Title The portrait and the book : illustration & literary culture in early America / Megan Walsh

Published Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, [2017] [Place of publication not identified] : Chicago Distribution Center (CDC Presses) ©2017

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Description 1 online resource Contents Introduction -- Benjamin Franklin's portraits and colonial printing -- Phillis Wheatley and the durability of the author portrait -- Nationalist portraiture, magazines, and political books -- Picturing the seduction heroine in the United States -- Gothic portraiture in Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland and Ormond Summary In the nineteenth century, new image-making methods like steel engraving and lithography caused a surge in the publication of illustrated books in the United States. Yet even before the widespread use of these technologies, Americans had already established the illustrated book format as central to the nation's literary culture. In The Portrait and the Book, Megan Walsh argues that colonial-era author portraits, such as Benjamin Franklin's and Phillis Wheatley's frontispieces; political portraits that circulated during the debates over the Constitution, such as those of the Founders by Charles Willson Peale; and portraits of beloved fictional characters in the 1790s, such as those of Samuel Richardson's heroine Pamela, shaped readers' conceptions of American literature. Illustrations played a key role in American literary culture despite the fact there was little demand for books by American writers. Indeed, most of the illustrated books bought, sold, and shared by Americans were either imported British works or reprinted versions of those imported editions. As a result, in addition to embellishing books, illustrations provided readers with crucial information about the country's status as a former colony. Through an examination of readers' portrait-collecting habits, writers' employment of ekphrasis, printers' efforts to secure American-made illustrations for periodicals, and engravers' reproductions of British book illustrations, Walsh uncovers in late eighteenth-century America a dynamic but forgotten visual culture that was inextricably tied to the printing industry and to the early US literary imagination Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Vendor-supplied metadata Subject Illustrated books -- History -- 17th century. Illustrated books -- History -- 18th century. Portraits, Colonial. Printing -- United States -- History -- 17th century Printing -- United States -- History -- 18th century ART -- Subjects & Themes -- General. LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES -- Publishing. Illustrated books Portraits, Colonial Printing United States Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781609385033 1609385039

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