John Nichol's Literary Anecdotes
of the Eighteenth Century (1812)
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Title page of volume 1 reproduced from:
| Nichols, John. Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century; Comprizing | |
| Biographical Memoirs of William Bowyer, Printer, F. S. A., and Many of His Learned Friends; an Incidental View of the Progress and Advancement of Literature in this Kingdom During the Last Century; and Biographical Anecdotes of a Considerable Number of Eminent Writers and Ingenious Artists; with a Very Copious Index. By John Nichols. London, Printed for the author, by Nichols, Son, and Bentley, 1812-16. | |
| 9 v. fronts. (v. 1-6, 8-9) plates, ports., 2 facsim. (1 fold.) | |
One important and interesting tradition of Restoration and eighteenth-century literary criticism and history is that of the "gossipy" memoir. While not recognizably "critical" — or even "biographical" — in the modern senses of these terms, such works catered to the period's fascination for biographical and anecdotal details about the authors, printers, booksellers, and literary hangers-on of the age. The tradition for this sort of material dates back to the seventeenth-century, and is represented by important works such as Anthony Wood's Athenæ Oxonenses (1691; re-edited with additions 1813; reprinted 1969), John Aubrey's Brief Lives (mss. notebooks 1669-1696; edited and published 1898 and after), Joseph Spence's Anecdotes, Observations and Characters of Books and Men (edited from mss. and published 1964), and Lætitia Pilkington's The Memoirs of Mrs. Lætitia Pilkington (1748; reprinted 1928).
John Nichols (1745-1826) was a printer who apprenticed with the important eighteenth-century printer William Bowyer (1699-1777; see the plate reproduced above); Bowyer had, over the course of his long career, accumulated a substantial body of anecdotes and information about the authors and literary figures with whom he dealt: these Nichols assembled and published in a series of ever-expanding volumes that provide a fascinating insight into the literary milieu of the eighteenth-century, as well as providing much "hard" and useful information about the books and biographies of these authors. The volumes are very well indexed, and are especially good on some of the more "minor" figures Bowyer had met or heard about. Many of these, in original or reprint, are to be found at D. B. Weldon.
Other Works and Editions by Nichols
| Nichols, John. Anecdotes, Biographical and Literary, of the Late Mr. William Bowyer, | |
| Printer. Compiled for Private Use. London, 1778. | |
| [2], 52p.; 8° | |
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ESTC: t21888
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| Nichols, John. Biographical and Literary Anecdotes of William Bowyer, Printer, F. S. | |
| A., and of Many of His Learned Friends. Containing an Incidental View of the Progress and Advancement of Literature in this Kingdom from the Beginning of the Present Century to the End of the Year MDCCLXXVII. By John Nichols, His Apprentice, Partner, and Successor. London, 1782. | |
| viii, 232,
231*-*232, 233-512, 521-666p., plate: port.; 4°. ESTC: t58716 [The Weldon Library copies of this volume are to be found in the William J. Cameron Reading Room. It includes a "List of all the printing-houses in and about the cities of London and Westminster, together with the printers names, what news-papers they print . . . also, an account of the printing-house in the several corporation towns of England [about the year 1724]"] |
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| Nichols, John [and John Bowyer Nichols]. Illustrations of the Literary History of the | |
| Eighteenth Century. Consisting of Authentic Memoirs and Original Letters of Eminent Persons; and Intended as a Sequel to the Literary Anecdotes. London, Printed for the author, by Nichols, Son and Bentley, 1817-58. | |
| 8 v. front.,
plates, port. (part fold.). [ While volumes 5 and 6 of this series were published posthumously, volumes 7 and 8 were edited and added by Nichol's son, John Bowyer Nichols, in 1848 and 1858.] |
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| Nichols, John. Biographical and literary anecdotes of William Bowyer. With two | |
| Memoirs of John Nichols. The English Book Trade, 1660-1853. New York: Garland, 1974. | |
| [A modern reprint of the 1782 edition of Biographical and Literary Anecdotes of William Bowyer; see above. It also includes the Brief Memoirs of John Nichols (1804) and the "Memoir of John Nichols, Esq., F.S.A.," by A. Chalmers, originally published in The Gentleman's Magazine for December 1826.] | |
| Nichols, John. Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century : Comprizing | |
| Biographical Memoirs of William Bowyer, Printer, F. S. A., and Many of His Learned Friends; An Incidental View of the Progress and Advancement of Literature in this Kingdom During the Last Century; and Biographical Anecdotes of a Considerable Number of Eminent Writers and Ingenious Artists; With a Very Copious Index. By John Nichols. Publisher New York : AMS Press, 1966. | |
| [This is a modern reprint of the 1812-1816 edition of Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century; see above ]. | |
| Nichols, John. Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century. | |
| Consisting of Authentic Memoirs and Original Letters of Eminent Persons; And Intended as a Sequel to the Literary Anecdotes. By John Nichols. New York: Kraus Reprint, 1966. | |
| [This is modern reprint of the 1817-1858 edition of Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century; see above.] | |
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