John Carter

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.

May 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (May 21, 1774).

“ENGLISH LIBERTIES, Or, The free-born Subject’s Inheritance.”

Like the issue of the Connecticut Journal and New-Haven Post-Boy published the previous day, the May 21, 1774, edition of the Providence Gazette devoted much less space to advertising than in most issues.  News items, especially those concerning the Boston Port Act, accounted for almost all the content, leaving room for six brief advertisements in the final column on the third page and two in the bottom right corner on the last page.  The “Substance of the DEBATES on the BOSTON PORT-BILL” filled the entire front page and spilled over onto the next.  Other news from London, followed by updates from Philadelphia and Boston followed.  Updates from Boston continued on the third page, eventually giving way to coverage of a “Town-Meeting held a Providence, on the 17th Day of May.”  A speech delivered in Parliament in opposition to the Boston Port Act and calling for the “immediate REPEAL OF THE TEA DUTY” comprised most of the final page.  John Carter, the printer, included a brief note about the paucity of advertising in that issue: “To make Room for the interesting Advices in this Day’s Gazette, we are obliged to omit several Advertisements.”

Carter did not choose to omit his own advertisement about publishing “ENGLISH LIBERTIES, Or, The free-born Subject’s Inheritance” by subscription.  For a year and a half, the printer had circulated subscription papers, advertised in the Providence Gazette and other newspapers published in New England, and encouraged colonizers to reserve copies of a book that became even more timely as the imperial crisis intensified.  The Boston Port Act served as an advertisement for the volume, as did the speech warning against its passage and other news that Carter included in the May 21 edition of the Providence Gazette.  Coverage of the recent town meeting in Providence included resolutions that the residents “will heartily join with the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, and the other Colonies, in such Measures as shall be generally agreed on by the Colonies, for the protecting and securing their invaluable Natural Rights and Privileges.”  Furthermore, the resolutions called on the “Committee of Correspondence of this Town … to assure the Town of Boston, that we consider ourselves greatly interested in the present alarming Conduct of the British Parliament towards them.”  They went on to recommend a “Stoppage of all Trade” until the repeal of the Boston Port Act, using commerce as political leverage.

Carter’s advertisement for English Liberties did not merely appear in proximity to all this news.  He very intentionally gave it a privileged position.  It appeared on the final page, immediately after the speech against the Boston Port Act, the news item seamlessly leading into the advertisement for a book that provided justification for colonizers demanding their rights.  Yet its placement on the page had even more significance considering the methods for producing eighteenth-century newspapers.  Like other newspapers, the Providence Gazette consisted of four pages created by printing two pages on each side of a broadsheet and folding it in half.  That meant that printers typically set the type and printed the first and last pages before the second and third pages.  That Carter’s advertisement for English Liberties ran in the bottom right corner of the fourth page indicates that he gave it priority over all other advertisements.  Considering the other news flowing into his printing office, he did not know how much space he might have for advertisements on the second and third pages, so he made sure that his advertisement appeared on the first side of the broadsheet that went to press.  It turned out that he had room for half a column of advertising on the third page, but Carter did not wait to find out whether that would be the case.  Like many other printers, he simultaneously used current events to sell books and pamphlets about political philosophy and he published those items to influence current events.

April 23

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

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

Providence Gazette (April 23, 1774).

“Subscribers Names may be annexed to the Work.”

When John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette, set about publishing a new edition of English Liberties, Or the Free-Born Subject’s Inheritance: Containing Magna Charta, Charta de Foresta, the Statute de Tallagio non Concedendo, the Habeas Corpus Act, and Several Other Statutes, with Comments on Each of Them, he started with subscription proposals.  Early American printers often did not take books directly to press.  Instead, they disseminated proposals that described their intended projects, simultaneously seeking to gauge the market and to incite demand.  In requesting that subscribers reserve their copies in advance, sometimes asking them to pay a deposit, printers determined whether publishing proposed books would be viable ventures and, if so, how many copies to print to avoid producing surplus copies that cut into profits.  Subscription proposals ran as advertisements in newspapers and, for some proposed works, “Subscription-Papers” circulated separately as handbills, broadsides, and pamphlets.

Many printers recruited local agents to assist them in collecting the names of subscribers and how many copies each wished to reserve.  Carter did so with English Liberties.  In an update in the April 23, 1774, edition of the Providence Gazette, he advised that the book “is now in great Forwardness.”  Most likely much of the type had been set and supplies, such as paper, acquired by the printing office.  Carter instructed the “Gentlemen who have favoured the Printer hereof in promoting Subscriptions … to return [their subscription papers] by the last of May.”  He needed to receive them by that time so “the Subscribers Names may be annexed to the Work.”  That was a popular strategy for inciting demand among prospective customers, promising that their names would appear along with others who also subscribed.  They became part of a community of readers, even if they never met, and, in this instance, a community of citizens committed to those “ENGLISH LIBERTIES” that had been “The free-born Subject’s Inheritance” for generations.  Printers suggested to those who had not yet subscribed that they needed to do so if they wished to be recognized alongside their friends and acquaintances and the most prominent members of their communities who already made a statement about the causes that they supported by subscribing for one or more copies.

Carter deployed other marketing strategies to encourage subscriptions for English Liberties.  He warned that “very few will be printed more than are subscribed for,” so anyone who even had an inkling that they might want a copy should not depend on waiting to purchase the book after it went to press.  In addition, Carter offered a premium: “Those who subscribe for six, to have a seventh gratis.”  Subscribers who purchased multiple copies would receive a free one as a reward.

Carter did indeed insert a list of “SUBSCRIBERS NAMES” at the end of the book.  They appeared in somewhat alphabetical order, with last names starting with “A” coming first, followed by “B,” and so on.  Carter indicated the town for subscribers who did not reside in Providence and, within each letter, clustered subscribers from the same town together.  That made it easier for subscribers to determine which of their neighbors had joined them in supporting the enterprise.  Most were from towns in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, but some subscribed from greater distances, including Robert Johnston of Chester County in Pennsylvania and Thomas Tillyer in Philadelphia.  The roster of subscribers included nearly five hundred names, mostly men, but also Mrs. Elizabeth Belvher of Wrentham, Massachusetts, several lawyers and ministers, and even Darius Sessions, the deputy governor of Rhode Island.  For those who subscribed for multiple copies, Carter listed how many.  A few purchased two or three copies, but more commonly subscribers purchased six, a sign of the effectiveness of the printer’s marketing strategy.

Not all subscription proposals resulted in publishing books.  Printers sometimes learned that they could not generate sufficient demand.  In this case, however, the combination of the subject matter’s relationship to the political climate, widespread distribution of subscription papers to local agents, publishing the names of subscribers, and free copies for those who purchased at least six contributed to the success of the venture, though it had taken more than a year.

April 9

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

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

Providence Gazette (April 9, 1774).

“… to be sold by the Printer hereof.”

Advertisements filled the final column on the third page and the entire last page of the April 9, 1774, edition of the Providence Gazette.  They generated significant revenue for John Carter, the printer, yet not all the advertisements were paid notices.  Like many other printers, Carter used his newspaper to disseminate his own advertisements.  He inserted five of the notices that appeared in that issue.

Those advertisements related to a variety of aspects of operating Carter’s printing office “at Shakespear’s Head, in Meeting-Street, near the Court-House.”  In one, he called on “ALL Persons indebted for this Gazette one Year, or more” and anyone else indebted to him for other services “to make immediate Payment.”  In another, Carter sought a “trusty and well-behaved Lad, about 13 or 14 Years of Age” as “an Apprentice to the Printing Business.”  Candidates needed to be able to “read well, and write tolerably.”  In yet another, a headline in a larger font than anything else in that issue, even the title of the newspaper in the masthead, proclaimed, “RAGS.”  Carter offered the “best Prices … for clean Linen Rags, of any Kind, and old Sail-Cloth, to supply the PAPER MANUFACTORY in Providence.”  The printer intended to recycle rags into paper that he would then use to publish subsequent editions of the Providence Gazette.

Providence Gazette (April 9, 1774).

Other advertisements promoted items for sale at the printing office.  Most printers also sold books.  A few came from their own presses or other colonial presses, but most were imported from England.  Carter listed several titles for readers with diverse interests, from “PRIESTLY’s Reply to Judge Blackstone, in Vindication of the Dissenters” to “the Fashionable Lover, a new Comedy” to “the Grave, a Poem” to “Fenning’s Spelling-Books.”  An “&c.” (an abbreviation for et cetera) indicated that he stocked many more books, pamphlets, and broadsides.  A shorter advertisement stated, “BLANKS of various Kinds to be sold by the Printer hereof.”  Carter printed and sold forms for common legal and commercial transactions.  Even the colophon doubled as an advertisement, informing readers that “all Manner of Printing-Work is performed with Care and Expedition.”

Carter took advantage of his access to the press to tend to the different parts of operating a busy printing office.  While his advertisements did not generate revenue in the same manner as the paid notices placed by merchants, shopkeepers, artisans, estate executors, lottery managers, and others, they supported his business in other ways and some likely resulted in revenue from the sale of books and blanks or the settling of accounts.  Collectively, they gave Carter a very visible presence in the pages of the Providence Gazette.

January 1

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (January 1, 1774).

“NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR Lady’s and Gentleman’s DIARY, For the Year of our LORD 1774.”

There may not have been a better day to buy an almanac … or to advertise the “NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR Lady’s and Gentleman’s DIARY, For the Year of our LORD 1774.”  On January 1, all of the astronomical Calculations in the almanac for the previous year became obsolete.  Colonizers who had not yet acquired almanacs for the new year could no longer delay if they wished to have access to current information.  In addition, some of the contents of that new almanac also became outdated with each passing day.  To take full advantage of the useful reference manual, readers needed to have it on the first day of the year.  Prospective buyers knew it.  John Carter, the printer of both the New-England Almanack and the Providence Gazette, knew it as well.  He placed an advertisement for it in the upper right corner of the final page of the January 1, 1774, edition of his newspaper.

It was part of an annual ritual of advertising almanacs in Providence and throughout the colonies.  On occasion, advertisements appeared as early as August or September, though those usually announced that the printer intended to publish a particular title.  Such advertisements alerted readers that their favorite titles would be available again, an effort to discourage them from purchasing others instead.  In October and November, more and more printers inserted notices stating that they took their almanacs to press and offered them for sale.  These advertisements increased in number, frequency, and length.  Multiple advertisements for almanacs sometimes appeared in a single issue, especially in newspapers published in the largest port cities.  Some of those advertisements featured extensive lists of the contents, seeking to entice buyers with more than the “usual astronomical Calculations.”  Carter opted for a streamlined version, but he did promote “a brief historical Account of the Rise and Settlement of RHODE-ISLAND Government, in which are interspersed some Anecdotes of the celebrated Mr. ROGER WILLIAMS, Founder of this Colony,” as additional items of interest that customers could read when they acquired the New-England Almanack.  The volume of advertising for almanacs continued in December, a last push before the new year, and into January, while the astronomical Calculations and schedules for courts, meetings, and other events remained relevant for the entire year.  Those contents became less relevant with each passing day, but many printers still had surplus copies that cut into any profits they made from publishing almanacs.  Advertisements continued to appear in January, February, and March, tapering off over time.  By the time spring arrived, most advertisements for almanacs disappeared from colonial newspapers.  Their presence, absence, and number became signs of the seasons among newspaper readers, corresponding to changes in the weather and the amount of sunlight in the day.

December 11

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

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

Providence Gazette (December 11, 1773).

“WEST’s ALMANACK for the year 1774.”

For more than a decade, Benjamin West, an astronomer and mathematician, collaborated with the printers of the Providence Gazette in publishing “THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR Lady’s and Gentleman’s DIARY.”  In 1773, John Carter worked with West, but other printers previously entered into partnership with him before Carter became the proprietor of the Providence Gazette.  Advertisements promoting the New-England Almanack became a familiar sight in that newspaper each fall, continuing into the winter.  Some notices provided extensive details about the contents of the new edition for the next year.  A shorter advertisement in the December 11 edition of the Providence Gazette promoted “the usual astronomical Calculations,” “a brief historical Account of the Rise and Settlement of RHODE-ISLAND Government,” and “some Anecdotes of the celebrated Mr. ROGER WILLIAMS, Founder of this Colony” in the almanac for 1774.

Carter sold the almanac in “large or small Quantities.”  Consumers could purchase individual copies for use in their own households, while merchants and shopkeepers could obtain multiple copies to sell in their own stores and shops.  Thurber and Cahoon, for instance, acquired copies to sell in their shop “at the Sign of the Bunch of Grapes.”  They stocked a “great Variety of English and India GOODS” imported via “the last Vessel from London” as well as the almanac produced in their own town.  To entice prospect customers to visit their shop, Thurber and Cahoon listed many of those items, concluding with “WEST’s ALMANACK for the year 1774.”  They had done so the previous year as well.  Apparently, Thurber and Cahoon considered the New-England Almanack such a draw that it would help get customers into their shop, though it may have been Carter, rather than the merchants, who decided that the title should appear in capital letters, thus drawing attention to it over the rest of the merchandise in the advertisement.  Regardless of who made that decision, Carter and West certainly welcomed the assistance in marketing the almanac beyond their own advertisements.

November 7

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (November 6, 1773).

“Those indebted for advertising, or in any other Manner, are likewise requested to pay.”

Like many other colonial printers, John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette, published advertisements in his own newspaper.  Many of those notices concerned additional revenue streams.  For instance, in the November 6, 1773, edition, Carter ran an advertisement that promoted “THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR LADY’S and GENTLEMAN’S DIARY, For the Year of our LORD, 1774,” offering to sell the popular pamphlet “in large or small Quantities.”  For many years, Benjamin West, a mathematician and astronomer, collaborated with Carter in publishing and marketing an almanac.  Another advertisement drew attention to a different project undertaken by Carter, a local edition of Daniel Fenning’s Universal Spelling-Book.  The printer proclaimed that he sold this reprint “Cheaper by the Dozen than any imported.”  A third advertisement hawked “BLANKS [or printed forms] of various Kinds,” another common source of revenue for printers.

In addition to notices about other goods and services available in their printing offices, printers also placed advertisements that tended to the business of publishing their newspapers.  In the same issue that carried advertisements for the almanac, the spelling book, and blanks, Carter inserted a notice to inform readers that “THIS DAY’s GAZETTE closes the Year with ALL the old Subscribers.”  That being the case, “the Printer therefore earnestly intreats of every one in Arrear to make immediate Payment.”  He did not, however, address only subscribers.  “Those indebted for advertising, or in any other Manner,” Carter continued, “are likewise requested to pay.”  That notice reveals an important aspect of how Carter ran his business.  Many historians of the early American press have asserted that printers extended to credit to subscribers, sometimes allowing them to fall behind in payments over several years, but insisted that advertisers had to pay for their notices in advance.  The advertising revenue supposedly amounted to more than the overdue subscriptions.  Yet some colonial printers published notices indicating that they did indeed allow credit for advertisements as well as subscriptions.  The Adverts 250 Project compiles such advertisements to demonstrate that practices in printing offices throughout the colonies varied when it came to paying upfront for advertisements.  Even if most printers did insist on payment in advance, a significant minority adopted other policies.

October 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (October 9, 1773).

“FENNING’s much-approved SPELLING-BOOK.”

John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette, inserted an advertisement for “FENNING’s much-approved SPELLING-BOOK” in his own newspaper on October 9, 1773.  With news items, editorials, and other advertisements, Carter had so much content that he did not provide much detail in the advertisement except to note that he sold copies “Wholesale and Retail” and set prices “Cheaper by the Dozen than any imported” for those who purchased a quantity.  The printer also advised that Jacob Richardson sold the spelling books in Newport in case some readers of the Providence Gazette might find it more convenient to make their purchases in that town.  Carter kept his advertisement for “WEST’s ALMANACK, For the Year of Our Lord 1774” similarly brief, noting that it “is now in the Press, and will be published seasonably.”

Had Carter inserted a more extensive advertisement, he likely would have generated much of it from the title of the spelling book.  Advertisements for books often quoted the lengthy subtitles common for books published in the eighteenth century.  In this case, Carter could have promoted the spelling book as a “new and easy guide to the English language” and invoked the author’s credentials as a former schoolmaster in Suffolk and author of The Use of Globes, Practical Arithmetic, Royal English Dictionary, and Young Man’s Book of Knowledge.  Both of these books, Fanning’s spelling book and West’s almanac, were so popular and widely known that Carter likely considered it worth announcing that he sold them even if he did not have additional space to promote them in that issue of the Providence Gazette.  After all, he and his predecessors who worked with West to publish an almanac each year undertook extensive advertising.  Carter’s reprint of Fanning’s spelling book was the “fifteenth edition, with additions,” according to the title page.  Prospective customers presumably already knew a lot about both books.

Even though Carter sold Fanning’s spelling book “by the Dozen,” today only one known copy survives in a research library, historical society, or private collection.  That copy, held at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts, has been damaged, a portion of its title page missing.  Carter, Richardson, booksellers, schoolmasters, shopkeepers, and peddlers may have distributed that edition of the spelling book widely in Rhode Island and nearby colonies in the early 1770s, but over time and perhaps through use those copies became as ephemeral as many of the broadsides, pamphlets, handbills, and other items produced on printing presses prior to the American Revolution.

June 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (June 26, 1773).

“Hand-Bills in particular done in a neat and correct Manner.”

Like many other colonial printers who published newspapers, but not all of them, John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette used the colophon at the bottom of the final page to promote services available at his printing office rather than merely giving the name and location of the printer.  In the early 1770s, the colophon for the Providence Gazette regularly advised that customers could place orders for job printing “at Shakespear’s Head, … where all Manner of Printing-Work is performed with Care and Expedition.”  Job printing orders included broadsides, trade cards, handbills, and blanks (or forms) of various sorts.

On April 25, 1772, Carter added an additional line to the colophon, advising prospective customers about “Hand-Bills in particular done in a neat and correct Manner, at a very short Notice, and on reasonable Terms.”  Among the newspaper printers who inserted extended colophons that doubled as advertisements for their printing offices, others also gave handbills special emphasis.  In Boston, Isaiah Thomas, the printer of the Massachusetts Spy, included a note in his colophon that declared, “Small HAND-BILLS at an Hour’s Notice.”  In Philadelphia, the colophon for William Goddard’s Pennsylvania Chronicle concluded with “Blanks and Hand-Bills, in particular, are done on the shortest Notice, in a neat and correct Manner.”  Solomon Southwick, the printer of the Newport Mercury, on the other hand, focused on “all Kinds of BLANKS commonly used in this Colony.”

That several printers made a point of including handbills among the services listed in their colophons suggests that they regularly received orders for such items, likely far more orders than those examples in research libraries, historical societies, and private collections suggest.  That Thomas proclaimed that his printing office could produce handbills so quickly further testifies to the likelihood that merchants, shopkeepers, and others distributed handbills as an alternative or as a supplement to newspaper notices, creating a more visible and vibrant culture of advertising in early America, especially in urban ports, than surviving primary sources alone indicate.  Since handbills were intended to be ephemeral and disposable, colonizers did not save and preserve them in the same manner that newspaper printers and some subscribers compiled complete runs of many eighteenth-century newspapers, complete with the advertisements they contained.

March 27

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (March 27, 1773).

“Very few will be printed that are not subscribed for.”

For several months John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette, disseminated subscription proposals for “reprinting ENGLISH LIBERTIES, or THE FREE-BORN SUBJECT’S INHERITANCE” in his own newspaper and in other newspapers published in New England.  He recruited local agents in Providence and other towns to collect the names of subscribers who reserved copies in advance, a rudimentary form of market research that allowed him to assess demand and the number of copies he needed to print.  In an advertisement that ran in the New-Hampshire Gazette in December 1772, for instance, he indicated that “Subscriptions are received by JOHN CARTER, the Publisher, and by T. and J. FLEET, at the Heart and Crown, in Boston” as well as “by a Number of Gentlemen in the neighbouring Towns and Governments, to whom Subscription Papers are sent.”

On March 27, 1773, Carter inserted a new notice in the Providence Gazette, one that called on “[t]hose Gentlemen who have favoured the Printer in promoting Subscriptions” to return their subscription papers, those broadsides, handbills, or pamphlets that described the proposed volume and had space for subscribers to add their names and the number of copies they wished to reserve.  He also issued another call for those who had not yet subscribed to do so quickly, noting that they would have their “Names prefixed, as Patrons of a Work that contains … a full and compleat View of our Rights as Freemen and British Subjects.”  Books published by subscription often included a list of subscribers, a means of giving credit to those who supported the project and made publication possible.  Such lists also testified to membership in a community that shared common ideals, in this instance a desire to understand and to protect their “Rights as Freemen and British Subjects.”  Carter anticipated that political sympathies and current events might convince some prospective customers that they did indeed want their names among the subscribers to the project, visible to the rest of the subscribers and anyone else who read the book.  The copy in the collections of the American Antiquarian Society includes a six-page list of subscribers at the end.  The placement may have been a decision made by the purchaser or the bookbinder rather than the order intended by the publisher.

Carter made other pitches as he prepared to take the book to press.  He cautioned, “Very few will be printed that are not subscribed for,” so anyone interested needed to reserve their copies in advance or risk the publisher running out.  In addition, the limited number of surplus copies “will be sold at an advanced Price.”  In other words, Carter planned to charge more for those books than the “One Dollar” subscribers paid.  Finally, the printer offered bonus content, declaring that he planned to insert “some valuable Remarks and Additions … by a Gentleman learned in the Law.”  That, Carter confidently stated, would “render the Work still more worthy of the public Attention.”  In his efforts to market an American edition of English Liberties, Carter incorporated several strategies commonly deployed by printers, publishers, and booksellers in eighteenth-century America.