Printing, Publishing, and Pocket Book Compiling: Ann Fisher’s Hidden Labour in the Newcastle Book Trade

Williams, Helen (2022) Printing, Publishing, and Pocket Book Compiling: Ann Fisher’s Hidden Labour in the Newcastle Book Trade. In: Print Culture, Agency, and Regionality in the Hand Press Period. New Directions in Book History . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, Switzerland, pp. 93-116. ISBN 9783030880545, 9783030880552

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Abstract

Ann Fisher (1719–1778), author of bestselling grammatical textbooks, co-founded and co-edited with her husband, Thomas Slack, the Newcastle Chronicle. Though she worked alongside him, and sometimes independently, in their Newcastle print shops, Fisher’s work as a printer-publisher remains underexplored. This chapter demonstrates her role in printing and publishing John Cunningham’s Poems, Chiefly Pastoral (1766 and 1772) and her own Ladies’ Own Memorandum-Book (1764–1778), unique in being the only women’s pocket book produced by a woman in this period. Drawing upon manuscript archives of correspondence in the British Library, Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums, and the National Library of Scotland, this chapter provides a rare insight into the professional practice of a female printer and publisher within a family business.

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