Women’s Labour and the History of the Book in Early Modern England

This collection reveals the valuable work that women achieved in publishing, printing, writing and reading early modern English books, from those who worked in the book trade to those who composed, selected, collected and annotated books. Women gathered rags for paper production, invested in books and oversaw the presses that printed them. Their writing and reading had an impact on their contemporaries and the developing literary canon. A focus on women’s work enables these essays to recognize the various forms of labour – textual and social as well as material and commercial – that women of different social classes engaged in. Those considered include the very poor, the middling sort who were active in the book trade, and the elite women authors and readers who participated in literary communities. Taken together, these essays convey the impressive work that women accomplished and their frequent collaborations with others in the making, marking, and marketing of early modern English books. This collection demonstrates the valuable work that women achieved in publishing, printing, writing and reading early modern English books, from those who worked in the book trade to those who composed, selected, collected and annotated books. Women gathered rags for paper production, invested in books and oversaw the presses that printed them. Their writing and reading had an impact on their contemporaries and the developing literary canon. Isabella Whitney, the Countess of Pembroke, Frances Wolfreston and 51 widow publishers are among those discussed at length. A focus on women’s work enables the recognition of the various forms of labour – textual and social as well as material and commercial – that women of different social classes engaged in. Those considered include the very poor, the middling sort who were active in the book trade, and the elite women authors and readers who participated in literary communities. Attention to class as well as gender enables a fuller sense of women’s industry in book-making along with their active book-sharing and mentoring. These essays also undo some long-standing assumptions: that stationers’ wives were the unwitting prey of ambitious apprentices; that a woman’s printing house could never be as productive as a man’s; and that only a handful of women edited Shakespeare’s plays before 1950. Working in depth with archival materials and historical documents, these scholars employ responsible speculation to describe the impressive work that women accomplished and their frequent collaborations with others in the making, marking, and marketing of early modern English books. Cover page Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS NOTE ON TEXTS ABBREVIATIONS 1 Introduction: Locating women’s labour Valerie Wayne The labours of Jacqueline du Thuit Vautrollier Field Making books Making texts and marking books Additional labours Notes References PART I Making books: Paper, publishers, printers 2 English rag-women and early modern paper production Heidi Craig The historical rag-picker in early modern England Rag-women in early modern English discourse Notes References 3 Widow publishers in London, 1540–1640 Alan B. Farmer Wealth and riches: Marriage and stationer widows Two kinds of publishers: Conservative and entrepreneurial Widow stationers in the 1630s Notes References 4 Female stationers and their second-plus husbands Sarah Neville Alice Bailey Charlewood Roberts Joan Sturgis Kingston Robinson Orwin Assuming women’s presence Notes References 5 Left to their own devices: Sixteenth-century widows and their printers’ devices Erika Mary Boeckeler Joan Merrye Jugge and her flock of pelicans Alice Bailey Charlewood Roberts leans out of the border Joan Sturgis Kingston Robinson Orwin cuts into the record Notes References 6 ‘Famed as far as one finds books’: Women in the Dutch and English book trades Martine van Elk Appendix of women stationers in seventeenth- century Amsterdam Notes References PART II Making texts:Authors and editors 7 Isabella Whitney amongst the stalls of Richard Jones Kirk Melnikoff Whitney’s ware Jones’s ‘store of Bookes’ Whitney’s aspirations Notes References 8 ‘All by her directing’: The Countess of Pembroke and her Arcadia Sarah Wall-Randell Notes References 9 Katharine Lee Bates and women’s editions of Shakespeare for students Molly G. Yarn Notes References PART III Marking books: Owners, readers, collectors, annotators 10 Patterns in women’s book ownership, 1500–1700 Georgianna Ziegler What were women reading? Doodlers, inscribers, collectors Women’s signatures and what they tell us Books as gifts Women as annotators Bringing owners alive Notes References 11 Reader, maker, mentor: The Countess of Huntingdon and her networks Elizabeth Zeman Kolkovich Hastings as an author and ‘maker’ of books Hastings as a discerning, erudite reader Hastings as a mentor: Influential, intimidating, playful Notes References 12 Frances Wolfreston’s annotations as labours of love Lori Humphrey Newcomb Recovering Wolfreston’s annotations Selective collecting, shared reading Wolfreston’s labours of annotation Marking as literary appreciation Notes References 13 Afterword: Widows, orphans and other errors Helen Smith Notes References INDEX This collection reveals the valuable work that women achieved in publishing, printing, writing and reading early modern English books, from those who worked in the book trade to those who composed, selected, collected and annotated books. Women gathered rags for paper production, invested in books and oversaw the presses that printed them. Their writing and reading had an impact on their contemporaries and the developing literary canon. A focus on women's work enables these essays to recognize the various forms of labour--textual and social as well as material and commercial--that women of different social classes engaged in. Those considered include the very poor, the middling sort who were active in the book trade, and the elite women authors and readers who participated in literary communities. Taken together, these essays convey the impressive work that women accomplished and their frequent collaborations with others in the making, marking, and marketing of early modern English books. This collection demonstrates the valuable work that women achieved in publishing, printing, writing and reading early modern English books, from those who worked in the book trade to those who composed, selected, collected and annotated books. Women gathered rags for paper production, invested in books and oversaw the presses that printed them. Their writing and reading had an impact on their contemporaries and the developing literary canon. Isabella Whitney, the Countess of Pembroke, Frances Wolfreston and 51 widow publishers are among those discussed at length. A focus on women's work enables the recognition of the various forms of labour--textual and social as well as material and commercial--that women of different social classes engaged in. Those considered include the very poor, the middling sort who were active in the book trade, and the elite women authors and readers who participated in literary communities. Attention to class as well as gender enables a fuller sense of women's industry in book-making along with their active book-sharing and mentoring. These essays also undo some long-standing assumptions: that stationers' wives were the unwitting prey of ambitious apprentices; that a woman's printing house could never be as productive as a man's; and that only a handful of women edited Shakespeare's plays before 1950. Working in depth with archival materials and historical documents, these scholars employ responsible speculation to describe the impressive work that women accomplished and their frequent collaborations with others in the making, marking, and marketing of early modern English books.--Provided by publisher This collection brings to light many of the women whose labours were important to the creation and consumption of early modern English books, from those who gathered linen rags on the streets of London for paper production, to those who ran printing houses and financed the production of books, sold them, wrote them, edited them, owned and read them. The evidence of extant books reveals that women who worked beside their husbands in printing houses and bookshops sometimes exerted considerable influence over their shops' business decisions. Most of the identifiable women stationers were widows, who often sought to minimize their financial risk through a conservative approach to publishing. But some were more enterpreneurial, expanding the network of those with whom they worked and increasing the number and types of books they issued. In their roles as authors, editors, and annotators, women further extended their impact on the history of early modern books. By considering women from widely differing backgrounds who engaged in manual, commercial, familial and literary forms of labour, this collection recovers women's participation in book history as never before. This collection brings to light many of the women whose labours were important to the creation and consumption of early modern English books, from those who gathered linen rags on the streets of London for paper production, to those who ran printing houses and financed the production of books, sold them, wrote them, edited them, owned and read them. The evidence of extant books reveals that women who worked beside their husbands in printing houses and bookshops sometimes exerted considerable influence over their shops' business decisions. Most of the identifiable women stationers were widows, who often sought to minimize their financial risk through a conservative approach to publishing. But some were more entrepreneurial, expanding the network of those with whom they worked and increasing the number and types of books they issued. In their roles as authors, editors, and annotators, women further extended their impact on the history of early modern books. By considering women from widely differing backgrounds who engaged in manual, commercial, familial and literary forms of labour, this collection recovers women's participation in book history as never before