Pedlars and the Popular Press

Jeroen Salman, Ph.D. (1997) is Assistant Professor Comparative Literature at Utrecht University. He has published on early modern popular culture, literature and book history, including the volume New Perspectives in book history. Contributions from the Low Countries (Walburg Pers, 2006).

• Chapter One: Reputation and Representationin collaboration with Karen BowenConfusing terminologyAuthorities and BooksellersA growing danger in EnglandTolerance, repression and economic interests in the NetherlandsPedlars in the World of the Imagination: Textual RepresentationsDutch literary representationsEnglish textual representationsPedlars in the World of the Imagination: The Visual PerspectiveEnglish ballad singersDutch imagesPedlars and Their Self-ImageThe struggle for lifeBattling a bad reputationDistributor of respectable goodsConclusion: Stereotypes, Motives and ChangeChapter Two: The Pedlar in the English Distribution NetworkThe Scale of Itinerant DistributionOrganisation and controlItinerant book tradeNumber of pedlar licensesPedlars and hawkers with printed waresItinerant booksellers in LondonItinerant book trade in the provinces: Devon and ExeterCategorisation and Trade PracticesOccasional pedlarsPedlars of books and other goodsPedlars with printed wares exclusivelyBallad sellers and singersNews pedlarsChapbooks, prints, almanacs, children’s books and other printed waresConclusion: Distribution Networks and Patterns in EnglandChapter Three: The Pedlar in the Dutch Distribution NetworkThe Scale of Itinerant DistributionAmsterdamLeidenUtrechtCategorisation, Networks and Trade PracticesOccasional PedlarsPedlars with books and other waresPedlars with printed wares exclusivelySpecialist pedlarsConclusion: Distribution Networks and Patterns in the NetherlandsConclusion: A Comparative Perspective on Itinerant NetworksBibliographyArchival and Manuscript SourcesPublished Primary SourcesElectronic Sources and DatabasesSecondary Sources

“This is a commendably ambitious project. Not content to investigate the history of Dutch pedlars of printed matter across more than two centuries, Jeroen Salman provides a thorough comparison with itinerant sellers in England, while maintaining a clear view of the wider European context. In the process he assembles a wealth of new information about Dutch and English pedlars, hawkers, ballad-singers, and news-vendors gleaned from a vast range of sources. While London and Amsterdam are central to the study, the author uses records from Utrecht, Leiden, and Exeter to furnish detailed case studies of the situation in provincial towns. […] Jeroen Salman is to be congratulated not only for identifying those aspects of the trade in cheap print in both countries hitherto largely ignored but also for demonstrating what can be done by exploiting to the full an immense variety of documentary, textual and visual resources.”Maureen Bell, Newark. In: The Library, 7.16.3 (September 2015), pp. 346-349.