Jonathan Swift lived through a period of turbulence and innovation in the evolution of the book. His publications, perhaps more than those of any other single author, illustrate the range of developments that transformed print culture during the early Enlightenment. Swift was a prolific author and a frequent visitor at the printing house, and he wrote as critic and satirist about the nature of text. The shifting moods of irony, complicity and indignation that characterise his dealings with the book trade add a layer of complexity to the bibliographic record of his published works. The essays collected here offer the first comprehensive, integrated survey of that record. They shed new light on the politics of the eighteenth-century book trade, on Swift's innovations as a maker of books, on the habits and opinions revealed by his commentary on printed texts and on the re-shaping of the Swiftian book after his death.
• Offers detailed insight into a crucial period of change in the history of the book • Original, comprehensive account of Swift's dealings with the written and printed word • Combines research methods from bibliography, book-trade history, library studies and textual criticism
Contents
Introduction Paddy Bullard and James McLaverty; Part I. Swift's Books and their Environment: 1. Swift as a manuscript poet Stephen Karian; 2. Leaving the printer to his liberty: Swift and the London book trade, 1701–14 Ian Gadd; 3. What Swift did in libraries Paddy Bullard; Part II. Some Species of Swiftian Book: 4. The uses of the miscellany: Swift, Curll, and piracy Pat Rogers; 5. Swift's Tale of a Tub and the mock book Marcus Walsh; 6. Epistolary forms: published correspondence, letter-journals and books Abigail Williams; 7. Exploring the bibliographical limits of Gulliver's Travels Shef Rogers; 8. George Faulkner and Swift's collected works James McLaverty; Part III. Swift's Books in their Broader Context: 9. Censorship, libel and self-censorship Ian Higgins; 10. Swift's texts between Dublin and London Adam Rounce; 11. Publishing posthumous Swift: Dean Swift to Walter Scott Daniel Cook; 12. The mock-edition revisited: Swift to Mailer Claude Rawson.
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