Description
Book SynopsisFirst realized commercially in the late eighteenth century, stereotypingthe creation of solid printing plates cast from moveable typefundamentally changed the way in which books were printed. Publishing Plates chronicles the technological and cultural shifts that resulted from the introduction of this technology in the United States. The commissioning of plates altered shop practices, distribution methods, and even the author-publisher relationship. Drawing on archival records, Jeffrey M. Makala traces the first uses of stereotyping in Philadelphia in 1812, its adoption by printers in New York and Philadelphia, and its effects on the trade. He looks closely at the printers, typefounders, authors, and publishers who watched small, regional, artisan-based printing traditions rapidly evolve, clearing the way for the industrialized publishing industry that would emerge in the United States at midcentury. Through case studies of the publisher Mathew Carey and the American Bible Society, o
Trade Review“An important, interesting, and thorough contribution to our knowledge of stereotyping and electrotyping and the history of their industrial implementation and economic impact in America. Publishing Plates contains extensive references to original sources, comprehensive narrative histories of the Carey company and the American Bible Society, and fascinating anecdotes that flesh out the importance of stereotyping and electrotyping.”
—Peter Shillingsburg,author of Textuality and Knowledge: Essays
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The Development and Spread of Stereotyping in Europe and North America
2. Mathew Carey and the Family Bible Marketplace
3. The American Bible Society and the Possibilities of Large-Scale Printing
4. Material Texts: Trade Sales, Reprinting, and the Book Trades
5. Stereotyping in Language, Literature, and Material Culture
Epilogue: Abraham Hart and Nineteenth-Century Changes in the Printing Trades
Appendix A: First Uses of Stereotype Plates in the United States, by Date and Location
Appendix B: “Directions for Repairing Plates,” ca. 1820
Notes
Bibliography
Index
