Literary advertising and the shaping of British romanticism /

A book that has an entire chapter on Lord Byron and "branding"--who would not be intrigued? Mason (English, Brigham Young Univ.) explores the integration of marketing and literature from 1750 to 1850. These "entangled histories"--his words--encompass the birth of advertising alongside Romantic literature, the rise of the middle-class voracious reader, and the "commodification" of literature as a natural symbiosis between complementary facets of print culture. Mason provides an illuminating comparison of the Blackwood's circle and the founders of Amazon.com, pointing out how each group, in its own way and beginning with the best intentions, was soon enough dealing with authors' reviewing their own work. (At least the Blackwood's authors got paid for their reviews.) Mason's remark that attacks on Keats in Blackwood's resulted in part from the "puffery" in other publications to which the poet had acquiesced should spark further study. Book history is a solid and growing humanities discipline today. Publishers and booksellers who, after much experience, can discern a value proposition through the mist of their ideals may become profitable enough to be remembered and one day written about by scholars. Mason sets a fine example here. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. G. Shivel University of Miami