American Literary Publishing in the Mid-nineteenth Century : The Business of Ticknor and Fields

Central questions in literary publishing in mid-nineteenth-century North America and Britain are addressed through study of the records of one of the pre-eminent publishers of the time. Michael Winship examines the unusually rich archives of Boston-based Ticknor and Fields, and explores its implications for literary and cultural history.

This is a study of some of the central questions in literary publishing in mid-nineteenth-century North America and Britain, addressed through examination of the unusually rich archives of a unique publishing firm. Boston-based Ticknor and Fields, one of the pre-eminent literary publishers of its time, enjoyed close links with Britain, and also developed new production, distribution, and marketing skills as the settlement of North America pushed ever further west. Michael Winship has studied the firm's business records and publications in detail: he reveals what Ticknor and Fields published, its costs of production, the ways it marketed and distributed its books, and the profits it made. Winship goes on to explore the implications of the firm's work for the book trade in general, and to show how an investigation of Ticknor and Fields enriches our understanding of the literary and cultural history of Britain and North America.