18th Century Chapbook Holdings • by Gillian Dunks • 1

Hamilton Arts & Letters       A reader in the 21st century, particularly one engaged by poetry, is likely familiar with the chapbook as a niche publication: a lovingly, and often painstakingly, crafted small book incorporating elements of fine print. Such chapbooks are the products of small presses or are self-published by their authors. They occupy a unique space in publishing, for they are both beautiful and, due to their limited print runs and inexpensive bindings, more commercially viable than other types of publications.1 These chapbooks, though worthy of serious bibliographic examination, are not the subject of this essay. This article focuses on British chapbooks of the eighteenth century, which were part of the inexpensive printed materials (or ‘street literature’) read by people who left few other records of their lives behind – children and the working poor2 – as well as people from other social strata. These little books are heavily represented in the pre-1800 Disbounds Collection at the William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections, and it is from them that contemporary chapbooks derive their name and some of their features. To spend time with eighteenth-century chapbooks is to better understand the rich complexity of British literature, which encompasses profane as well as ‘sophisticated’ verse, and the features which differentiate the chapbook from other types of printed materials.    [  >>>>>   FORWARD ] 1 This is a generalization which holds true for some of the major Canadian chapbook series produced by publishers of the mid-20th century (see the Ryerson Poetry Chap-book Series as one example). It of course also holds true for the contemporary author who self publishes their work. 2 John Simons (ed.), Guy of Warwick and Other Chapbook Romances: Six Tales from the Popular Literature of Pre-Industrial England (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1998), 2.   + [Distillate © HA&L + Gillian Dunks {from the Greek bios} -- the course of a life.]