The Rise of the Literary Annual, Powerful Femininity, and Beautiful Books
offers an exhibit and lecture about the rise of the beautifully-bound
and wildly popular British literary annual, a genre of
early-nineteenth-century publication that is based on the rich diversity
of European religious emblems, French almanacs, and British conduct
manuals. The literary annual provided a space for re-creating a massive
reading public who enjoyed poetry, travel tales, gothic short stories,
images of popular (yet difficult to reach) artwork, morality short
stories, fantasy, and other early forms of literature. By 1828, the
craze for literary annuals overwhelmed booksellers and drawing rooms in
England, France, South America, and finally, America, where publishers
shamelessly pirated copies of the London volumes, even exchanging an
anglo-centric poem for one that celebrates the nascent formation of
American pride. Harris’ talk will touch on these topics as well as the
beauty of these 200-year old books with an invitation to audience
members to browse through an exhibit of representatives from her
personal collection of silk-bound literary annuals (American, British,
and French), hand-sewn almanacs, and gilt-edge anthologies. (Based on
Harris’ literary history,
Forget Me Not: The Rise of the British Literary Annual 1823-1835)
