Travels into Print: Exploration, Writing, and Publishing with John Murray, 1773-1859 - Hardcover

Keighren, Innes M.; Withers, Charles W. J.; Bell, Bill

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226429539 ISBN 13: 9780226429533

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2015

Synopsis

In eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain, books of travel and exploration were much more than simply the printed experiences of intrepid authors. They were works of both artistry and industry—products of the complex, and often contested, relationships between authors and editors, publishers and printers. These books captivated the reading public and played a vital role in creating new geographical truths. In an age of global wonder and of expanding empires, there was no publisher more renowned for its travel books than the House of John Murray.

Drawing on detailed examination of the John Murray Archive of manuscripts, images, and the firm’s correspondence with its many authors—a list that included such illustrious explorers and scientists as Charles Darwin and Charles Lyell, and literary giants like Jane Austen, Lord Byron, and Sir Walter Scott—Travels into Print considers how journeys of exploration became published accounts and how travelers sought to demonstrate the faithfulness of their written testimony and to secure their personal credibility. This fascinating study in historical geography and book history takes modern readers on a journey into the nature of exploration, the production of authority in published travel narratives, and the creation of geographical authorship—a journey bound together by the unifying force of a world-leading publisher.

About this title

About the Author

Innes M. Keighren is a senior lecturer in human geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of Bringing Geography to Book: Ellen Semple and the Reception of Geographical Knowledge. Charles W. J. Withers is the Ogilvie Professor of Geography at the University of Edinburgh and the first Geographer Royal for Scotland in 118 years. He is the author or coauthor of many books, including Placing the Enlightenment: Thinking Geographically about the Age of Reason. Bill Bell is professor of bibliography at Cardiff University. He is the general editor of the four-volume Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland and editor of The Library: The Transactions of the Bibliographical Society.

Review

"As this remarkable new volume shows, the pains of authorship are only part of the labor that goes into making books. Seeing a work into print in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries involved coordination between pressmen, typesetters, binders, illustrators, accountants, distributors, papermakers, and a wide range of other occupations. Travels into Print focuses on what is probably the most signi?cant and intimate of these relationships, that between publisher and author. In doing so, it makes a major contribution to book history and one that is bound to interest historians of science." (Jim Secord, University of Cambridge Isis)

“This is a work solidly based on extensive research in the John Murray Archive, now made more accessible since becoming a jewel in the crown of the National Library of Scotland. . . . As is the custom with the University of Chicago Press, production standards are of the highest and at a price much more favourable than is the norm for British publishers. The coloured plates, and black and white illustrations in the text are all carefully chosen to add to the narrative. . . . Readers with an interest in nineteenth-century publishing without a specialist interest in discovery and exploration will find much of interest in the developments of a major publishing house.” (Library: The Transactions of the Bibliographical Society)

“Travels into Print provides a crucial textual back story, as it were, to more theoretically inflected studies of nineteenth-century travel writing, one that sheds new light on the complex ways colonial encounters and narratives made the journey into print. . . . Travels into Print has much to offer scholars of nineteenth-century literature, history, and print culture. Meticulously researched, the book also forms a fine introduction to the interdisciplinary nature of travel studies and to the current state of scholarship in the field. . . . One hopes that Travels into Print marks the beginning of still deeper forays into questions of textual production and history, a rich and largely unchartered corner of travel writing studies.” (Nineteenth-Century Contexts)

“Opens up a world of travel writing. The link between a world-leading publisher and two centuries of exploration is . . . celebrated.” (Discover: The Magazine of the National Library of Scotland)

“A significant interdisciplinary study that makes contributions not just to the history of geographical exploration and of the book trade, but also to the history of science, art, and cartography, as well as to popular culture, literary studies, and theories of the meaning and reception of ideas. . . . In summary, this is a well-researched, in-depth analysis of a relevant and interesting subject. It is recommended for those interested in historical geography, the history of books, or the relation between popular culture and exploration.” (Beau Riffenburgh Polar Record)

“A landmark in the study of travel literature.” (Ab Imperio)

“This methodologically sophisticated study is a landmark in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary scholarship. . . . The authors’ thorough exploration of the John Murray archive and their astute deployment of contextual material make Travels into Print an invaluable contribution to the fields of geography, history of science, and history of the book. It will be a benchmark against which the value of further interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary studies will be measured.” (Eleni Loukopoulou, independent scholar British Journal for the History of Science)

“Astute and valuable. . . . Though Travels into Print is concerned with a specific genre of writing which appeared from one publishing house at a well-defined moment in time, the intervention it makes is an important one to remember for all students of authorship.” (Jasper Schelstraete, Ghent University Authorship)

"Travels into Print works out from a single institution, Murray’s publishing house, to interweave historical geography and literary and print history to think about the ways in which global exploration yielded books and how those books were shaped by explorers, writers, publishers, and audiences." (Jeffrey N. Cox, University of Colorado at Boulder SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900)

“Travels Into Print is a study of both how these narratives were written and published, and how readers came to understand Britain’s place in an expanding world through their consumption of these works. The authors argue that Murray was not simply reproducing travel diaries; the publisher often had a good deal of influence on how narratives were shaped and presented, including the maps and illustrations that were reproduced from field sketches with varying degrees of accuracy. Analyses of the texts themselves show how writers strove to present themselves as credible and authoritative, and how government sponsorship perhaps affected the motive and message of exploration narratives. John Murray's prominence in the field permits wider conclusions to be drawn about the history of publishing and the production and reception of travel writing. The interdisciplinary nature of this treatment makes the work accessible and relevant to scholars in many fields. . . . Recommended.” (H. Corbett, Northeastern University Choice)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0226429539
• ISBN 13: 9780226429533
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 392