Romanticism, publishing, and dissent : Joseph Johnson and the cause of liberty

Joseph Johnson (1738-1809) was arguably the foremost bookseller of the late 18th century in England, publishing Joseph Priestley, William Cowper, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Mary Wollstonecroft, Wordsworth and Coleridge, among others, and his output closely linked to the turbulent events of his age. This book seeks to reassess the reputation of a man unfairly condemned in his own time as a dangerously 'radical' publisher and how far the works he published tended to promote the case for religious and political reform. "Joseph Johnson (1738-1809) was arguably the foremost bookseller of the late eighteenth century in England, publishing influential authors such as Joseph Priestley, William Cowper, Mary Wollstonecraft, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Erasmus Darwin, and his output is closely linked to the turbulent events of his age. The role he played is vital to our understanding of the wider social, literary and intellectual cross-currents in the Romantic period, and the complex relationship between politics and print. Though commonly associated with 'freethinkers', religious dissenters and 'radical'-minded reformers, an impartial survey of Johnson's output shows him to have been receptive to a broad range of opinions, sympathetic to reform but keen not to be shackled to any particular party and above all, fiercely independent. This wide-ranging contextual study re-assesses the reputation of a man unfairly condemned in his own time as a dangerously 'radical' publisher and considers how far the works he published promoted the case for religious and political change."--BOOK JACKET Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 9 List of Abbreviations......Page 11 Note on the Text......Page 12 Introduction......Page 13 1 Dissenting Origins......Page 18 2 Striving for Independence......Page 47 3 A Friend to Reformation......Page 76 4 Responses to Revolution......Page 108 5 The War of Opinion......Page 144 6 ‘Honest Joe’......Page 172 Notes......Page 199 Bibliography......Page 233 B......Page 250 D......Page 252 F......Page 253 H......Page 254 J......Page 255 O......Page 256 P......Page 257 R......Page 258 T......Page 259 Y......Page 260 Joseph Johnson (1738-1809) was arguably the foremost bookseller of the late eighteenth century in England, publishing Joseph Priestley, William Cowper, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Mary Wollstonecroft, Wordsworth and Coleridge, among others, and his output closely linked to the turbulent events of his age. This book seeks to reassess the reputation of a man unfairly condemned in his own time as a dangerously 'radical' publisher and how far the works he published tended to promote the case for religious and political reform.