American Literature and the Culture of Reprinting, 1834-1853.(Book Review)

Publication: The Modern Language Review

Publication Date: 01-JUL-04

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American Literature and the Culture of Reprinting, 1834-1853. By MEREDITH L. MCGILL. (MaterialTexts) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2002. viii+364 pp. $39.95; 28 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 0-8122-3698-X.

In American Literature and the Culture of Reprinting, 1834-1853, Meredith McGill takes aim at Michael T. Gilmore's close alignment, in his American Romanticism and the Marketplace (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), of capitalist development with the emergence of professional writing (p. 12). Rather, for her, 'the discourse of authorship develops not congruently, but at odds with changes in the conditions of production' (p. 49). Closely analysing the landmark case of Wheaton v. Peters (1834), she argues for an...

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