Dr Kaley Kramer (Sheffield Hallam University), Dr Adam James Smith (York St John University), and Dr Rachel Stenner (University of Sussex) are seeking contributions for an ‘Element’ in the Cambridge University Press Publishing and Book Culture series.
The volume, which is contracted to CUP, is entitled The People of Print in the Seventeenth Century. It will be comprised of 10 x 2,750 word essays, each of which will profile one significant figure from the book and print trades (broadly defined) in the seventeenth century. Seeking in particular to recover neglected figures and hidden histories, the volume will be an intervention in the fields of book and print trade history and culture, rather than a comprehensive or ‘complete’ encyclopaedia. The volume will begin to recover the diversity of the book and print trades as well as the richness of material, cultural, and ideological networks in which they were situated.
The People of Print in the Seventeenth Century is intended to provide an inclusive, but necessarily partial, introduction for students and scholars of book and print trade history and culture. To that end, at least half of the figures profiled will be female. Each chapter will provide a succinct critical biography, historical context, and information about key networks and outputs for previously under-studied or under-represented figures who are significant for cultural, historical, social, or political reasons. This volume extends the editors’ research for Print Culture, Agency, and Regionality in the Hand Press Period (currently in press); contributions that explore the trades outside of London are especially welcome.
We intend The People of Print in the Seventeenth Century to be the first in a series of volumes which will ultimately include the sixteenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.
To propose a 2,750 word essay that profiles one figure, please email the editors by the 21st January 2022 with one short paragraph outlining why you think that figure should be included. You are welcome to propose a contribution for the Seventeenth Century and / or subsequent volumes (though the editors will prioritise responses for the Seventeenth Century).
A bio is not necessary, but please list up to 3 relevant publications or research projects. Submissions from PhD students and postdoctoral students are warmly encouraged. Submissions from researchers currently underrepresented in the relevant fields are also warmly encouraged, for instance researchers who identify as an ethnic minority; researchers with a disability; researchers of diverse gender identities and expressions.
Essays will be due by April 22nd 2022.