Exhibition announcement
Authors, Publishers and Readers: Selling and distributing literary cultures, 1880-1940
12 March – 30 March, normal museum opening times (Museum of English Rural Life)
Staircase hall display
The display focuses on the changing literary marketplace of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when novels became cheaper, more readily accessible, and more widely read. The exhibition showcases letters, order books and other materials from the archives of British publishers and printers in Special Collections, as well photos from the recently acquired W.H. Smith archive and rare books about reading and bookselling from the Mark Longman library.
Learn about the role played by libraries like Mudies and Smiths in this revolutionary phase of the novel, the impact of book clubs in the 1920s and 30s like the Book Society, and changes in the form of the novel with the development of paperbacks.
Curated by Nicola Wilson and Andrew Nash
Dr Nicola Wilson
Department of English Language and Literature
University of Reading 0118 3788360
