class: middle # The Coming of Print, the Industrial Revolution of the Book, and Periodicals
### Matthew J. Lavin ### Clinical Assistant Professor of English and Director of Digital Media Lab ### University of Pittsburgh ### October 2017 --- class: middle
### "The adoption of printing made possible major changes in the manufacture, character, and commerce of books" (Johns 107)
--- class: middle
### "In the early modern period the most radical changes generally came from ambitions to restore the past" (Johns 107)
--- class: middle
### "Our subject needs to be these processes that bound together machine, object and culture" (Johns 108)
--- class: middle
### It is striking to realize that Gutenberg's early efforts were in fact typical of what was a period of artisinal ambition (Johns 110)
--- class: middle
### "The printing houses that these early craftsmen established soon became complex operations" (Johns112)
- #### What was the master-printer model? - #### What was a printer's chapel? --- class: middle
### "Most of what these workers printed were not books at all" (Johns 114)
- #### What did they print? - #### How does this relate to what we read about clay tablets? --- class: middle
### "In 1549, a guild was estbalished for Venice's book trade" (Johns 116)
- #### What were guilds, and why were guilds important? --- class: middle
### "Each country also adopted privilege and licence regimes" (Johns 116-117)
- #### How did these regimes differ from guild rules? --- class: middle
### Print "could not simply transcend locale altogether" (Johns 118)
- #### In what ways did print make readers less "local"? --- class: middle
### "Where printed books ended up - the lucky few at least - was in libraries" (Johns 122)
--- class: middle
### "The second mechanized, industrial revolution in book production was experienced in one century" (Raven 143)
--- class: middle
### "Just as critical as the technologies of printing and engraving were the changing productive relationships between printers, publishers, and the broader structure of the book trades" (Raven 144)
--- class: middle
### "Different countries and regions responded to what have been called their own book trade rhythms" (Raven 145)
- #### What were the main features of this transformation in the United States? --- class: middle
### In the nineteenth century, a "technological revolution" transformed many aspects of book production and distribution (Raven 146-147)
--- class: middle
### "Ultimately, it was the reduction in printing, typesetting, and paper costs that enabled new economies of scale" (Raven 151)
--- class: middle
### "In Europe and in the Americas, distinctions among publishers, printers and booksellers also took on modern appearances by the mid-nineteenth century" (Raven 155)
--- class: middle
### "The extension of cheap print and newspaper circulation, especially from the 1840s, represents the most pointed evidence for expanded literacy and for a broader audience for print" (Raven 159)
--- class: middle
### "These changes also brought about alterations to the physical appearance of books, print and newspapers" (Raven 155)
- #### What do we know so far about these changes? --- class: middle
### In 1855 Robert J. Bonner contract Fanny Fern "to write exclusively" for the
New York Ledger
(Smith XVI)
--- class: middle
### Bonner started out as a printer. He bought the
Merchants' Ledger and Statistical Review
and immediately changed the name to the
New York Ledger
(Smith XVII)
--- class: middle
### By 1860, the
New York Ledger
had a circulation of 400,000, with 50,000 copies sent by mail each issue (Smith XVII)
--- class: middle
### By 1860, the
New York Ledger
had a circulation of 400,000, with 50,000 copies sent by mail each issue (Smith XVII)
--- class: middle
### The author who published as Fanny Fern was born Sara Payson Willis in 1811 (Smith XIX)
--- class: middle
### Willis came from a long line of "men of letters" (Smith XXI)
--- class: middle
### At this time, Boston was the center of American publishing (Smith XXII)
--- class: middle
### Willis married in 1837 and had three daughters before being widowed in 1846" (Smith XXVII)
--- class: middle
### Willis worked as a seamstress and a teacher but couldn't support herself. She married Samuel P. Farrington, a family friend, in 1849. (Smith XXVII)
--- class: middle
### Willis left her husband after two years, and he retaliated by accusing her of adultery (Smith XXVII)
--- class: middle
### Meanwhile, many women were succeeding as "shrewd participants in the periodical press" (Smith XXX)
--- class: middle
### In 1851, Willis sent work to her brother Nathaniel and he replied that New York was "the most over-stocked market in the country, for writers" (Smith XXXI)
--- class: middle
### Willis and her brother became estranged for years after his harsh words and actions (Smith XXXII)
--- class: middle
### Circa fall of 1851, she started using the pen name Fenny Fern (Smith XXXIII)
--- class: middle
### Fern was outrageously successul, first with weekly dispatches and columns, then with her 1854 publication of
Ruth Hall
(Smith XXXIV)