Berch introduction

Exeter Working Papers in British Book Trade History; 10
The London book trades of the later 18th century. Introduction
Compiled chiefly by Victor Berch and edited by Ian Maxted

Contents

The different sections of the alphabet can be accessed through the key page to this website.

Editor's introduction

Soon after the appearance in 1977 of The London book trades 1775-1800: a preliminary checklist of members Victor Berch began to send me large numbers of carefully written and typed extracts from a variety of newspapers and periodicals to which he had access in original or, more frequently, on microfilm at Brandeis University Library. These were intended chiefly as corrections and as a supplement to my work which had made little use of such sources. In the 1980s his many-sided interests drew him away from the 18th century London book trades to the murky world of popular American literature and he took up the role of literary detective, unravelling the authorship of dime novels. In 1986 he finally passed over to me a large collection of cards, the residue of his collecting activities in the early British book trades and left it to me to make the best use of them.

My own interests had diverted to the Westcountry book trades and only in 2001 did I complete the keyboarding of those cards entrusted to me in an attempt to do justice to the immense labours of Victor Berch. The table below gives an indication of years represented. This does not necessarily imply that those years were covered exhaustively, simply that entries were noted as keyboarding progressed.

Ian Maxted

January 2007

List of most frequent abbreviations

GM Gentleman's magazine (1771, 1773-74, 1778, 1780-84, 1788-92, 1795- 1802, 1804-08, 1810, 1814, 1816, 1818-20, 1822-25, 1828, 1838)
GNDA Gazette and new daily advertiser (1773-77)
LC London chronicle
LDA London daily advertiser (1750-54, 1760-62, 1767, 1769, 1773-89)
LEP Lloyd's evening post (1778)
LG London gazette (1720, 1744-52, 1755-56, 1761-67, 1772, 1774-1800, 1802, 1806, 1813-14, 1817-21, 1827, 1832, 1838-39, 1842)
LM London magazine (1750, 1760-63, 1766-67)
LT [London] Times (1788-93, 1795-1804, 1806, 1808-11, 1817-18, 1820, 1823, 1827-28)
MC Morning chronicle (1788, 1814)
MM Monthly magazine (1796-98, 1800-11, 1813-16, 1818-20)
SM Scottish magazine (1752, 1755, 1758)
UDR Universal daily register (1785-87)

---

This page last updated 9 Jan 2007
© Victor Berch, Ian Maxted, 2001.