Research Catalog

Pirating and publishing : the book trade in the age of Enlightenment

Title: Pirating and publishing : the book trade in the age of Enlightenment / Robert Darnton.
Author: Darnton, Robert
Publication: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2021]

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	JFE 21-8837	Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description

vi, 391 pages; 25 cm

Summary

"All of the known universe is governed solely by books," Voltaire asserted, looking back at the end of his life on the battles he had fought against prejudice, ignorance, and injustice. The Enlightenment as a whole was driven by the power of books. Yet under the Ancien Régime, the book trade was encumbered by conditions that would seem impossible today. There was no liberty of the press, no copyright, no royalties, no returns, and no limited liability. There were virtually no authors who lived from their pens, very few banks, and very little money-none, in fact, that took the form of paper bills guaranteed as legal specie by the state. How could books become such a force under such conditions? This book is meant to explain their power by showing how the publishing industry operated. It explores the ways that publishers behaved--their modes of thought and their strategies for translating intellectual capital into commercial value. Of course, the power of books lay primarily in their contents: the crack of Voltaire's wit, the grip of Rousseau's passion, the audacity of Diderot's thought experiments have rightly won recognition at the heart of literary history. But that history has not taken adequate account of the middlemen who brought literature to readers. Publishers played a decisive role at the juncture where literary, political, and economic history flowed into each other"--

Subject

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-370) and index.

Contents

Publishing -- The rules of the game -- The landscape in Paris -- The fertile crescent -- Pirating -- How to pirate a book -- Portraits of pirates -- Underground Geneva -- A confederation of pirates -- The struggle to pirate Rousseau and Voltaire -- Inside a Swiss publishing house -- Business as usual -- Our man in Paris -- Relations with authors -- Making and losing money.

Call Number

JFE 21-8837

ISBN

9780195144529
019514452X

LCCN

2020022939

OCLC

1183400424

Author

Darnton, Robert, author.

Title

Pirating and publishing : the book trade in the age of Enlightenment / Robert Darnton.

Publisher

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2021]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-370) and index.

Chronological Term

1700-1799

Other Form:

Online version: Darnton, Robert. Pirating and publishing New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2021] 9780197529737 (DLC) 2020022940

Research Call Number

JFE 21-8837

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