The Common Writer: Life in Nineteenth-Century Grub Street (Cambridge Studies in Publishing & Printing History)

By Nigel Cross

Book Overview

This book examines the conditions of authorship and the development of publishing and journalism during the nineteenth century. It provides a detailed account on the social, cultural, and economic factors that control literary activity, and determine literary success or failure. There are chapters on the place of women and working-class writers in a predominantly male, middle-class publishing industry; on literary clubs, societies, and feuds; on patronage, charity, and state support for writers; on literary journalists and the development of the bohemian character; on the facts that inspired the fictional world of Thackeray's Pendennis and Gissing's New Grub Street; and on the long-running debates on the status of writers and the state of literature. Drawing on a wide range of contemporary sources, The Common Writer adds substantially to our understanding of nineteenth-century literary history and culture.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521357217
• ISBN13: 9780521357210
• Release Date: June 1988
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"