Prior to the Civil War, publishing in America underwent a transformation from a genteel artisan trade supported by civic patronage and religious groups to a thr

A new look at the "eccentric author" figure in early nineteenth-century America

Challenging traditional gender expectations, thousands of girls of Gibson's generation not only aspired to public careers as writers, artists, educators, and ev

“We are a much-lectured people,” wrote Robert Spence Watson in 1897. Beginning at mid-century, cities and towns across England used the popular lecture for

An authoritative and lively account of the development of the genre, by leading experts in the field.