Perhaps the first ironic detail to note about Small Books for the Common Man is the sheer bulk of this bibliography, containing as it does over 800 individual entries of nineteenth century chapbooks from the National Art Library's collection. However, the book itself is a delight to behold and vastly informative on many levels, providing everything from a definition of the term for the uninitiated in paper ephemera (like myself) to appendices containing lists of nineteenth century printers and tables of paper sizes and layouts. Each sample entry – grouped alphabetically by the place of publication and then by publisher – contains precise information on the layout, contents, paper and binding of the chapbook, usually illustrated by a reproduction from the original. Some of the illustrations are mere fragments – which is not surprising, given that any surviving examples of such cheaply produced pamphlets are likely to be in a very fragile state – but add considerably to both the reading and understanding of this fascinating source.
Chapbooks are pocket‐sized booklets, quickly and cheaply printed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, of “entertaining and broadly educational works”. Although the term was first used in 1824, “chapmen” (or hawkers) would have been selling these quaint publications at markets and fairs, and even door to door, since at least the mid‐1700s. Costing little to produce, with paper covers and few pages, chapbooks sold from a halfpenny up to sixpence, and contained a variety of subjects such as abridged novels, children's primers and nursery rhymes, histories and songs. Authors and titles featured in the bibliography range from Gammer Gurton to the Comtesse de Genlis, Cinderella, The Pilgrim's Progress, and The Wife of [Beith], to “The radical reformers new song book” and the “Heroic exploits of Sir William Wallace”. The distinctive illustrations, printed from woodblocks and cuts, not only decorate the text (although the pictures were not always relevant to the words) but also give a sense of history to the publications.
Browsing through Small Books for the Common Man is an education in itself, showing the development, significance and conservation of popular reading material. Students, librarians and archivists will all find something of interest in the printed examples of chapbooks and accompanying statistics, listing publication by county, from London to the provinces, and the titles of chapbooks printed between 1750 and 1850.
