Abstract
The golden touch of rapid economic growth that characterized the Gilded Age of American history did not leave unchanged the practice of book publishing – paper and printing materials were cheaper than ever before, and new mechanization processes made printing faster and more economical. These and other changes in production and distribution resulted in unprecedented numbers of books in circulation, and, as physical books proliferated, the very meaning of the book object was transformed and fragmented – an old form colliding with a new century. Book ownership, especially of works other than the Bible, had formerly been restricted to a relatively small and elite population. With the growth of public education and the decreasing cost of printed material, reading and accumulation of books simultaneously became possible for a massively expanded audience. For readers, access to books allowed new social and cultural opportunities, but the sheer abundance of books being produced in the period was also a source of anxiety about their presence and use. By examining different facets of Gilded Age book, I hope to show how these anxieties were navigated amid attempts to define and inhabit proper bookish behavior. As books were being written, printed, and distributed in greater quantities than ever before, people had to learn what to do with them. In making my argument, source materials include A Publisher’s Confession by Walter Hines Page, Adolf Growoll’s two-volume manual on bookselling, and a variety of etiquette manuals and household guides.
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