18th Century Print Culture

18th Century Printing Press

Though popular opinions on the clergy and the ability to be paid by the word are important factors in the shaping of Richardson’s texts, the single most important factor is that Richardson started as a printer before he began writing. Richardson’s relationship with the printing world has manifold consequences, among them the knowledge of production and publishing business, contacts and influencing manuscripts in the publishing world, and the relationships of master and apprentice in the printing industry.

As a master printer, Richardson knew that books encompassed much more than just the artistry of the author. Fysh describes some of the processes that take place in order to bring the physical object of the book into existence:

These labor processes include writing, economic exchange, composition (of type), proofreading, editing, printing, and binding…Books are not produced only by authors – they are also produced by publishers, editors (proofreaders or correctors, compilers and re-writers), makers of ink and of paper, printers (compositors and pressmen), and bookbinders. (23)

This intimacy with the business aspect of printing may have influenced Richardson’s decision to write in epistolary form. The letter is private and not dictated by commerce or labor supply. Thus, in Pamela, Richardson distances himself from any author’s general and his personal, bourgeois, relationship to the business of printing.

Though later more distanced from printing, Richardson started out as an apprentice in that trade. However, “By the beginning of the eighteenth century, the general situation of the printer’s apprentice was changing” (Fysh 32). Popular opinion at the time suggested apprentices should receive no wages or have the power to bargain for better conditions (Fysh 32). Richardson experienced this first hand, and thus his marked respect for current social boundaries, such as the class differences between Mr. B and Pamela, may stem from the increased hardship in his youth due to social change. His respect for the apprenticeship program was further proven when, as a master printer, Richardson became the “fourth-largest employer of apprentices between 1730-1850.” He also “accepted the responsibility for the moral guidance of his apprentices and felt that he stood in the relation both of parent and of master to them,” duties often neglected by masters in the eighteenth century (Fysh 37).

Though conservative and wary of social change, Richardson did his utmost to both be a successful printer and author, two seemingly disparate careers. Fysh says of Richardson, “We can take him as a kind of emblem of the link between the book trade, concerned with property, and the discourse of originality” (100). Richardson used his extensive knowledge of the printing business to gain freedom from “the whims and favors of booksellers.” He did this not only for financial security, but “the exercise of this choice became more clearly a measure of his preferences and his prejudices” ; Richardson printed only printed what he chose to print, exemplifying his moral and didactic code (Sale 3).

The success gained by Richardson stemmed from his knowledge of his audience wanting morally uplifting texts and when this audience would be available. Sale states: “As Richardson became more and more involved in publishing, he became increasingly sensitive to the timing of a book’s publication. He shared with the book trade a dislike of publishing…after the rising of Parliament and the emptying of the town in the spring” (95). Thus, his success as an author is not only due to his merit as a writer, but to his business acumen as well.

As his own printer, Richardson had great freedom and control. He was influenced by his training as a printer and by the texts he chose to print. The influences of these books, which “were written by men and women who were likewise interested in the morals and manners of the century,” is found in Richardson’s didactic writing style. Richardson did not read merely for entertainment, and neither did he print or write purely for entertainment’s sake. His position as an apprentice in a changing world and as a man comfortable in his class setting combined to make Richardson conservative yet financially successful in the eighteenth century.

Richardson and The Middle Class | The Epistolary Novel | Works Cited

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English 335, The 18th Century British Novel: Texts and Contexts, Washington and Lee University