This article explores the impact of Sandro Jung's research on the field of literary illustration over the past two decades. It takes as its main point of departure three of Jung's monographs-James Thomson's The Seasons: Print Culture and Visual Interpretation, 1730-1842 (2015); The Publishing and Marketing of Illustrated Literature in Scotland, 1760-1825 (2018); and Eighteenth-Century Illustration and Literary Material Culture: Richardson, Thomson, Defoe (2023)-to consider the ways in which his research has reshaped traditional notions of literary illustration by combining methodologies from literary studies, print culture studies, book history and media studies, in the process definitively establishing how book illustrations play a pivotal role in the marketing, dissemination, and reception of literary works. Highlighting such aspects as Jung's composite text-media conceptualization of textuality, the marketing function of illustrations, the transnational and regional migration and adaptation of images, and the materiality of literary illustration, the article uncovers the ways in which Jung's scholarly work has prompted a major redefinition and reevaluation of the medium of book illustration and has had a profound impact on the field of visual media studies and beyond.
This article examines a cluster of London-based small and independent presses, from the 1960s onwards, whose participants identify the for their publishing activities. Drawing on data collected through interviews with these practitioners, here termed 'London Blakeans', the article demonstrates that these groups represent a distinctive formation within both the history of independent publishing and the creative reception of Blake's work. Part 1 introduces key contexts, setting up the prominence of Blake-as-model within discourses around DIY and countercultural print media, assessing the historical foundation for Blake's reputation of 'independence' within small-press publishing networks, and characterising the political valences of Blake's adoption by these predominantly left-leaning groups. Part 2 presents a chronological redescription of Blakean small and independent publishing within London from the 1960s to the present day, drawing substantially upon interviews with writers, artists, and publishers within these networks. In presenting this material within the framework of publishing history, the article documents a series of texts and practices that have otherwise eluded archives and serious scholarly attention.
Stamped with the date on which they first appeared, periodicals are, by definition, time bound and destined to expire shortly after publication. However, the fact that periodically produced works from the eighteenth century survive to this day evidences the form's capacity to take on a sustained life, or an afterlife, beyond the original publication date. This article explores the 'afterlives' of periodical print to consider how readers interacted with periodicals. It focuses largely on the changing materiality of Joseph Addison's periodicals, and what this means for implied reading practices. The article builds on methodologies advanced by book historians to explore how the changing material qualities of periodicals facilitate vibrant textual afterlives. It concludes by offering two case studies, The Covent-Garden Journal (1752) and Common Sense (1737-43). The first of these explores the seeming incongruity in choosing to bind, gild, and extra-illustrate works that are supposedly ephemeral and disposable, while the second examines annotations to reveal who was originally reading issues of Common Sense and where they were doing so.
This paper explores the impact of the British publishing firm Mills & Boon's (M&B) 'colonial library' in India as well as its negotiation of new markets in what business historian Geoffrey Jones describes as first and second global economies. Founded in 1908, M&B distributed popular romance novels to colonial territories and established a strong brand identity, that continues today, among English-language readers. Once M&B was acquired by Harlequin in 1972, Harlequin Mills & Boon (HMB) built upon the strength of the M&B brand in the English-reading Indian market. By 2008, HMB established a local branch office in Mumbai and offered popular romance novels written by Indian authors for an Indian readership. HMB's negotiation of this international market offers insight into the demands of a new generation of readers in India and provides a case for exploring the characteristics of a first and second global economy.
