Book

August 12

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

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

Pennsylvania Ledger (August 12, 1775).

“MILITARY INSTRUCTIONS FOR OFFICERS DETACHED IN THE FIELD.”

On August 12, 1775, Robert Aitken, a printer in Philadelphia, launched a new advertising campaign to promote his American edition of Military Instructions for Office Detached in the Field by Roger Stevenson.  He began with advertisements in the Pennsylvania Evening Post and the Pennsylvania Ledger.  Two days later, he placed the same advertisement in Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet and then in the Pennsylvania Gazette another two days after that. Aitken’s new advertisement significantly expanded on the notice that he had published in June.

This time, for example, the printer announced that his American edition was “Dedicated to His Excellency GEORGE WASHINGTON, Esq; General and Commander in Chief of the Army of the United Colonies of North-America.”  The book itself featured a short dedication essay that extended four pages.  In the new advertisement, Aitken promoted some of the usual qualities that printers, publishers, and booksellers often highlighted, noting that the book was printed “On fine Paper, [with] a beautiful new Type” and the “twelve useful Plates” or illustrations “of the Manœuvres” supplemented the text.  Each bound copy cost six shillings and six pence, though Aitken also marketed a “few copies on a superfine paper” for one dollar to those who desired even higher quality.  The price was a bargain, the printer noted, with a bound copy of the London edition selling for ten shillings.

Beyond those details, Aitken incorporated an address “TO THE PUBLIC” into this advertisement, though he did not generate the copy himself.  Instead, he borrowed liberally from the preface of the book, making minor revisions here and there.  In effect, he gave prospective customers a preview of what they would read once they purchased Military Instructions for Officers Detached in the Field.  In the preface, Stevenson lamented that “inferior officers have had no source from whence they could derive instruction on the duties of their sphere in the field,” but he aimed to remedy that with this volume.  He almost certainly had not intended, however, that it would be used by officers in the “Army of the United Colonies of North-America” as they defended their liberties in what would eventually become a war for independence.  Aitken saw an opportunity to generate revenues in the wake of the battles at Lexington and Concord.

In a nota bene, the printer added that he stocked “A complete and elegant MAP of the country, shewing the Seat of the present unhappy Civil War in North-America.”  Bernard Romans, a prominent cartographer, distributed broadside subscription proposals a month earlier, listing Aitken among the many local agents who collected names of subscribers who ordered copies in advance.   The printer gave details about the map not included in the broadside subscription proposal and that had not appeared in newspaper notices.  The map featured a “beautiful Draught of the Provincial CAMP: Likewise, A perspective View of BOSTON, and Gen. Gage’s LINE.”  Current events certainly shaped which items Aitken produced, advertised, and sold at his printing office in Philadelphia.

June 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Ledger (June 24, 1775).

“MILITARY INSTRUCTIONS FOR OFFICERS DETACHED IN THE FIELD.”

It was a timely volume for the summer of 1775.  The June 24 edition of the Pennsylvania Ledger carried an advertisement for Military Instructions for Officers Detached in the Field: With Plans of the Manoeuvres Necessary in Carrying on the Petite Guerre.  Robert Aitken, a printer and bookseller in Philadelphia, published and sold an American edition of a book that had been successful enough in England to go to a second edition the previous year.

Aitken marketed it at a time that readers of the Pennsylvania Ledger already knew about the battles at Concord and Lexington and the siege of Boston.  They were just learning about the Battle of Bunker Hill a week earlier.  In the column to the left of the advertisement for Military Instructions, the Pennsylvania Ledger reprinted a portion of a letter that reported “our people attempting to take possession of Bunker’s Hill and Dorchester Point … were attacked by the regulars.”  The correspondent did not have all the details, but did know that “three Colonels in our service were wounded, Col. Gardner, mortally; how many are slain on either side, is uncertain.”  The letter did not mention the death of Joseph Warren, a noted Patriot and the president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, nor did it reveal the outcome of the battle.  “When the post came away,” the letter stated, “our people kept their ground and made a stand; how they have fared at Dorchester, we do not hear.”  Incomplete, it was the most recent update available in Philadelphia at the time the June 24 edition of the Pennsylvania Ledger went to press.

Still, it likely primed some readers to take greater interest in Military Instructions written “BY AN OFFICER.”  To help in stimulating demand, Aitken inserted an excerpt of a review that appeared in the Monthly Review, a magazine published in London.  “OF the instructions which this useful treatise contains,” the reviewer asserted, “it may, with great truth and propriety, be declared, that they are the dictates of military genius, and the evident result of extensive experience.”  That made the book required reading for colonizers serving as officers.  “Those gentlemen, for whose service they are intended,” the reviewer pronounced, “will peruse them with pleasure and advantage.”  Yet that was not the only prospective audience for Military Instructions.  The reviewer insisted that “they are illustrated by observations and facts which must interest the attention and gratify the taste of the most indifferent reader.”  With battles being fought in New England and George Washington “appointed commander in chief of all the North-American forces by the Honourable Continental CONGRESS” (according to an update that appeared just below the initial report from Bunker Hill), could any prospective reader have been “indifferent” when they saw Aitken’s advertisement?

July 16

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

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

Providence Gazette (July 16, 1774).

“Extract from the Preface of Mrs. GRIFFITH, the Translator of VIAUD’s Voyages and Adventures.”

In addition to printing the Providence Gazette, John Carter also sold books at his printing office “at Shakespear’s Head.”  In July 1774, he ran a lengthy advertisement that listed about a dozen familiar titles before noting that he “just received” a new book about “the suprising, yet real and true VOYAGES and ADVENTURES of Monsieur PIERRE VIAUD, a French Sea-Captain.”  The volume was “ornamented with an elegant Frontispiece of Madam LA COUTURE and her Son, with Captain VIAUD, and his Negro, on the desolate Island.”  The book recounted the wreck of Le Tigre, a French vessel, near Dog Island off the Gulf coast of Florida while en route to New Orleans in 1766.  It was published in French in 1768, with an English translation appearing in 1771.  The book achieved considerable popularity in the eighteenth century.  As a bonus, the edition advertised by Carter included “the SHIPWRECK, a sentimental and descriptive Poem, in three Cantos, by WILLIAM FALCONER, an English Sailor.”

Carter’s marketing startegy included providing an “Extract from the Preface of Mrs. GRIFFITH, the Translator of VIAUD’s Voyages and Adventures” to entice readers.  The excerpt underscored that the book told a true story: “The Work here offered to the Public is certainly the most incredible Story that ever was authenticated.”  Beyond the “Writer’s Veracity” derived from the “Inenuousness of his Stile,” the narrative contained “concurrent and corroborating Circumstances enough … to evince the Truth of his Narrative.”  Griffith also emphasized that in France the book “was universally received, not as a Romance, but as a series of surprising, interesting and extraordinary Facts.”  Carter did not advertise a novel, like The Life and Strange Suprizing Advertures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner (1719), but instead an accurate account of Viaud’s travels that readers would find inspiring rather than merely entertaining.  In the extract from the preface, Griffith exclaimed that the survival and rescue of Viaud and his companions “amounts almost to a Proof, that Patience, Resolution, and Perseverance, are a Match for Difficulty and Danger, and are sometimes able to combat Death itself.”

The printer and bookseller also included other assertions intended to generate interest in the books.  Griffith stated that the “Original of this Work ran through several Editions in France.”   Such popularity demanded attention in other places.  Furthermore, the translator claimed that so many people clamored for Viaud’s tale that “the Gentleman who was so obliging to lend the Book to me, could not procure another for himself.”  Smart readers in Providence needed to acquire their copies before they sold out.  Carter also inserted a “Memorandum in America” in hopes that it would make the book resonate with local readers.  That excerpt reported that Viaud “in the Fall of the Year 1766, was for some Months entertained ay the House of Mr. Depeyster, Merchant, in New-York.”  During that time, he “was well known and respected by many of its genteelest Inhabitants.”  That connection to British North America not only testified to the veracity of Viaud’s narrative but also gave readers more of a stake in engaging with the narrative.

Carter did not simply announce that he stocked Viaud’s Voyages and Adventures.  Instead, he deployed several marketing techniques.  He promoted the frontispiece and poem that accompanied the book in addition to printing an extensive excerpt from the translator’s preface.  Carter made sure prospective customers knew about the popularity that the book already achieved while also establishing that it was a true narrative rather than a fictional account.  He noted Viaud’s time in New York to further excite local interest.  All in all, Carter crafted a sophisticated marketing strategy for the book.

January 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New-London Gazette (January 11, 1771).

“To be Sold by Garret Noel, at New-York … and at the Printing-Office in N. London.”

Timothy Green, printer of the New-London Gazette, augmented revenues by selling books, pamphlets, and almanacs in addition to newspaper subscriptions and advertising.  Two advertisements in the January 11, 1771, edition of the New-London Gazette promoted items available at his printing office, “Ames’s Almanack” and “A Review Of the Military Operations in NORT[H]-AMERICA.”  Much of the advertisement for the latter consisted of the extensive subtitle that summarized the contents of the book.  It covered a portion of the conflict now known by several names, including the French and Indian War, the Seven Years War, and the Great War for Empire, “From the Commencement of the FrenchHostilities on the Frontiers of Virginia, in 1753, to the Surrender of Oswego, on the 14th of August 1756.”  That narrative was “Interspersed with various Observations, Characters, and Anecdotes, necessary to give Light into the Conduct of American Transactions in general; and more especially into the political Management of Affairs in New-York.”

First published in London in 1757, the Review of the Military Operations in North America was reprinted in New England in 1758 and, again, in New York in 1770.  Alexander Robertson and James Robertson printed the more recent edition that Green sold.  The advertisement in the New-London Gazette provided an overview of the network of printers and booksellers throughout the colonies who cooperated in distributing the book to consumers, listing eight individuals or partnerships in eight towns from Boston to Charleston.  Other advertisements for books printed in the colonies sometimes included similar lists, creating the impression of a community of readers that extended far beyond the local market.  Residents of New London who obtained copies at Green’s printing office joined readers who acquired theirs from Garret Noel’s bookshop in New York or from “Mr. Stephens, at the Coffee-House” in Charleston.  Printers and publishers often could not generate sufficient demand to justify producing American editions for local markets, so they strove to create regional or continental markets via networks of agents and associates as well as subscription notices and newspaper advertisements disseminated widely.

August 27

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

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

Aug 27 - 8:27:1767 New-York Journal
New-York Journal (August 27, 1767).

“The Subscribers are desired to send for ther Books as soon as possible.”

In 1767 Lambertus de Ronde, “Minister of the Protestant Dutch Church, at New-York,” inserted an advertisement in the New-York Journal to announce that he had finally published True Spiritual Religion, Or Delightful Service of the Lord. The minister had previously solicited subscriptions to gauge the market for his book, but the anticipated date of publication had been delayed due to “the Pre-engagement of the Printer in other Work.”

This actually worked to the author’s benefit – and to the benefit of subscribers, according to de Ronde. He took advantage of the extra time to “enlarge” the volume, drawing up an “alphabetical Table of the Contents.” In other words, he created an index “for the greater Usefulness and Conveniency of the Reader, who now can readily know on what Page the Words and Things are to be found.” Such a helpful addition to the original manuscript, de Ronde insinuated, certainly excused the delay in publishing the book!

The author also suggested that this must make his book more attractive to additional customers, not just the original subscribers. He indicated that he had “a few more to dispose of than were subscribed for.” In effect, his advertisement did not merely announce publication of True Spiritual Religion and call on subscribers to retrieve their copies. Instead, what masqueraded as an announcement actually marketed the book to other readers. In addition to promoting the utility of the index, de Ronde also praised the material qualities of the volume. It was “printed on a good Paper” and “also neatly bound” (as opposed to being sold in sheets for buyers to have bound on their own). In addition, the printer had set the book with “new large Letter” that readers would find “very Easy for the Eyes.” Even though these various enhancements made the book “more expensive,” de Ronde parted with it at “the lowest Rate” he could charge “without the Author’s Loss.” This was a bargain for potential customers!

Although Lambertus de Ronde addressed subscribers more than once in his advertisement, he did not merely inform them that True Spiritual Religion was ready for delivery. Instead, he used that as a pretext for marketing surplus copies to additional readers who had not participated in the first round of subscriptions. To some extent, he also marketed the book to the original subscribers, especially those who had not paid in full. For any who wavered in their commitment to acquire (and pay for) True Spiritual Religion, he provided multiple reasons for following through on their commitment.