Nineteenth-century America saw the rise of a new kind of subscription publishing and a new approach to marketing. Once a relatively genteel means of seeking financial support for an expensive publication project with uncertain sales prospects, subscription bookselling expanded during the nineteenth century into a door-to-door solicitation of commitments to purchase particular titles. Drawing on the resources of the Zinman Collection, this exhibition explores what has long been a relatively unknown and inadequately documented aspect of the American publishing industry in the nineteenth century.
Browse the virtual exhibition.
YOU are invited to the opening of the
inaugural exhibition of the Zinman Collection:
"Agents Wanted:"
Subscription Publishing in America
with remarks by
Prof. Charles Rosenberg, Harvard University
March 21st, 2002, 5:30 PM
