Jacob Tonson

Tonson, Jacob

Tonson, Jacob (1656–1737), publisher and bookseller who published the foremost poets and playwrights of the age; his long association with Dryden began in 1679, with the publication of his version of Troilus and Cressida, and his other writers included A. Behn, Otway, Cowley, Rowe, Addison, and Pope; he also acquired the profitable copyright of Paradise Lost. He was well known for his Miscellanies (1684–1709) in six parts, of which the earliest were edited and largely written by Dryden; they contained translations from Horace, Ovid, Lucretius, Virgil, etc., as well as original work by Pope, A. Philips, Swift, and others. He was secretary of the Kit-Cat Club and the butt of satire from Dryden (who mocked his ‘two left legs’) and Pope, who took up the theme of his ungainly legs in the Dunciad. The firm was continued by his nephew and great-nephew who bore the same name.

Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Tonson, Jacob." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Tonson, Jacob." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-TonsonJacob.html

Learn more about citation styles

Jacob Tonson

Jacob Tonson , 1656?–1736, English publisher. He and his brother Richard purchased the publication rights to Milton's Paradise Lost, a transaction later claimed as the firm's most profitable. With John Dryden he published a series of miscellany volumes (6 vol., 1684–1709), edited by Dryden and often referred to as Dryden's miscellany or Tonson's miscellany. Tonson was secretary of the Kit-Cat Club, a literary club which he founded c.1700, and was publisher of works by Addison, Steele, and Pope, among others.

Bibliography: See study by K. M. Lynch (1971).

Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

"Jacob Tonson." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Jacob Tonson." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Tonson-J.html

"Jacob Tonson." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Tonson-J.html

Learn more about citation styles

Free newspaper and magazine articles

Rowe's Shakespear (1709) and the Tonson house style.(Critical Essay)
Magazine article from: College Literature; 6/22/2004
books: The book club; book of the week THE KIT-KAT CLUB by Ophelia Field...
Newspaper article from: Sunday Mercury (Birmingham, England); 2/15/2009
Recent studies in Tudor and Stuart drama.(Tudor and Stuart Drama)
Magazine article from: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900; 3/22/1996

Pictures from Google Image Search

Click to see an enlarged picture
Click to see an enlarged picture
Click to see an enlarged picture

See more pictures of Tonson, Jacob