Taylor Cooper, Emilee Johnson, Jenny Plaster
English 335
18 March 2006
Howe
Ball, Donald L. “Richardson’s Resourceful Wordmaking.” South Atlantic Bulletin, Vol. 41, No. 4. (Nov., 1976), 56-65. JSTOR 8 March 2006. <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0038-2868(197611)41:4<56:RRW>2.0.CO;2-T>
Brophy, Elizabeth Bergen. Samuel Richardson. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1987. 110- 25.
Brophy’s last chapter focuses on Richardson’s relationship with his texts as an author, printer and editor and criticisms from his increase his profit as a printer” (113). The epistolary style of writing not only adds to the length of his novels, but also seems cold and formal, though offering an array of realistic detail. One critic says that Richardson hides behind the guise of editor. Each of these criticisms link closely to Richardson’s training as a printer and his knowledge of the printing world during his time. The comments made by his contemporaries help modern readers understand not only print culture, but the literary and moral culture as well. Richardson’s use of his knowledge in printing and how that knowledge affects his texts supports our project on Richardson and printing during the eighteenth century.
Doody, Margaret Anne and Peter Sabor, ed. Samuel Richardson: Tercentenary Essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. 1-7.
Doody and Sabor’s introduction to their collection of essays concerning Richardson paints an informative and illustrative portrait of Richardson’s early years as a printer. By describing what types of material Richardson was reading and printing before he began his own writing career, we can better understand his motivations for writing and the context in which he wrote. They write, “Richardson’s work as a printer meant that he was on an important crossroads of communication, the Enlightenment’s network of exchange of information and ideas. (3)” These descriptions contradict many critics who believed that the only influence Richardson’s work as a printer had on his literary work was to make him verbose and long-winded for the sake of monetary gain.
Fysh, Stephanie. “Samuel Richardson as Printer and as Novelist, in Theory and in Practice.” The Work(s) of Samuel Richardson. Newark: U of Delaware P, 1997. 13-26.
In this opening chapter of The Work(s) of Samuel Richardson, Fysh introduces three approaches to studying Samuel Richardson as printer and as a novelist. Fysh suggests that one may study parallels between Richardson’s life and his novels, his novels as products of his ideology grounded in his position as a master printer, or Richardson as a “maker of books, both as printer and as novelist” (15). While these three topics of study vary in content, the essential idea that Fysh suggests is that “the activities and products of Richardson as printer and as novelist need not be separated at all, because Richardson was his own printer, and more fundamentally, because literature is physical” (16). As an elaboration of this main idea, Fysh explains the relationship of technology, text, and meaning to show the importance of studying Richardson in the context of print culture. Thus, Fysh’s chapter on Richardson as printer and novelist provides the foundation for studying eighteenth century print culture as a means to understand Richardson’s work.
Hannaford, Richard Gordon. Samuel Richardson, An Annotated Bibliography of Critical Studies. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc, 1980. 221-34.
McKillop, Alan D. “Richardson’s Early Years as a Printer.” The Review of English Studies, Vol. 9, No. 33. (Jan., 1933), 67-70.
JSTOR 8 March 2006. <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0034-6551(193301)1:9:33<67:REYAAP>2.0.CO;2-X>
McKillop gives detailed biographical information on Richardson’s life as a printer. Though gathering biographical data on a famous author seems a simple task, McKillop states, “Our knowledge of Samuel Richardson’s early career is so scanty that details trivial in themselves may be of considerable help in piecing out the record” (67). Thus, McKillop’s incorporation of Richardson’s associations with other printing families serves two purposes. First, the accumulation of facts allows some conjectures about Richardson’s business and lifestyle. Second, the emphasis on relations between different printing families, and the resulting success or failure of an individual printer, allows for a deeper understanding of the general printing and business practices of the time. This article links printing culture of Richardson’s time with Richardson’s efforts himself, the main thrust of our thesis.
Sale, William M. Samuel Richardson: Master Printer. Ithaca, New York: Cornell UP, 1950.
In his work, Samuel Richardson: Master Printer, Sale examines the life of Samuel Richardson in terms of his career as a printer. While Sale does not purport that his work is a biography, his study of Richardson as a master printer reveals how he came to a position “from which he could observe the most vital social problem of his age--the interpretation of the emergent middle class and the surviving aristocracy” (1). This, in turn, became the subject of the works which made him a famous novelist. Sale’s work shows that the center of printing in London, Salisbury Square, “was to him a microcosm. […] To his activities within the confines of this small world we must look if we hope to find the influences that shaped his mind and that finally made themselves felt in the nature and structure of his novels” (5). Thus, in order to more broadly and deeply understand the novels of Richardson, one must investigate eighteenth-century print culture and Richardson as a master printer.
Temple, Kathryn. “Printing Like a Post-Coloniolist: The Irish Piracy of Sir Charles Grandison.” Novel: A Forum on Fiction, Vol. 33, No. 2. (Spring, 2000), pp. 157-174.
Temple describes the Irish piracy of Richardson’s novel Sir Charles Grandison. It details how Richardson’s employees were bribed by Irish printers to secret them the first six copies of the novel so they could distribute copies throughout Ireland. Richardson’s response, written in two tracts which Temple details helps us to understand his attitudes toward copyright infringement and plagiarism, especially whilst considering his profession. It also gives accounts of the English’s near monopoly on the printing business and the financial aspects surrounding printing at this time.