Textual Criticism, Books & Illuminated Manuscripts, Graphic Design - History & Criticism, English Fiction & Prose Literature - 19th Century - Literary Criticism, Publishing Industry - History, Publishing Industries - General & Miscellaneous, Graphic Desig

Author and printer in Victorian England

Name: Author and printer in Victorian England
Author: Allan C. Dooley
ISBN: 9780813914015

by Allan C. Dooley

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Overview

Author and Printer in Victorian England demonstrates that printing technology shapes texts. The technology involved was a nineteenth-century revolution in printing methods; the texts were classic literary works by Victorian authors. What was at stake was textual control: who would decide how the text would read - author, compositor, printer's reader, or publisher? In a unique fusion of literary history and printing history, Allan C. Dooley explores the interactions between individual authors and their publishers and printers. He takes the reader through each stage of a work's development, illustrating how authors attempted to perfect and protect their writings from compositional manuscript through stereotyped reprints. His analysis includes details of a wide range of technical innovations and changes in practices in the printing of books between the development of printing machines in the 1830s and 1840s and the introduction of the Linotype in the 1890s. Drawing on the experiences of leading Victorian authors, he shows how nineteenth-century printing practices both enhanced and diminished writers' abilities to control texts. He reveals that much more was under their control than has commonly been believed and that many authors took advantage of printing technologies in order to gain and maintain control over the texts of their works. But new kinds of errors and new sources of inaccuracy were introduced by the technology as well. One little-known but surprising fact pointed out by Dooley: Victorian authors frequently saw only one set of proofs, which they had to correct with great speed and without their manuscripts in hand. Author and Printer in Victorian England reaches some surprising and controversial conclusions, occasionally touching on current debates about the theory and practice of scholarly editing. Groundbreaking in its scholarship, it provides a basis for future work.

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Booknews

A historically and empirically founded account of the impact of technological constraints and advancements on the shape of 19th century texts. Specific examples of individual authors' dealings with their printers illustrate the degree of control each had over correction and revision. Analysis incluces details of innovations and changes in practice in the printing of books from the 1830s and 1840s to the introduction of the linotype in 1850. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)