Chapbooks

Chapbooks

CHAPBOOKS

CHAPBOOKS were cheap, popular pamphlets, generally printed on a single sheet and folded to form twenty-four pages or fewer, often crudely illustrated with woodcuts, and sold by chapmen. Published in the tens of thousands in America until about 1850, these books were most numerous between 1800 and 1825. For over a century, chapbooks were the only literature available in the average home except the Bible, the almanac, and the Newspaper. They contained fairy tales, biographies of heroes and rascals, riddles, jests, poems, songs, speeches, accounts of shipwrecks and Indian activities, tales of highwaymen, deathbed scenes, accounts of executions, romances, astrology, palmistry, etiquette books, letters and valentines, and moral (and sometimes immoral) tales.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Preston, Cathy Lynn, and Michael J. Preston, eds. The Other Print Tradition: Essays on Chapbooks, Broadsides, and Related Ephemera. New York: Garland, 1995.

R. W. G.Vail/a. e.

See alsoAlmanacs ; Literature: Children's Literature, Popular Literature .

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"Chapbooks." Dictionary of American History. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Chapbooks." Dictionary of American History. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3401800733.html

"Chapbooks." Dictionary of American History. 2003. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3401800733.html

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Chapbooks

Chapbooks, pamphlet editions of popular literature, widely distributed in the early U.S., especially during the first quarter of the 19th century. Like the English publications of the same type, they included such various materials as jokes, ballads, marvelous accounts, fables, Gothic tales, biographies of popular heroes, model letters, moral stories, and orations. Mason Weems was an author and peddler of chapbooks, and among the prominent publishers was Isaiah Thomas. Chapbooks shared with almanacs and newspapers the most important place in the dissemination of popular literature in their time.

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James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Chapbooks." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Chapbooks." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-Chapbooks.html

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Chapbooks." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-Chapbooks.html

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chapbook

chapbook one of the pamphlets formerly sold in Europe and America by itinerant agents, or "chapmen." Chapbooks were inexpensive—in England often costing only a penny—and, like the broadside, they were usually anonymous and undated. The texts were similar to those of current tabloid newspapers and therefore reveal much about the popular taste of the 16th, 17th, and 18th cent. The term is occasionally used to refer to old manuscripts showing national character through the use of vernacular expressions.

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"chapbook." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"chapbook." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-chapbook.html

"chapbook." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-chapbook.html

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chapbook

chapbook, a modern name applied by book-collectors and others to specimens of the popular literature which was formerly circulated by itinerant dealers or chapmen, consisting chiefly of small pamphlets of popular tales, ballads, tracts, etc. They reproduced old romances, stories, nursery rhymes, and fairy tales. They were issued in great numbers throughout the 18th cent.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "chapbook." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "chapbook." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-chapbook.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "chapbook." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-chapbook.html

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chapbook

chapbook a small pamphlet containing tales, ballads, or tracts, sold by pedlars; (chiefly in North America) a small paper-covered booklet, typically containing poems or fiction. The term is recorded from the early 19th century, and the first element comes from chapman, archaic term for a pedlar.

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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "chapbook." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "chapbook." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-chapbook.html

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "chapbook." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-chapbook.html

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chap-book

chap-book pamphlet of popular literature formerly hawked by itinerant dealers. XIX. f. chap in CHAPMAN + BOOK.

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T. F. HOAD. "chap-book." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

T. F. HOAD. "chap-book." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-chapbook.html

T. F. HOAD. "chap-book." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-chapbook.html

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chapbook

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"chapbook." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"chapbook." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-chapbook.html

"chapbook." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-chapbook.html

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

Chapbooks Now. (Notes & Comments).
Magazine article from: Chicago Review; 9/22/2001
Small chapbooks make a big impression.(Field Notes)(poetry chapbooks)(Book...
Magazine article from: The Women's Review of Books; 3/1/2009
WORDS ON POETRY: CHAPBOOKS: SMALL SETTINGS FOR POETIC VOICES.(Outlook)
Newspaper article from: The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, NM); 12/16/2001

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