Throughout the history of text technology, the impetus of innovation has always been the faster production of more texts, to be consumed by more readers. But the effects have never been confined to merely quantitative change. The introduction of new technologies has also inspired new writers to take up the pen, writing about new subjects, inventing new genres, and reaching new social strata of readers. This happened after Gutenberg’s invention of printing with movable type, when entrepreneurial printers started to cast around for fresh writing to print and sell. It happened again in the nineteenth century after a quick succession of printing innovations made books cheaper and more widely available, leading to such new genres as detective fiction and popular romance. The mass education revolution of the second half of the nineteenth century enabled large groups of the population to emancipate themselves socially and intellectually. Everyone who had a mind to do so could turn to reading for knowledge, culture, and entertainment.