For many years scholars in the field of book studies have sought to expand the study of literary history by considering how the production, distribution, and reception of literary texts influence their meaning. For example, William Charvat famously urged scholars to examine the “reciprocal influences” between writers, publishers, and readers, and Robert Darnton similarly argued that printers, publishers, and booksellers have “molded the meaning of texts.” This foundational work has been expanded in recent years to include a growing interest in literary prestige and materiality. On the one hand, scholars have argued that the identification of certain texts and authors as culturally significant and worthy of artistic status is dependent on both institutional forms of patronage, which are removed from commercial interests, and systems of economic exchange, which are directly tied to consumer capitalism. In his study on literary celebrities, for example, Joe Moran argues that writers are “both cultural capital and marketable commodity” as “they often contain elements of the idea of the charismatic, uniquely inspired creative artist […] but they also gain legitimacy from the notion of celebrity as supported by broad popularity and success in the marketplace.” In his study of literary prizes, James F. English similarly argues that prestige “is woven together with, and cannot be understood apart from, the money economy,” and it is therefore necessary to expand the concept of economics “to include systems of nonmonetary, cultural, and symbolic transaction.” While consumerism and prestige would seem to represent opposing forces, in other words, they are actually interdependent, as the circulation of cultural capital cannot be entirely removed from the circulation of economic capital. In recent years scholars have also emphasized the importance of understanding how the material properties of literary texts contribute to their meaning. David Pearson argues, for example, that “understanding the history of books, and of the communication of ideas through books, needs to take into account the impact of their physical forms.” This work has been largely inspired by the rise of e-books, and it mainly focuses on recent examples of experimental literature that use print technologies in innovative ways. In order to understand the reciprocal influences between writers, publishers, and readers, therefore, it is important to consider the social forces that determine the cultural status of literary texts as well as the technologies that shape their material form.