 | |  |
The diaries and memoranda of the Yorkshire non-conformist Oliver Heywood (1630-1702)[1] preserve valuable information about the production and distribution of his eighteen books, and in doing so raise a number of interesting questions about the commercial basis of clerical publication in seventeenth-century England. It was Heywood's custom to list the numbers of copies received from his publishers, and the names of those to whom they were distributed, giving him perhaps the best-documented public of any provincial author before the advent of the subscription list. It is also clear that he was not as a general rule paid cash for his manuscript, but in bound copies of the work, and that over and above these copies he would normally purchase a significant portion of the edition for distribution among his co-denominationalists. As his publisher was in all but three cases an important London bookseller, Thomas Parkhurst, it seems likely that a general trade practice was involved.
Heywood belonged by descent to a highly literate culture of Puritan clothworkers and farmers spread over Eastern Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire which even in the earlier years of the seventeenth century probably formed a significant market for London printers of devotional literature. His mother instructed him from an early age in "Mr Bals" catechism[2] and "was continually putting us upon reading the scriptures and good bookes" (I, 51). His father, a fustian manufacturer of Bolton, assembled a library of "the most plain practicall experimentall Treatises in Divinity such as Calvin, Luther in English Mr Perkins, Dr Preston, Dr Sibs" only to lose it to Prince Rupert's soldiers who discovered the books imperfectly concealed in a "colepit-house" and burned them on Cockey Moor (I, 84). Oliver himself was a patient accumulator of books, a catalogue of 1664 listing 264 items, though like his father he lost volumes through confiscation.[3] The
For the victims of the great ejectment of 24 August 1662, of whom Heywood was certainly not the least heroic, the printed word gained an added importance as a means of communication with their scattered and embattled flocks. Heywood seems to have regarded his writing as an extension of his personal ministry, declaring in the dedication of his first book, Heart Treasure (1667) to his "very loving and dearly beloved Friends and Neighbours, the Inhabitants of Coley, and the places adjacent":
Similar lists are preserved for the distribution of eleven of Heywood's other books. Closet Prayer a Christian Duty was received by Heywood in sixteen separate batches dated between 1669 (this edition does not appear to survive) and 28 February 1681/2, totalling at least 324 copies (III, 53, 69-73). In this case, as well as the bundles from Parkhurst there were three copies "Bought at Manchest" and a further group of five "Ordered to be bought at Bolton octob 19 [1669]." The first copies of the second edition were received on 26 August 1670. Sure Mercies of David, or, the Second Part of Heart Treasure (1672) was delivered to Heywood on 17 February 1671/2 as a consignment of eight dozen (=100) books. Fourteen of these are in a separate sublist headed "guilded b" recording bestowal on such worthies as Lady Hewley, Lady Watson, Lady Standley and Heywood's wife and first wife's mother. (It would seem that as a general rule he also reserved one of the gilt copies for himself.) Four further consignments followed, the last of which, bringing the total to 172 copies, was received on 17 August 1672 (III, 51-53). In the case of Life in God's Favour (1679), for which Heywood temporarily abandoned Parkhurst in favour of Dorman Newman,[5] twelve dozen copies were received or assigned according to his direction between 29 March and 16 June 1679, of which one dozen were gilt—four being more particularly designated "guilded edges"—and the remainder plain, one consignment being noted as "white leather" i.e. vellum (II, 211-213). The dozens in this case were an exact twelve. Of Israel's Lamentation after the Lord (1683), Heywood initially took delivery of twenty-five gilt copies and seventy-five plain arriving on 3 February 1682/3, after which he records the receipt of a further eight copies from the Halifax bookseller Francis Bentley, four dozen from Parkhurst at 9/- a dozen, and a final consignment of five from Parkhurst sent for on 1 April 1683, making 161 in all (II, 214-215). Heywood also took eight dozen copies of his A Narrative of the Holy Life and Happy Death of . . . Mr. John Angier (1683), the first two dozen arriving on 26 September 1684 (II, 215). For Baptismal Bonds Renewed (1687) there was again a special "12 better bound then ordinary in calves leath: guilt," one of which went to Mrs. Heywood and another to Lady Hewley (III, 53). The headnotes of the distribution lists are more than usually cryptic in this case but indicate that Heywood was responsible between 10 October 1687 and 31 March 1688 for the disposal of at least 188 copies (III, 53-55). Of his later books, Heywood took 300 copies of Meetness for Heaven (1690) at 9d per copy, 100 of Advice to an Only Child (1693), 200 of The Heavenly Converse (1697), printed for John Back, 150 of The General Assembly (1700), and eighty of The Two Worlds (1701).[6] He also records the receipt of twenty-five copies of Christ's Intercession (1701) (IV, 262). The books for which no records survive
Scattered among the lists of consignments and recipients are a number of references to Heywood's financial agreements with his publishers. In the case of Heart Treasure, all the copies received by Heywood were apparently paid for, suggesting that publication had been secured through an agreement to purchase a given proportion of the edition. The dedication refers to an undertaking by friends who had read the work in manuscript that "some would be at the charges" (A4r); however there is no reference to any such subvention in Heywood's own records. For a number of his subsequent books it is clear that a rather different arrangement prevailed under which while continuing to purchase substantial numbers of copies he would receive a quantity gratis in payment for his manuscript. Recording the distribution of Life in God's Favour, he refers specifically to "6 dozen wch Mr Dorman Newman gave me for my copy" (II, 212). A further six dozen were also purchased by Heywood at 11d a copy. For his brother's book Christ Displayed, which was published by Parkhurst, the terms were that the widow would receive 100 volumes for the copy and that the family would purchase another 300 (II, 213). In the case of Israel's Lamentation after the Lord, Heywood received 100 copies gratis, twenty-five of them gilt, and paid Parkhurst 36/- for a further four dozen (II, 214-5). With The General Assembly, fifty were given gratis and a further 100 taken at 9d each, 6/2d being specified for carriage. A notebook of reflections and engagements preserves details of a similar agreement with regard to Baptismal Bonds Renewed:
The precise degree of advantage to author and bookseller under this system would depend on whether the author chose to resell his copies, and the basis on which the price of the additional copies purchased by him was calculated. Heywood's clear statement in the passage concerning Baptismal Bonds Renewed quoted above indicates that he regarded the gratis distribution of his works as an integral part of his pastoral cure, though even in this case twenty-eight copies were sent to the bookseller Francis Bentley and six are noted as having been purchased by John Armitage for 11/-. His diary reference quoted earlier to the distribution of Heart Treasure would again seem to imply that the copies were a gift to their recipients. In the case of Christ Displayed, 112 copies were passed on for resale to Bentley and there is a list of sums totaling £2/6/0 received on a varying unit basis from seven other individuals. This however was not one of Heywood's own books and its publication was probably regarded by all concerned in it as a charitable exercise for the benefit of the author's widow. Towards the end of his career, when Heywood was once again securely established in a permitted meeting house, he seems to have developed a closer relationship with the local book trade. A letter to Ralph Thoresby accompanying a copy of a A New Creature requests his aid in the "furtherance of its sale" by John Whitworth, a bookseller of Leeds who was subsequently joint-publisher with Parkhurst of A Treatise of Christ's Intercession (Works, I, 435). In general, however, the indications are that at the period when Heywood was a persecuted exile from the pulpit, his books were designed for free distribution, a decision that is a testimony to his seriousness of purpose in straitened times.
As regards the prices paid by Heywood to his publishers, the indications are that they represent a substantial discount. It is even possible that he enjoyed the benefit customary at a later date of a special reduction for religious books intended for gratis distribution, though there is no direct evidence of this among the surviving records. Life in God's Favour which Heywood purchased bound for 11d is advertised bound in the Term Catalogue for Easter 1672 at 1/6d. Similarly Heavenly Converse which Heywood bought at 4½d in sheets and 6½d bound is advertised bound in the Term Catalogue for Michaelmas 1697 at 1/-.[9] Unfortunately neither of these titles was handled by Parkhurst, who while a copious advertiser in the Term Catalogues—often in blocks of up to twenty or more titles—does not as a rule specify prices; nevertheless it is difficult to imagine Heywood remaining so constant if he were not receiving the kinds of discount offered by Newman and Back. In
| | |