Papers presented by Marrisa Joseph since 2019

2024 Providence, Rhode Island

"From Public Patronage to Private Enterprise: Copyright and the Professionalisation of Authorship in Victorian Britain"

Abstract:

The publishing industry has at its core the desire to inform and educate, and is a vehicle for the advancement of knowledge. With the advent of the printing press in the fifteenth century, publishing became central in the process of disseminating information for the good of the public. Ownership of printed works – treated as physical property – lay with the printer, and these rights could be lucrative. In comparison, the intellectual labour of authors was considered as an altruistic service, authors must write for the good of the public but not for personal commercial gain. Therefore, authors were continually at the mercy of patrons, almost pawning their literary creations in exchange for honours which could be financial or advancement of their careers (Parry 2008). Yet by the mid-nineteenth century, social attitudes towards professional authorship began to change, moving towards a liberating independence from patrons (Joseph, 2019; Salmon, 2013). Copyright has been frequently analysed in book history as a catalyst for shifting writing from a public service to a means to earn a living. Yet what is rarely discussed within business history is how copyright changed the dynamic between authors and the public, and to what extent did authors remedy their approach as they became increasingly professionalised. This paper questions the dynamics between authors and the public, and analyses how the public opinion of writing as a commercial activity governed and influenced the business practices of authors. Through an analysis of archival sources, published letters and newspaper articles, this paper examines how authors negotiated contributing a valuable service to society, as they attempted to secure their place through the increasing push towards professionalisation within the Victorian publishing industry.

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