Richard Bentley and the British Empire: Imperial and Colonial Publishing Connections
Mary Jane Edwards, MA鈥63
Mary Jane Edwards, MA鈥63(English), is the editor of Richard Bentley and the British Empire: Imperial and Colonial Publishing Connections. Richard Bentley was the leading publisher of fiction in three-volume form for much of the 19th century. From 1832 until it was sold to Macmillan in 1898,his London-based firm developed networks to distribute its books throughout the British Empire. It also issued works of fiction and non-fiction about Great Britain鈥檚 various colonies in what are now Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and South Africa. Contributors to the volume analyze fundamental aspects of the structure, history, and functioning of the international book trade. They explore the many roles that Bentley played in disseminating information about these far-flung possessions and in helping to develop 鈥 and modify 鈥 British cultural values in them. Dr. Edwards is the director of the Centre for Editing Early Canadian Texts.