Bestseller

November 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Boston-Gazette (November 2, 1772).

“The Sale of this Book has been so surprizingly rapid, as to demand Three Editions in New-York and Philadelphia.”

Two advertisements for “A DISSERTATION on the GOUT, and all CHRONIC DISEASES” by William Cadogan, “Fellow of the College of Physicians,” ran in the November 2, 1772, edition of the Boston-Gazette, one right above the other.  Benjamin Edes and John Gill, printers of that newspaper and printers of a Boston edition of Cadogan’s book, inserted the first advertisement.  Joseph Edwards, a bookseller, placed the other notice.

Both advertisements attempted to leverage the popularity of the book in other markets to generate sale in Boston.  Edes and Gill confided that the “above Pamphlet had Nine Editions in England in the short Space of Five Months.”  Edwards provided a similar figure, stating that the “Book is so much esteemed in England, that it has already past through Eight Editions.”  It had also gained following in the colonies.  “The Sale of this Book has been so surprizingly rapid, as to demand Three Editions in New-York and Philadelphia.”  Several months earlier, William Bradford and Thomas Bradford deployed a similar strategy in marketing their Philadelphia editions.  Given that so many other readers already purchased the book, the printers and the bookseller in Boston suggested that prospective customers should not miss out on acquiring copies of this bestseller.

Such demand suggested that the “rational and natural Method of CURE” for gout and other chronic illnesses that Cadogan proposed in the book was indeed effective.  Indeed, Edes and Gill even made a joke at the expense of colonizers in New York.  They observed that the book “has had such an Effect on the veteran Bacchanalians of New-York, that Madeira is no longer a fashionable Prescription for the Cure of this Disease.”  The printers included a short blurb from the book, explaining how “strong Wines” like Madeira actually made gout worse rather than better.  Cadogan was so convincing and his cure so effective that even New Yorkers who previously imbibed too much Madeira in their quest to quell the symptoms of gout had given up that remedy in favor of a more “judicious” approach.

Edwards did not resort to such levity.  Instead, he emphasized the accessibility of Cadogan’s writing.  A wide array of readers, not just physicians, could understand the discourse and recommendations in the book.  “The Doctrines advanced in it,” Edwards declared, “are rational and philosophical, and are delivered in a familiar style, which renders them intelligible to Gentlemen of all professions, as well as to Physicians.”  The bookseller sought to avoid the impression of a niche market for the medical text.

In their newspaper notices, the printers and the bookseller promoted the popularity of Cadogan’s Dissertation on the Gout, the effectiveness of the “Method of “CURE” outlined in it, and the accessible style.  Running simultaneous advertisements also testified to the popularity of the book.  Edes and Gill as well as Edwards aimed to encourage sales by creating a wide market that extended beyond physicians.

September 27

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (September 21, 1772).

“As yet there has not appeared an American Edition of this valuable Piece, what few came over were soon snatch’d up.”

Thomas Nixon sold several books at “his Shop at the Fly-Market” in New York in the fall of 1772.  In an advertisement in the September 21, 1772, edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury he promoted “THE celebrated Lecture on HEADS, by George Alexander Stevens” and “the Devil upon Crutches in England, or the Night Scenes in London, a satirical Work, written upon the Plan of the celebrated Diable Boiteua of Monsieur La Sage, by a Gentleman of Oxford.”  Both books had been published in Philadelphia, The Celebrated Lecture on Heads by Samuel Dellap, whose name appeared just as prominently in the advertisement as Nixon’s own, and The Devil upon Crutches by William Evitt. According to Isaiah Thomas, Dellap traveled frequently between Philadelphia and New York, transporting books from each location for sale in the other.

Nixon composed an advertisement that deployed the popularity of those works to market them to consumers in New York.  To entice readers to purchase Stevens’s satire on fashion and physiognomy, Nixon proclaimed, “These Lectures have been exhibited in London upwards of One Hundred successive Nights, to crowded Audiences, and met with the most universal Applause.”  Consumers could experience that sensation themselves, though tangentially, by acquiring their own copies of the “celebrated Lecture.”  The advertisement went into even greater detail about audience reception of The Devil upon Crutches.  “This Satyre,” Nixon explained, “is universally approved of by all Ranks of People in Europe, and all those Parts of America where it has made its Appearance.”  The bookseller attempted to use the strength of sales elsewhere to influence local consumers, reporting that “six large Impressions were struck off in London in one Year, besides several other Impressions printed in Dublin and Edinburgh.” A few copies found their way to the colonies, met with such demand that they “were soon snatch’d up, tho’ sold at no less Price than 5s.”  Rather than five shillings, Nixon offered the first American edition of only two shillings, surely a bargain for readers who wanted to partake in the phenomenon of The Devil upon Crutches.

Today, publishers regularly cite bestseller lists and the number of copies sold in their efforts to convince consumers to purchase books that have already achieved widespread popularity.  Nixon devised a version of that strategy when he marketed The Celebrated Lecture on Heads and The Devil upon Crutches in New York during the era of the American Revolution.

May 31

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

May 31 - 5:31:1770 Pennsylvania Journal
Pennsylvania Journal (May 31, 1770).

“The LIFE and CONFESSION of HERMAN ROSENCRANTZ; Executed in the city of Philadelphia.”

True crime!  James Chattin hoped to capitalize on interest in current events when he hired Joseph Crukshank to print The Life and Confession of Herman Rosencrantz.  An advertisement in the May 31, 1770, edition of the Pennsylvania Journal, presumably placed by Chattin, provided an overview of Rosencrantz’s story.  Just a few weeks earlier he had been “Executed in the city of Philadelphia, on the 5th day of May, 1770, for counterfeiting and uttering the bills of credit of the province of Pennsylvania.”  To incite greater interest and achieve a greater return on his investment, Chattin declared that the Confession was “Taken from his own mouth, in one of the cells of the goal [jail], a short time before he was executed,” the words of a man condemned to die for his crimes.  Chattin also asserted that he published the Confession, a short pamphlet, at Rosncrantz’s request “as a warning to all others.”

While that may have been Rosencrantz’s motivation for dictating his Confession, Chattin likely hoped to earn a profit by publishing and distributing this story of the consequences of a life misled.  He proclaimed that it was “SOLD by the Booksellers in Philadelphia” and had already gained such popularity, the “sale of 2000 of this interesting piece,” to require “that a new impression should be struck off.”  Chattin intended that “Hawkers, Pedlars, and others that buy to sell again” would acquire and distribute the new edition of the pamphlet.  He offered “good allowance,” a discount for purchasing by volume, to retailers and peddlers.  Chattin’s claim that 2000 copies had already sold was most likely inflated to suggest to prospective customers that they stood to miss out on something that had enthralled a good portion of their community.

Chattin also traded on the spectacle of the entire affair, from Rosencrantz’s life that led to his conviction for counterfeiting to his confession delivered in jail to his execution.  The pamphlet also included “an Account [of] his CONFEDERATES,” though much of that part of the narrative was pure imagination.  In The Death Penalty: An American History, Stuart Banner notes that “in a last-minute effort to gain favor” the condemned man “named so many innocent people as his accomplices that the publisher of his confession felt compelled to clear their names in an appendix.”[1]  The false accusations, an attempt to buy time, added to the spectacle.

Chattin aimed to create the eighteenth-century equivalent of a bestseller, trumpeting that he already sold 2000 copies of the account of this extraordinary event.  He invited hawkers and peddlers to disseminate the pamphlet even further beyond the city of Philadelphia, spreading Rosencrantz’s “warning to others” while generating greater revenues.

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[1] Stuart Banner, The Death Penalty: An American History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002), 61.