Chapbooks

Although chapbooks, in some form, have existed since the invention of printing, the vast majority were printed in the 18th and 19th centuries. Around 1775 these cheaply published books reached their height of popularity with an estimated 200,000 a year being published. These chapbooks represent a unique source for any exploration of the mental universe of the poor in the 18th century. They made a considerable contribution to the development of mass literacy.

These chapbooks were small books containing poems, ballads, stories, recipes, or political and religious tracts. Most chapbooks take traditional themes, folk-tales, or well-known legends. Chapbooks varied in size but the majority were about 5 ½ by 3 ½ inches. The pages were stitched or pinned together. The paper was often very rough and they were often illustrated with cheap woodcuts. They were sold for pennies in the streets by peddlers known as 'chapmen'.

Some classic works were printed as chapbooks abridged versions of the original. Some examples were the works of Bunyan, Deloney, Defoe, Burns, Allan Ramsay, and Pierce Egan. Other classics such as Rape of the Lock and The Beggars Opera were thought to bee too dense, too allusive, and verbally sophisticated as well as independent of a plot to be converted into popular expression. 5

Subject matter of the chapbooks also included, but was not limited to:

Religious & Moral

Household manuals

Travel and Adventure

Prose Fiction

Nursury Rhymes

Song Books

Instruction Books

Fairy Tales/Folk Stories