muspeccoll: This handwritten list of names might not look like much, but it’s evidence of an early f
muspeccoll: This handwritten list of names might not look like much, but it’s evidence of an early form of circulating library: a book society. A book society was an informal social group in which people would read and discuss works of literature, or works on specific scholarly topics. The group functioned as a lending library as well, and members presumably had a say in the purchase of new titles. Groups like this were particularly important because books were still very expensive in the early nineteenth century. Lee Erickson, a book historian, places the price of a three-volume novel in 1815 at a guinea, about $100 today (JSTOR link). Some book societies were organized around a specific set of interests, (like the example in this blog post from houghtonlib), but others must have been less formal. I recently came across evidence for an informal book society in our collections while preparing for a presentation on library history for a local conference. This is from a novel called Things by Their Right Names, published anonymously by Frances Jacson in 1812. We know that it eventually ended up in the collection of Sir Richard Brooke, but Sir Richard must have acquired it secondhand. Under his bookplate is a handwritten list, in several different hands, of dates and names. These are the names of people who borrowed this book. The first entry says “1813 July 22nd lent to Mrs. Stoppard” then continues “August 1st to Mrs. Tibbits 2 volumes,” and then, under the bookplate, we can continue reading the names: Miss Mannsik [?], Mrs. J. Young, Miss Jones, Mrs. Eylas, Mrs. Arlson [or Orlson?], Mrs. Young, and finally, Mrs. Paul. Then a note at the bottom: “July 21. Returned to the society,” almost a year to the day after the book began its circulation. There are no corresponding notes in the second volume.This is a book by a woman author being shared among a group of women readers - at least, as far as we can tell without being able to read the names under the bookplate. Proof that libraries have been democratizing access to information for centuries! -- source link