Guide
to Subscription Lists
The database includes in all seventy subscription
lists, representing the sum total of such lists found in novels
of the period during the hands-on examination of copies which underlies
this project. This number far exceeds what is evident from previous
guides to subscription literature, and indicates that the subscription
method of publishing fiction—whereby subscribers vouchsafed
for the purchase of copies prior to publication—remained a
significant if diminishing feature of the period under view. Broken
down into decades, 34 of the novels with lists belong to the 1800s
(representing approximately 4.35% of total output), 25 to the 1810s
(3.7%), and 11 to the 1820s (1.3%). Overall just over 3% of the
novels in the database have been found to include subscription lists.
These lists are given in full, and normally relate
to the copy of the work used to create the ‘main entry’
for that title in the database, invariably a first edition. In size
the lists vary considerably: from the 727 subscribers (apparently
mostly resident in Bath) listed in Ellen Rebecca Warner’s
Herbert-Lodge (1808), vouching in all for no less than
886 copies, to Lieutenant Arnold’s The British Admiral,
with the same year imprint, whose 24 patrons reportedly came to
author’s aid while he was imprisoned for debt. Usually these
lists are found as part of the preliminaries of each novel, though
there are a few exceptions: the precise location and pagination
run(s) will be found in the ‘Notes’ field of the main
records. In transcribing the lists standardisation has been kept
to an absolute minimum, and care has been taken to preserve such
features as block lettering (used for instance to distinguish nobility
from commoners), and the indenting of names (likewise sometimes
an indicator of social status or gender).
Each list as given ends with a editorial ‘Summary’,
supplying the total number of subscribers listed, broken down in
turn by gender (‘unknown’ signifying cases where, as
with subscription by a Book Club, this is not determinable), followed
by a count of additional copies, and terminating with a grand total
of copies subscribed. A fuller analysis of the lists, including
(where ascertainable) locations and social groupings, will be found
in the Checklist to:
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© 2004 Project
Director: Professor Peter Garside;
Research Associates: Dr Jacqueline
Belanger, Dr Sharon Ragaz;
Database/Website Developer:
Dr Anthony Mandal |
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