This volume focuses on the publisher's series as a cultural formation - a material artefact and component of cultural hierarchies. Contributors engage with archival research, cultural theory, literary and bibliometric analysis (amongst a range of other approaches) to contextualize the publisher's series in terms of its cultural and economic work.

'An invaluable and engrossing re-evaluation of the Publishers Series, providing stimulating international comparisons and a lasting and important contribution to modern social and cultural history' - James Raven, Professor in Modern History, University of Essex, UK

'The phenomenon of the publisher's series - so central to 18th and 19th-century publishing and reading practices - has never before been considered so fully. In the sheer breadth of the new material they encompass, enabling comparisons across time and space, these volumes will prove invaluable to students and scholars alike.' - Mary Hammond, Senior Lecturer, Department of English, University of Southampton, UK

Autorentext
VOLUME I PATRICK BUCKRIDGE Associate Professor, School of Humanities, Griffith University, Australia CECILE COTTENET Assistant-Professor, Universite de Provence, Aix-Marseille I, France SIMON ELIOT Professor of the History of the Book, Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK WALLACE KIRSOP Independent scholar, Australia KATE MACDONALD Senior Researcher, Department of English, University of Ghent, Belgium ANDREW NASH Senior Lecturer in the School of English and American Studies, University of Reading, UK GORDON B. NEAVILL Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Science, Wayne State University, USA FREDERICK NESTA Visiting Research Fellow, Institute of English Studies, University of London, UK ISABELLE OLIVERO independent scholar, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Paris, France BARBARA SCHAFF Professor of Literature and Culture, Gottingen University, Germany JOHN SPIERS Senior Research Fellow, Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK MICHELLE K. TROY Associate Professor of History, Hillyer College, University of Hartford, USA VOLUME II ROBERT FRASER Professor of English, Open University, UK JOHN B. HENCH Independent scholar, USA ABHIJIT GUPTA Reader in English, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India LISA KUITERT Professor in Book History and Manuscript Studies, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands RUTH PANOFSKY Associate ProfessorEnglish, Ryerson University, Canada ALISON RUKAVINA Instructor in Department of Film and English Studies, University of Alberta, Canada TERRY I. SEYMOUR Independent scholar, USA JOHN SPIERS Senior Research Fellow, Institute of English Studies, UK ELIZABETH TILLEY National University of Ireland, Galway, Eire SHAFQUAT TOWHEED Lecturer in Literature, Open University, UK ALVARO CEBALLOS VIRO Independent scholar, Germany NASSIA YAKOVAKI Assistant Professor on Early Modern European History, University of Thessally, Greece

Inhalt
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction: Wondering about 'the Causes of Causes'. The Publisher's Series, its Cultural Work and Meanings PART I: The Methodologies of Series and the Limits of Knowledge; J.Spiers Market Forces and Modernization in the French Book Trade in the Last Century of the 'Ancien Regime' and in the early 20th Century: Some Reflections on the Emergence of the Publisher's Series; W.Kirsop The Invention of the Book Series in France, 1850-1950; I.Olivero Canonicity, Reprint Publishing, and Copyright; G.B.Neavill 'To undertake such works as they find to be wanted': The Early Years of the Clarendon Press Series; S.Eliot Personality, Appreciation and Literary Education: Harrap's 'Poetry and Life' Series, 1911-1930; P.Buckridge Excavating original African-American 'pulp fiction': W. W. Norton's 'Old School Books' Series; C.Cottenet Thomas Nelson's and John Buchan: Mutual Marketing in the Publisher's Series; K.Macdonald The Series as Commodity: Marketing T. Fisher Unwin's 'Pseudonym' and 'Autonym' Libraries; F.Nesta Sifting out 'Rubbish' in the Literature of the 1920s: Chatto and Windus and the 'Phoenix Library'; A.Nash A Modern Library for Modern Times. Behind the Scenes at the Albatross Press; M.K.Troy Sound Information and Innocent Amusement: John Murray's Books on the Move; B.Schaff Index