Item 32a - Letter from B. C. Nangle to R. B. McKerrow

1 single sheet

1484 Yale Station, New Haven, Connecticut.—Sends an earlier example of the use of a title-page to advertise an author’s earlier work (Add. MS. a. 355/4/32b).

—————

Transcript

1484 Yale Station | New Haven, Conn. U.S.A.
16 May 1928

My dear Mr McKerrow,

Since writing to you a week or two ago {1}, I’ve come across a much earlier example than any I had then seen of the use of the title-page for advertising. In this case I have seen the book, and can cite it with confidence. See the enclosure. There is no date on the title-page; this edition is reviewed, however, in The Monthly Review for August 1760 (Series I, Vol. XXIII, p. 156) and in The Critical Review for May 1760 (Vol. IX, p. 342.) I feel quite confident that a systematic review of titles during the ’60’s would result in the discovery of numerous examples of this usage.

They continue to appear as I work my way through the files of the Monthly. Yesterday, for instance, I noticed Miss Seward’s Monody, the title of which reads Monody / on Major André. / By Miss Seward. /(Author of the Elegy on Capt. Cook.) / – – – – – – Both the first and second editions of this appeared in 1781; I have examined no copy of the first; the above is from the title-page of the second.

Most truly yours,
Benjamin C. Nangle

—————

{1} See Add. Ms. 355/4/31.

Sent with Add. MS. a. 355/4/32b.