First published in 1981, this book offers a study of British and American popular fiction in the 1970s, a decade in which the quest for the superseller came to dominate the lives of publishers on both sides of the Atlantic.

First published in 1981, this book offers a study of British and American popular fiction in the 1970s, a decade in which the quest for the superseller came to dominate the lives of publishers on both sides of the Atlantic.

How much heavier was Thackeray's brain than Walt Whitman's? Which novels do American soldiers read? When did cigarettes first make an appearance in English literature? And, while we're about it, who wrote the first Western? In this book, the author contemplates questions such as these.

With over 900 biographical entries, more than 600 novels synopsized, and a wealth of background material on the publishers, reviewers and readers of the age the Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction is the fullest account of the period's fiction ever published. Now in a second edition, the book has been revised and a generous selection of images have been chosen to illustrate various aspects of Victorian publishing, writing, and reading life.

Organised alphabetically, the information provided will be a boon to students, researchers and all lovers of reading. The entries,...

This is the first-ever book length study of one of the most important and constantly innovative 19th century book and periodical publishers. The mysterious and often elusive but enormously influential Henry Colburn (c.1784 - 16 August 1855) was the pre-eminent publisher of 'silver-fork' novels, and of many influential new writers. Colburn's main claim to rehabilitation are his troop of 'name' authors: Lady Morgan, Disraeli, Bulwer-Lytton, Captain Marryat, G.P.R James, Mrs. Margaret Oliphant, Mrs. Catherine Gore, Mrs. Caroline Norton. Frances Trollope, Anthony Trollope, Richard Cobbold, R. S....