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"Reported to be distracted": the suicide of Puritan entrepreneur Peter Cole.

From: The Historian  |  Date: 1/1/2004  |  Author: Furdell, Elizabeth Lane

ON THE FOURTH OF DECEMBER IN 1665, prominent London bookseller and printer Peter Cole hanged himself from the rafters of his warehouse in Leadenhall Street. Richard Smyth noted in his famous Obituary that Cole was "reported to be distracted," and he surely had cause. (1) Business pressures, illness, and tumultuous political issues disturbed an already volatile spirit. This article investigates the suicide of Peter Cole within the context of the cutthroat world of partisan publishing ...

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