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

“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.