Description
Book SynopsisA biography of the early American printer William Parks. Examines his early career in England as well as his later work in Colonial Maryland and Virginia. Focuses on the print culture on both sides of the Atlantic as well as the societal pressures on printing and publishing.
Trade Review“This very welcome biography gathers up a surprising number of scholarly notes on and references to the important early American printer and newspaper publisher William Parks, and then adds new documentary evidence to the pile. To tell the story (and that it is a good narrative is one of the book’s strengths), A. Franklin Parks has truly had to produce a transatlantic study, not only because the materials of production and the information communicated involved British and American relations but also because Parks the printer worked in both worlds. Readers will be glad to get to know William Parks. He is an engaging and interesting man, a man of vision who enlightened two colonies.”
—Jim May,editor of the Eighteenth-Century Intelligencer
“This very welcome biography gathers up a surprising amount of scholarly notes on and book references to the important early American printer and newspaper publisher William Parks, and then adds new documentary evidence to the pile. To tell the story (and that it is a good narrative is one of the book's strengths) Professor A. Franklin Parks has truly had to produce a transatlantic study.”
—James E. May The Eighteenth Century Intelligencer
“Overall, this rich narrative is not only a nice addition to Lawrence Wroth’s works on Parks and colonial printing but also to the history of the book. While students of colonial America and the Atlantic world will benefit from this book, the author demonstrates new avenues to explore in studies on period reading and literature.”
—K. A. Wisniewski Maryland Historical Magazine
“This study is a valuable guide to the contexts in which religious, social and political print discourse took place in the southern colonies during the first decades of the eighteenth century.”
—Chris Fauske Anglican and Episcopal History
Table of ContentsContents
List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 Endings and Beginnings
2 The Worcestershire Apprentice
3 Striking Out on His Own
4 All the Encouraging Prospects of Success
5 Printing and Publishing in “The Age of Clamour”
6 “Printer to the Right Honourable the Lord Proprietor, and the Province” of Maryland
7 Economics, Enlightenment, and the Maryland Gazette
8 Transforming the Discourse
9 Serving Two Masters
10 The Williamsburg Print Shop
11 Controversy and the Virginia Gazette
12 William Parks, Gent.
Epilogue
Appendix: Parks’s Family Background
Notes
Index
