Robert Bell

January 30

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

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (January 30, 1776).

“The said gentlemen have not yet been able to settle with Robert Bell.”

The feud between the Thomas Paine, the author of Common Sense, and Robert Bell, the publisher of the first edition of Common Sense, intensified in the January 30, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  Advertisements for Bell’s unauthorized “SECOND EDITION” and a “NEW EDITION” currently “In the press, and [to] be published as soon as possible” by William Bradford and Thomas Bradford dominated the final page of that newspaper.  Variations of both advertisements appeared in the Pennsylvania Evening Post three days earlier, each of them stirring the pot and inspiring Bell and Paine to submit new material to Benjamin Towne, the printer of that newspaper, to incorporate into their advertisements.

The advertisement for the Bradfords’ edition still included an address “To the PUBLIC,” but it doubled in length with a “declaration” made by the author “for the sake of relieving the anxiety of his friends.”  At this point, Paine remained anonymous, at least as far as associating his name with the political pamphlet in the public prints was concerned.  He explained that his original plan for Common Sense had been to have it “printed in a series of newspapers,” but others, including Benjamin Rush, convinced him that was impractical and that even printers who supported the American cause would shy away from such radical content.  Rush recommended Robert Bell, the noted bookseller as an alternative to the several printers who published newspapers in Philadelphia, acting as an intermediary between Paine and Bell.  In this new “declaration,” Paine explained that “he knew nothing of Robert Bell, who was engaged to print it by a gentleman of this city,” referring to Rush but not naming him.  Though Rush acted “from a well meaning motive,” his suggestion eventually embroiled Paine in “the unpleasant situation.”

Paine did not hesitate to name Bell, proclaiming that he “hath neither directly, nor indirectly, received, or is to receive, any profit or advantage from the edition printed by Robert Bell.”  In the agreement negotiated by Rush, Paine paid for the expense of printing the pamphlet whether it sold or not.  In addition, that “noisy man,” Bell, would receive “one half of the profits” if the pamphlet was a success.  Paine estimated that amount should have been “upwards of thirty pounds.”  Furthermore, the author did not intend to keep his half of the profits.  Instead, “when news of our repulse at Quebec arrived in this city,” he committed his share “for the purpose of purchasing mittens for the troops ordered on that cold campaign.”  An assault on Quebec City, part of the invasion of Canada undertaken by American forces, had failed on New Year’s Eve.  The patriotic Paine wanted to send supplies, especially mittens, to the American soldiers who continued the siege of that city, but Bell did not turn over any money “into the hands of two gentlemen” that Paine designated as his intermediaries.  Paine claimed that he had “Bell’s written promise” for that arrangement.  Anyone who wished to do so could verify that by consulting with them since their “names are left at the bar of the London Coffee-house” for that purpose.

“The said gentlemen,” Paine continued, “have not yet been able to settle with Robert Bell according to the conditions of his written engagement.”  In addition, when they examined his account of the expenses and sales, they did not consider it “equitable” according to that agreement.  Paine warned that Bell had a week to make good on their agreement or else “he will be sued for the same.”  He concluded by stating, “This is all the notice that will ever be taken of him in future.”  Given the ferocity of the advertisements already published, readers may have doubted that.

The advertisement for the Bradfords’ edition featured far more new material than Bell’s advertisement.  He added a few lines to the nota bene that ran in the previous edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, though he had been so anxious to publish his updated advertisement that he inserted it in the January 29 edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packetrather than waiting for it to appear in the Pennsylvania Evening Post on January 30.  In Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, Bell’s expanded advertisement ran next to the shorter version of the advertisement for the Bradfords’ edition of Common Sense, the one that included an address “TO THE PUBLIC” but not the additional “declaration” by the author.

Bell took the opportunity to demean the “NEW EDITION” the Bradfords were printing.  He declared that “the public may be certain” that the “smallness of print and scantiness of paper” meant that it would be an inferior edition “when compared with Bell’s second edition.”  Why would readers wait for the Bradfords’ edition “yet in the press” when Bell’s second edition was “out of the press” and available for sale?  As a final insult, he trumpeted that comparing the Bradfords’ forthcoming edition to his own second edition was like the difference “in size and value” between a “British shilling” and a “British half-crown.”  His second edition, Bell claimed, was the better value in so many ways.  Even though Paine pledged that he had nothing more to say about Bell, that made it seem unlikely that the author and the publisher of the first edition would quietly discontinue their attacks in the public prints.  In three short weeks since the first advertisement for Common Sense appeared in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, the controversy between Bell and Paine became its own commotion!

January 27

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

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (January 27, 1776).

“An author, without a name, hath asserted absolute falsehoods.”

The dispute over publishing the second edition of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense continued in an advertisement in the January 27, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  Robert Bell, the publisher of the first edition, and William Bradford and Thomas Bradford, the printers designated by Paine to publish a new edition with additional materials, ran competing advertisements on January 25.  The Bradfords’ advertisement included a note that informed the public that the author had not authorized Bell to publish a second edition, yet the enterprising printer and bookseller moved forward with the project anyway.  That advertisement ran once again on January 27.

In response, Bell submitted a new advertisement to the printing office.  An even more prominent headline proclaimed, “The SECOND EDITION of COMMON SENSE,” followed by a list of the four sections that appeared in the first edition.  That overview had been part of most of Bell’s advertisements, as well as an epigraph from “Liberty,” a poem by James Thomson.  In response to the address “To the PUBLIC” in the Bradfords’ advertisement, Bell added his own address “To the PUBLIC.”  In it, he explained that in the previous edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, “an author, without a name, hath asserted absolute falsehoods.”  At the time, Paine remained anonymous (and, for the first time, this advertisement described his political pamphlet as “WRITTEN BY AN ENGLISHMAN”).  Bell objected to the claims that Paine made that “he gave directions and orders to the publisher of the first edition not to proceed.”  For his part, Bell declared that “[a]s soon as the printer and publisher discovered the capricious disposition of the ostensible author, he disclaimed all future connexion,” perfectly content to break ties with Paine.  Furthermore, “by the publication of a second edition which he advertised in a news paper, [Bell] immediately declared his desirable independence from the trammels of catch-penny author-craft, whose cunning was so exceeding great as to attempt to destroy the reputation of his own first edition, by advertising intended additions before his earliest and best customers had time to read what they had so very lately purchased.”  That certainly was not a flattering portrait of Paine.  The contents of Common Sense gave colonizers a lot to discuss.  The dispute in the newspaper advertisements gave them even more.

Undaunted, Bell testified that he “neither heard nor received any orders not to proceed, there [the author’s] assertions must be far from truth.”  In addition, Bell further dismissed Paine’s expectations for the publication of a second edition, stating that “if he had either heard or received any such directions or orders, he most certainly would have treated them immediately with that contempt which such unreasonable, illegal, and tyrannic usurpations over his freedom and liberty in business deserved.”  Bell launched one more tirade: “When Mr. ANONYMOUS condescendeth again to puff his pamphlet … and to reduce a price which himself had a share in making, his brother bookseller, who scorneth duplicity in business or sentiment, wisheth he may find out a more eligible mode of proving his attachment to principles than to lay the foundations of his generosity in the despicable ebullitions of dishonest malevolence.”  Bell was annoyed that Paine promoted the Bradfords’ edition as “one half of the price of the former edition,” a suggestion that Bell overcharged when, according to Bell, the author and the publisher set the price in consultation with each other.  A lower price for the Bradfords’ edition was not truly “generosity,” especially when inspired by “despicable ebullitions of dishonest malevolence” rather than a desire to make the pamphlet more accessible to the public.  Clearly, Paine’s address “To the PUBLIC” did not cause Bell to back down but instead to double down on printing and marketing his second edition of Common Sense.

January 25

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

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (January 25, 1776).

“A new edition of COMMON SENSE … with large and interesting additions by the author.”

A battle over publishing Thomas Paine’s Common Sense played out in advertisements became apparent to the public when they perused the advertisements in the January 25, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  Sixteen days earlier, that newspaper had been the first to carry an advertisement for the inflammatory political pamphlet.  Robert Bell, the publisher, promoted it, while Paine remained anonymous.  It sold so quickly that Bell began advertising “A NEW EDITION of COMMON SENSE” on January 20.  Five days later, he ran an updated version of the original advertisement, using type already set.  The compositor merely replaced the first line, removing the date (“Philadelphia, January 9, 1776”) and replacing it with a headline that proclaimed, “The second edition,” in a larger font.

Yet Paine and Bell had had a falling out.  Bell’s “second edition” was an unauthorized edition, as a new advertisement on the first page of the Pennsylvania Evening Post made clear.  William Bradford and Thomas Bradford, printers of the Pennsylvania Journal, announced that they had a “new edition” of Common Sense “IN the press, and will be published as soon as possible.”  Unlike Bell’s second edition advertised elsewhere in that issue, their new edition featured “large and interesting additions by the author, as will be expressed at the time of publication.”  As a preview, the Bradfords indicated that the bonus materials included a “seasonable and friendly admonition to the people called QUAKERS.”  To entice prospective customers to reserve copies or purchase them as soon as they were available, the Bradfords noted that “Several hundred are already bespoke,” including “one thousand for Virginia.”  Advertisements for the pamphlet already appeared in newspapers in New York.  The Bradfords made plans to distribute the pamphlet south of Philadelphia.  In addition, they reported that a “German edition is likewise in the press” for the benefit of the many German settlers in Pennsylvania and the backcountry extending down to North Carolina.

This advertisement included an address “To the PUBLIC,” perhaps composed by Paine, that outlined the dispute between the author and the original publisher.  “The encouragement and reception which this pamphlet hath already met with, and the great demand for the same,” the address declared, “hath induced the publisher of the first edition to print a new edition unknown to the author.”  Paine had “expressly directed him not to proceed therein without orders, because that large additions would be made hereto.”  He also did not appreciate that Bell had not managed to turn a profit on the first edition, though that did not receive mention in the address in the advertisement.  Readers needed to be aware that Bell’s new edition, “lately advertised by the printer of the first [edition], is without the intended additions.”  That being the case, readers who exercised a little patience for the Bradfords’ edition “now in the press” and authorized by the author could acquire both the contents of the original pamphlet and the additions in a single volume … and at a bargain price!  Even with the new material, the cost “will … be reduced to one half of the price of the former edition.”  Bell advertisements consistently listed “two shillings” for the pamphlet.  The Bradfords charged one shilling.  They also gave “allowance to those who take quantities” or a discount for purchasing in volume, either to retail or distribute to friends, family, and associates.  That would “accommodate [the pamphlet] to the abilities of every man.”  In other words, the lower price made it possible to disseminate Common Sense even more widely.  When it came to airing grievances over the publication of Common Sense in newspaper advertisements, this address “To the PUBLIC” was only the opening salvo.  The dispute continued in subsequent editions of the Pennsylvania Evening Post and other newspapers.

January 21

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

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (January 20, 1776).

“A NEW Edition of COMMON SENSE is just published.”

On the same day that the first advertisement for Thomas Paine’s Common Sense appeared in a newspaper beyond Philadelphia, another advertisement for “A NEW Edition of COMMON SENSE” ran in both the Pennsylvania Evening Post and the Pennsylvania Ledger.  On January 9, 1776, the Pennsylvania Evening Post had been the first newspaper to carry an advertisement for the political pamphlet.  Within a week, Robert Bell, the publisher, inserted the advertisement in all six newspapers published in Philadelphia at the time.  The advertisement for the “NEW EDITION of COMMON SENSE” in the January 20 edition of the Pennsylvania Ledger was one of two for the pamphlet in that issue.  It also carried Bell’s original advertisement.  The printing office apparently included it on one of the first pages printed and later received the new notice to integrate into one of the last pages printed.

Pennsylvania Ledger (January 20, 1776).

These advertisements testify to the popularity of Common Sense immediately after its initial publication.  They also obscure a disagreement between Bell and Paine.  The author, who remained anonymous for nearly three months after publication of the first edition, did not authorize Bell to publish a second edition.  Paine wished to donate his share of the profits to purchase supplies for American soldiers participating in the invasion of Quebec, but he learned that Bell’s first edition did not generate any profits despite its popularity.  Disillusioned with their collaboration, Paine instructed Bell not to proceed with a second edition.  Instead, he intended to add appendices and other content and find a new publisher among the many printers in Philadelphia.  The author eventually worked with William Bradford and Thomas Bradford, the printers of the Pennsylvania Journal, though Bell moved forward with a second edition against Paine’s wishes.  Over the next several months, Bell and Paine engaged in an argument (even as the “Englishman” who penned Common Sense remained anonymous) in the public prints, both in letters and advertisements in the Pennsylvania Evening Post and other newspapers published in Philadelphia.  Advertisements became a means for promoting not only the political pamphlet but also the author’s preferred edition of it!

January 20

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

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

Constitutional Gazette (January 20, 1776).

“Now selling by WILLIAM GREEN, Bookseller, in Maiden Lane, New-York.  COMMON SENSE.”

Just eleven days after the first newspaper advertisement for Thomas Paine’s Common Sense appeared in the January 9, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, the first advertisement for the inflammatory political pamphlet ran in a newspaper outside of Philadelphia.  Within a week, Robert Bell, the publisher of the first edition, inserted advertisements in all six newspapers printed in Philadelphia, including Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote.  One of the most savvy and influential American printers and booksellers of the eighteenth century, Bell quickly dispatched copies of the pamphlet to New York.  On January 20, the Constitutional Gazette carried an advertisement that nearly replicated those in Philadelphia’s newspapers.

That notice announced the publication of the pamphlet and stated that it was “now selling by ROBERT BELL, in Third-Street, Philadelphia” for two shillings per copy.  Yet prospective customers did not need to send to Philadelphia to acquire copies because the pamphlet was “now selling by WILLIAM GREEN, Bookseller, in Maiden Lane, New-York.”  Like the other advertisements, the notice in the Constitutional Gazette did not identify Paine as the author.  It gave the title of the work, “COMMON SENSE; ADDRESSED TO THE INHABITANTS OF AMERICA,” and listed the various headings for the sections of the pamphlet.  Readers may have already heard about a new pamphlet that took Philadelphia by storm and some of the arguments for declaring independence that it contained, yet such an outline likely told them more than they already knew and whetted their appetites for more.  What did the pamphlet say about “Monarchy and Hereditary succession”?  What kinds of “Thoughts on the present state of American affairs” did it contain?  What did the author think of “the present Ability of America” in its contest against Great Britain?  Even before they saw anything in print, most residents of New York probably first learned about Common Sense via word of mouth.  The advertisement in the Constitutional Gazette offered readers an opportunity to move beyond excited conversations about what they heard the pamphlet said about monarchy, government, and the prospects for declaring independence to obtaining their own copies and reading the treatise for themselves.  It did not take long for advertisements for Common Sense to move beyond Philadelphia’s newspapers to the Constitutional Gazette in New York and other newspapers in other cities and towns.

January 16

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

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

Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote (January 16, 1776).

“COMMON SENSE; ADDRESSED TO THE INHABITANTS OF AMERICA.”

On January 16, 1776, Robert Bell’s advertisement for the first edition of Thomas Paine’s Comon Sense made its third appearance in the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  That newspaper, the only triweekly published in Philadelphia at the time, was the first to carry Bell’s advertisement.  It ran on January 9, 13, and 16, but not on January 11.  During that week, Bell also inserted an advertisement for Common Sense in each of the other five newspapers printed in Philadelphia at the time. On January 16, Henrich Millers Pennsylvanische Staatsbote was the last to feature it, the only advertisement in that newspaper printed in English rather than German.  Bell, already known for his savvy marketing, made sure that German settlers who could read English saw the political pamphlet advertised in the newspaper they were most likely to consult.

By that time, many of them may have already heard about the incendiary Common Sense, the way it mocked monarchy, and the arguments it made in favor of the colonies declaring independence.  Throughout most of the imperial crisis, colonizers blamed Parliament for perpetrating various abuses.  They sought redress for their grievances from the king. Over time, however, many identified George III as the author of their misfortune.  The monarch, after all, possessed ultimate responsibility for what occurred in his realm.  The Declaration of Independence listed more than two dozen grievances, assigning them all to the king rather than Parliament.  The publication of Common Sense in January 1776 played a significant role in shifting attitudes about the role the king played in the imperial crisis and the war that began with the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord in April 1775.

Among the observations and arguments that Paine advanced, he stated that “in America THE LAW IS KING.  For as in absolute governments, the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King and there ought to be no other.”  It was an ideal embraced by the founding generation … and it is an ideal under threat today as the nation commemorates 250 years since the Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence.  Citizens and the legislators who represent them must hold those who seek to be absolute rulers accountable to the rule of law so the republic remains a place where “THE LAW IS KING.”

January 13

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

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

Pennsylvania Ledger (January 13, 1776).

“COMMON SENSE; ADDRESSED TO THE INHABITANTS OF AMERICA.”

Robert Bell, one of the most prominent printers and booksellers in America, already had experience with extensive advertising campaigns by the time he published and marketed Thomas Paine’s Common Sense in January 1776.  Within a week, Bell inserted advertisements for what would become the most influential political pamphlet of the era of the American Revolution in all six newspapers printed in Philadelphia.

He started with the Pennsylvania Evening Post on January 9, then placed nearly identical advertisements in the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journal on January 10.  On January 13, the advertisement ran in the Pennsylvania Ledger (and once again in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, the city’s only triweekly rather than weekly newspaper).  Bell also ran the advertisement in Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet on January 15.  His notice had a privileged place in Pennsylvania Ledger (the first item in the first column on the first page) and Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (the first advertisement following the news).

Even the Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staaatsbote carried the advertisement on January 16, one week after Bell’s first advertisement appeared in the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  It was the only advertisement in English, even though the newspaper’s masthead advised that “All ADVERTISEMENTS to be inserted in this Paper, or printed single by HENRY MILLER, Publisher hereof, are by him translated gratis.”  Perhaps, since the pamphlet had not yet been translated into German, Bell instructed Miller to publish the advertisement in English to entice bilingual German colonizers.  Later in 1776, Melchior Steiner and Carl Cist, who had recently advertised that they printed in English, German, and other languages, published a German translation, Gesunde Vernunft.

The arguments and ideas that Paine presented in Common Sense caused a popular uproar.  Steiner and Cist’s German translation was only one of many local editions; printers in other cities and towns, especially in New York and New England, produced and advertised their own editions of the pamphlet.  Yet neither Paine nor Bell knew in advance that Common Sense would have such a reception.  It was not long before the author and the publisher had a falling out, causing Paine to work with William Bradford and Thomas Bradford, the printers of the Pennsylvania Journal, on the second edition.  Before that, however, Bell applied his long experience advertising books to promoting Common Sense in the public prints when he published the first edition.

January 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (January 9, 1776).

“THIS day was published … COMMON SENSE addressed to the INHABITANTS of AMERICA.”

On January 9, 1776, the first advertisement for Thomas Paine’s Common Sense appeared in an American newspaper.  The notice did not include Paine’s name.  Instead, it stated that Robert Bell, the prominent printer and bookseller, “published, and is now selling … COMMON SENSE addressed to the INHABITANTS of AMERICA, on the following subjects.”  The advertisement then listed the headings for the several sections in the first edition: “I. Of the origin and design of government in general, with concise Remarks on the English constitution.  II. Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession.  III. Thoughts on the present state of American affairs.  IV. Of the present ability of America, with some miscellaneous reflections.”

Over the next several months, printers in many towns would publish and advertise local editions of Common Sense, making it the most widely disseminated political pamphlet during the era of the American Revolution (though, as Trish Loughran convincingly demonstrates, the number of copies has been wildly exaggerated).[1]  Historians also consider Common Sense the most persuasive pamphlet that advocated for the American cause.  Even though hostilities commenced at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, many Americans still hoped that the king would intervene to address their grievances.  The plain language of Common Sense (along with unflattering depictions of monarchy) played a significant role in convincing many colonizers to support independence over a redress of grievances.  Paine made a strong case for “the present ability of America” to establish a new government and trading relationships beyond the British Empire.

There seems to be some confusion about the publication date for Common Sense.  Some sources claim that it was published on January 10, 1776.  I suspect that is because advertisements for the pamphlet first appeared in the January 10 editions of the Pennsylvania Gazette, the newspaper Benjamin Franklin formerly operated, and the Pennsylvania Journal, published by Patriot printers William Bradford and Thomas Bradford.  Those advertisements featured almost identical copy (but different choices for the format made by the compositors), including the phrase “THIS DAY IS PUBLISHED” in the Pennsylvania Gazette and “This Day was Published” in the Pennsylvania Journal.  I have previously examined other instances of similar phrases, demonstrating that they did not literally refer to the publication date but instead meant that a book or pamphlet was now available for purchase.  When the advertisement ran in the Pennsylvania Ledger on January 13 and in the Wochentliche Pennsylvanische Staatsbote on January 16, both versions stated, “This Day was Published.”  Eighteenth-century readers knew how to interpret the phrase.  I wonder if some scholars consulted the more famous and the more venerable Pennsylvania Gazette (founded 1728) and Pennsylvania Journal (founded 1742), saw a phrase that suggested the date of the newspaper was indeed the publication date for Common Sense, and overlooked a newspaper that had been in production for a little less than a year when it carried its first advertisement for Common Sense.  (Benjamin Towne distributed the first issue of the Pennsylvania Evening Post on January 24, 1775.)  Bell may have been selling copies of Common Sense before January 9.  The advertisement in the Pennsylvania Evening Post does not definitively demonstrate that the pamphlet was published on January 9, but it does show when marketing for the pamphlet began and that Bell published it no later than January 9, 1776.

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[1] Trish Loughran, “Disseminating Common Sense: Thomas Paine and the Problem of the Early National Bestseller,” American Literature 78., no. 1 (March 2006), 1-28.

December 3

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

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

Pennsylvania Ledger (December 2, 1775).

“All the Printers … shall be compensated with full payment, either in Cash or Sentimental Food.”

Robert Bell, one of the most prominent American printers and booksellers during the second half of the eighteenth century, frequently distributed subscription proposals for works he wished to publish far and wide.  Such was the case when he marketed an American edition of James Burgh’s Political Disquisitions in 1775.  The extensive secondary title provided an overview of the multi-volume work: “An ENQUIRY into public ERRORS, DEFECTS, and ABUSES: illustrated by, and established upon FACTS and REMARKS, extracted from a variety of AUTHORS, ancient and modern; calculated to draw the timely ATTENTION of Government and People, to a due Consideration of the Necessity, and the Means, of Reforming those Errors, Defects, and Abuses, of Restoring the Constitution and Saving the State.”

Upon publishing the work, Bell set about a new round of marketing.  Once again, he wished to advertise widely.  This time, he appended a note to his advertisement that appeared in the December 2 edition of the Pennsylvania Ledger.  Addressing “All the Printers on the continent,” Bell offered that those “who will be so obliging as to insert the whole of this, and the following Advertisement, in their News Papers for three weeks, shall be compensated with full payment, either in Cash or Sentimental Food, by their humble servant, the Provedore to the Sentimentalists.”  The “following Advertisement” consisted of three portions: a standard notice typical of others for books that appeared in the Pennsylvania Ledger and other newspapers, a lengthy address from “The American Editor to his Countrymen,” and a brief announcement that Bell also sold “the Great Professor CULLEN’s Lectures, on the MATERIA MEDICA” to “AMERICAN PHYSICIANS, who wish to arrive at the top of their profession.”  The standard advertisement included the name of the book and its author, the price (“Thirty Six Shillings”), a description of some of its material aspects (“Three Volumes with neat Bindings”), and where to purchase it.  In the address, Bell asserted, “The perusal of the work, at this important period, will be attended with the most salutary and certain advantages if the inhabitants of America will be so rational as to act wisely, in taking warning from the folly of others, by permitting no ministerial extravagances to enter into their plan.”  They could lay “a sure foundation that freedom shall last for many generations” instead of allowing the current British administration to make “FREEMEN [into] SLAVES.”

The entire advertisement was much longer than most subscription proposals or notices about books already published.  That may have been the reason that Bell appended the note to “All the Printers on the continent.”  In other instances, fellow printers may have published shorter advertisements gratis, but this one required significant space in weekly newspapers that consisted of only four pages.  To increase the chances that printers would reprint it when they saw the advertisement in newspapers that they received through their exchange networks, Bell made sure that they knew that he would compensate them “with full payment, either in Cash or Sentimental Food.”  In other words, he would supply copies of Political Disquisitions or other books he published to those who preferred them rather than cash.  The flamboyant Bell was already known as “the Provedore to the Sentimentalists” from his newspaper advertisements, broadsides, and book catalogs.  He sought to maintain the image he cultivated by including that language in his note to printers, yet he realized that his reputation alone would not convince them to publish such an extensive advertisement.  Accordingly, he promised payment in advance rather than expecting newspaper printers to publish his advertisement as a courtesy, no matter how well their politics might align with those in Bell’s address “to his Countrymen.”

December 2

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

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

Pennsylvania Ledger (December 2, 1775).

“THE American Edition of SIMES’s MILITARY GUIDE.”

In December 1775, James Humphreys, Jr., Robert Bell, and Robert Aitken collaborated in advertising and publishing The Military Guide for Young Officers by Thomas Simes, making yet another military manual available to the public following the momentous events at Lexington and Concord the previous April.  More recent developments, both military and political, convinced printers that a market existed for military manuals.  According to the introduction to “Books in the Field: Studying the Art of War in Revolutionary America,” an exhibition sponsored by the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati, “a flood of printing began to appear from the American presses.  Much of this activity was centered in Philadelphia, where more than thirty works on military subjects were published in the years 1775 and 1776 alone.”

Of the three of the printer-booksellers who partnered in publishing Simes’s Military Guide, Humphreys was the only one who published a newspaper.  He gave their advertisement a privileged place at the top of the first column on the first page of the December 2, 1775, edition of the Pennsylvania Ledger.  Rather than advertising a book already available for sale, the printer-booksellers distributed subscription proposals, doing so, they claimed, “By Desire of some the Members of the Honourable American Continental CONGRESS, and some of the Military Officers of the Association.”  Readers who wished to reserve copies of the work became subscribers by submitting their names to any of those three printer-booksellers, though they also indicated that “SUBSCRIPTIONS are gratefully received … by all the Booksellers in America.”  Printers, authors, and others in the book trades had more than one reason for circulating subscription proposals.  They hoped to incite greater demand while also learning if sufficient interest existed to make a project viable and, if so, how many copies to produce.

This subscription proposal featured an overview of the contents of the military guide: “a large and valuable Compilation from the most celebrated Miliary Writers … Containing the Experience of many brave Heroes in critical Situations, for the Use of young Warriors” as well as “an excellent Military, Historical and Explanatory DICTIONARY.”  This “American Edition … will be printed on the same Paper and Type with the Specimen, and neatly bound in two Octavo Volumes.”  Apparently, Humphreys, Bell, and Aitken had specimens or samples of the paper and type on display at their printing offices so prospective subscribers could examine them and assess the material quality of the work for themselves before committing to ordering copies.  Printers often circulated specimens along with subscription proposals.  The partners planned to print some surplus copies, expecting that demand would warrant doing so, but encouraged subscribers with a discount.  Those who reserved their copies paid three dollars, but for “Non-subscribers, the Price will actually be FOUR DOLLARS.”  Subscribers did not need to part with their money “until the Delivery of the Work,” anticipated for “the latter end of December, 1775.”  Humphreys, Bell, and Aitken did not take the military manual to press as quickly as they expected.  The imprint on the title page gives the date of publication as 1776.  The partners made one final pitch in the subscription proposals, announcing that “the Names of those Gentlemen who have examined the Book, and do approve of its Publication may now be seen” at Aitken’s printing office.  These marketing efforts apparently helped the partners attract enough subscribers to publish the proposed work.  Not all subscription proposals met with such success.  Current events likely played a role in the outcome when Humphreys, Bell, and Aitken proposed an American edition of The Miliary Guide for Young Officers.