The Early American Bookseller: A Network History

Booksellers in colonial and 19th-century America were essential agents in the distribution of books and reading. This talk will explain how financial records, correspondence, and writing by booksellers can help to reconstruct print networks and geographies of books and reading. It will argue that the many instances of economic failure in American bookselling reveal various attempts to connect authors, readers, and publics in the face of geographic and infrastructural obstacles.