-45Book Synopsis
The emergence of a mass reading public during the early decades of the nineteenth century sparked a period of creative innovation in the popular press. This collection focuses on the early decades of the nineteenth century as a key period of innovation in the popular press. Steam printing, popular education campaigns, and new technologies of illustration led to new trends in book and periodical production.From the Back Cover
[headline]The emergence of a mass reading public during the early decades of the nineteenth century sparked a period of creative innovation in the popular press While today we might associate 'new media' with digital technologies, such innovations have a long history that precedes - and in many ways anticipates - the present moment. This collection reveals how the period between 1820 and 1845 was crucial in the development of the modern press, including experimentation with new publication formats; the reinvention and remediation of older forms; and the definition of new kinds of contributors and audiences for print. It brings to light the contributions of many important but long-forgotten writers, illustrators and editors who created and harnessed the idea of a mass reading public and shows how steam printing, popular education campaigns and new technologies of illustration led to new trends in book and periodical production. [bio]Alexis Easley is Professor of English at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is the author of First-Person Anonymous: Women Writers and Victorian Print Media, 1830-70 (2004) and Literary Celebrity, Gender, and Victorian Authorship, 1850-1914 (2011). She has also co-edited four books, most recently Women, Periodicals, and Print Culture in Britain, 1830s-1900s, with Clare Gill and Beth Rodgers (2019).Review Quotes
This book explores innovations in the mass-market press--periodicals, newspapers, books--in the late Regency and early Victorian periods. Chapters focus on such topics as serial miscellanies, periodical portraits, memorials, comic annuals, environmental children's poetry, advertising, and periodical poetry. The author of each chapter presents a case study as a guide to possibilities of employing the vast fields of study. This work, with its high-quality illustrations and careful documentation, will be of interest to students of history and literature. The reader will gain valuable insights into the innovations sparked by the rapid increase in literacy and technological advances, such as the adaptation of steam power in printing. The comprehensive bibliography can serve as a guide to further research.
Summing Up: Highly recommended.--J. D. Vann, emeritus, University of North Texas "CHOICE"From penny bloods and religious tracts to weekly periodicals and humorous annuals filled with woodcut illustrations, these essays tell a compelling tale about how popular media forms grew and thrived. Offering an enlightening analysis of popular publishing, the contributors resituate the period as one that is essential to understanding not only nineteenth-century publishing, but also our own digital media environment.
--Jennifer Phegley, University of MissouriAbout the Author
Alexis Easley is Professor of English at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is the author of First-Person Anonymous: Women Writers and Victorian Print Media, 1830-70 (2004) and Literary Celebrity, Gender, and Victorian Authorship, 1850-1914 (2011). She has also co-edited four books, most recently Women, Periodicals, and Print Culture in Britain, 1830s-1900s, with Clare Gill and Beth Rodgers (2019). Her most recent book publication is New Media and the Rise of the Popular Woman Writer, 1832-60 (2021). This project was a 2019 recipient of the Linda H. Peterson Prize awarded by the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals. She is currently at work on a biography of Eliza Cook.