Shakespeare and the Book Trade follows on from Lukas Erne's groundbreaking Shakespeare as Literary Dramatist to examine the publication, constitution, dissemination and reception of Shakespeare's printed plays and poems in his own time and to argue that their popularity in the book trade has been greatly underestimated. Erne uses evidence from Shakespeare's publishers and the printed works to show that in the final years of the sixteenth century and the early part of the seventeenth century, 'Shakespeare' became a name from which money could be made, a book-trade commodity in which publishers had significant investments and an author who was bought, read, excerpted and collected on a surprising scale. Erne argues that Shakespeare, far from indifferent to his popularity in print, was an interested and complicit witness to his rise as a print-published author. Thanks to the book trade, Shakespeare's authorial ambition started to become bibliographic reality during his lifetime.
• The fullest treatment of the publication, dissemination and reception of printed Shakespeare in his own time • Shows how Shakespeare was disseminated not only in the theatre but also through the book trade • Comprises the Lyell Lectures in Bibliography of 2012, giving readers access to an expanded version of the prestigious lecture series • Follows on from Lukas Erne's Shakespeare as Literary Dramatist, named a Times Literary Supplement 'Book of the Year' in 2003
Contents
Introduction; 1. Quantifying Shakespeare's presence in print; 2. Shakespeare, publication and authorial misattribution; 3. The bibliographic and paratextual makeup of Shakespeare's Quarto playbooks; 4. Shakespeare's publishers; 5. The reception of printed Shakespeare; Appendix A. The publication of playbooks by Shakespeare and his contemporaries to 1660; Appendix B. Printed playbooks of professional plays, including reprints, 1583–1622; Appendix C. Shakespeare's publishers, 1593–1622.
Reviews
Advance praise: 'An admirable amount of original research has gone into the study, making it of use to a wide array of readers. With Shakespeare and the Book Trade, Lukas Erne manages to do that most coveted of things: he has written another book that everyone must read.' Patrick Cheney, Pennsylvania State University
Advance praise: 'Lukas Erne's follow-up volume to Shakespeare as Literary Dramatist always promised to be an exciting and challenging piece of scholarship. That promise is fully realised here. Shakespeare and the Book Trade is an engaging, intelligent, detailed and masterful study, which will serve as a standard reference work for years to come.' Andrew Murphy, University of St Andrews
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