The English common reader: a social history of the mass reading public, 1800-1900

(print) xx, 448 p. ; 24 cm2nd ed.Foreword By Jonathan Rose ix -- Preface To The Second Edition xv -- Preface xix -- Introduction 1 -- The Background : 1477-1800 -- 1. From Caxton To The Eighteenth Century 15 -- 2. The Eighteenth Century 30 -- 3. The Time Of Crisis, 1791-1800 67 -- The Nineteenth Century -- 4. The Social Background 81 -- 5. Religion 99 -- 6. The Utilitarian Spirit 129 -- 7. Elementary Education And Literacy 141 -- 8. Secondary Education 173 -- 9. The Mechanics'institutes And After 188 -- 10. Public Libraries 213 -- 11. The Self-Made Reader 240 -- 12. The Book Trade, 1800-1850 260 -- 13. The Book Trade, 1851-1900 294 -- 14. Periodicals And Newspapers, 1800-1850 318 -- 15. Periodicals And Newspapers, 1851-1900 348 -- 16. The Past And The Present 365 -- Appendixes -- Appendix -- A. Chronology Of The Mass Reading Public, 1774-1900 379 -- B. Best-Sellers 381 -- C. Periodical And Newspaper Circulation 39

The scholar adventurers

(print) xi, 338 p. ; 21 cmReprint. Originally published: New York : Macmillan, 1950. With new prefPreface to the Ohio State University Press Edition vii -- Introduction : The Unsung Scholar 1 -- I. The Secret of the Ebony Cabinet 16 -- II. The Case of the Curious Bibliographers 37 -- III. The Quest of the Knight-Prisoner 65 -- IV. Hunting for Manuscripts 86 -- V. Exit a Lady, Enter Another 122 -- VI. A Gallery of Inventors 142 -- VII. The Scholar and the Scientist 176 -- VIII. Secrets in Cipher 200 -- IX. The Destructive Elements 211 -- X. Shades of Mrs. Grundy 239 -- XI. Post-Mortems 249 -- XII. On the Trail of Byron 270 -- XIII. The Search for Sambir 289 -- XIV. Discoveries 298 -- The Book of Margery Kempe-Medwall's Fulgens and Lucres-The Poems of Thomas Traheme-The Poems of Edward Taylor-The Conway Letters-Browning's Essay on Chatterton-The Brontes' Childhood Fantasies -- Bibliographical Notes 319 -- Index 33