[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”0px||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ min_height=”106px” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/impressions\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/123\/2020\/01\/Photo-Collage2.jpg” title_text=”Photo Collage2″ align=”center” align_tablet=”center” align_phone=”” align_last_edited=”on|desktop” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”50px||71px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text module_id=”history” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
First serialized in The National Era<\/em>, in June of 1851, Harriet Beecher Stowe\u2019s Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin<\/em> was published in book form in March of 1852 by the Boston firm of John B. Jewett and Co. A powerful, critical assessment of American slavery, Stowe\u2019s novel joined a long line of slave narratives in print. In fact, Stowe had modelled many of the scenes in Uncle Tom’s Cabin<\/em> on previously published narratives produced by writers such as Frederick Douglass and Josiah Henson.[2]<\/span><\/sup> While Stowe may have looked to an established, familiar genre for her story, the popularity of her work was unprecedented. The book\u2019s first printing of 5000 copies sold out within weeks. Subsequent printings would follow throughout the year and the demand was so great that Jewett had to outsource work to multiple presses, papermakers, and binders. By October of 1852 the book would see more than 120,000 copies produced and by the Spring of 1853 the novel reached a staggering 310,000 copies sold. Western\u2019s copy of Jewett\u2019s first edition is from one of these later printings. The tag \u201cOne hundred fifteen thousand\u201d found on the copy\u2019s first title page, in Image 2 below, provides evidence for this more precise dating.[3]<\/span><\/sup><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”0px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [1]<\/span> This post was inspired by the Phantoms of the Past Project. https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/phantomsofthepast\/<\/a> [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”1px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/impressions\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/123\/2020\/01\/Josiah-Henson-and-Uncle-Tom-Title.jpg” title_text=”Josiah Henson and Uncle Tom Title” align_tablet=”center” align_phone=”” align_last_edited=”on|desktop” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ specialty=”on” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_margin=”||21px|||” custom_padding=”36px||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The early Canadian editions of the work, which have received far less scholarly attention, carry similar clues to the work\u2019s print history. In his preface to the second Toronto edition, Thomas Maclear could write that \u201cThe rapid sale of the first Canadian re-print of Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin has rendered it necessary to offer it to the public, in three weeks from the issue of the first\u201d (Image 3) (Preface, iv). Exactly when the first and second Canadian editions appeared in bookstores is difficult to confirm, but a possible clue exists in another Maclear publication. Maclear had arrived from Ireland to Canada West in the late 1840s and was selling, printing and publishing books by the early 1850s.[4]<\/span><\/sup> In 1852, he would launch The Anglo-American Magazine <\/em>(Image 4), a serial designed to compete with British and American periodicals. In the second issue of August 1852, in a section entitled \u201cThe Editor\u2019s Shanty,\u201d a dialogue unfolds between various characters, including one named Maclear. At one point in the exchange, Maclear is asked: \u201cwhat roll of paper is that which you carry like a Field Marshall\u2019s baton?\u201d to which Maclear replies, \u201cthey are some proof-sheets of the re-print of \u201cUncle Tom\u2019s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lonely<\/em>,\u201d I am bringing out, and which, please the fates and the printers, will appear before the world is much older!\u201d[5]<\/span><\/sup> While this exchange does not provide us with firm evidence of a date for the early Toronto editions, that it appears in an August issue suggests a Fall-Winter 1852 printing as likely. This in turn may explain the discrepancy between the title-page and the upper board of Western\u2019s copy one. The first has a date of 1852 while the board reads 1853 (See images 5 and 6). Similar to the First American edition mentioned above, the Canadian copy has the tag \u201cEight thousand in Canada\u201d on the upper board. One possibility is that new boards were produced in 1853 for unsold stock of the late 1852 printing. While I will speak about copy-specifics in more detail below, it is worth pausing on the importance of this material feature. The board not only gives us a sense of the number of copies sold and the possible timing of the issue, but also clues to the price. Although partially blotted, it seems to read 3 shillings 2 pence.[6]<\/span><\/sup><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_margin=”|-565px||||” custom_margin_tablet=”|0px||” custom_margin_phone=”” custom_margin_last_edited=”on|desktop” global_colors_info=”{}”][4]<\/span> For details on Maclear and his early career as a stationer, see <\/span>Elizabeth Hulse, A Dictionary of Toronto printers, publishers, booksellers and the allied trades 1798-1900<\/em> (Toronto: Anson-Cartwright Editions, 1982) and While Maclear\u2019s edition might have been marketed as a re-print, it is not a simple reproduction. For one thing, the text is printed in double-columns, a decision that would have required less paper and thus reduced overall costs.[7]<\/span><\/sup> The Toronto edition is also reassembled. The illustration of \u201cThe Auction sale\u201d found in the first American edition is placed mid-text, near the episode, whereas in the Toronto edition it is found at the start of the volume and retitled (Image 7). The original Stowe preface has also been removed and replaced in the Toronto edition by a preface from the publisher. Finally, at the end of the Toronto edition is a list of Thomas MacLear\u2019s larger stock of books (Image 8), and on the back board, a more targeted advertisement. While such textual changes may seem secondary, the addition, removal, or rearrangement of these paratexts matters as it alters the reading experience. In fact, a quick glance at this early British edition of Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin<\/em>, published by Partridge and Oakey, offers yet another example (Image 9). In this heavily illustrated edition, with a new preface by Elihu Burhitt, readers are invited to view with sixteen separate illustrations. In fact, this study of image begins with the title page. Studying Maclear\u2019s edition and others produced that year reminds us of the complex, and in some cases, neglected textual history of this most famous of novels.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][7]<\/span> Jewett\u2019s \u201cEdition for the million\u201d that appeared for the holiday season of 1852 was double-columned. See Winship, \u201cUncle Tom\u2019s Cabin: History of the Book.\u201d<\/span>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ specialty_columns=”2″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_row_inner _builder_version=”4.16″ width=”101.8%” custom_margin=”|-100px||-39px||” custom_padding=”||12px|0px||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column_inner saved_specialty_column_type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_code _builder_version=”4.16″ transform_translate=”0px|-109px” custom_margin_tablet=”” custom_margin_phone=”” custom_margin_last_edited=”on|desktop” custom_padding=”73px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”] \n
<\/span>[2]<\/span> Stowe would point to some of these influences in her The Key to Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin: presenting the original facts and documents upon which the story is founded<\/em> (Boston, Jewett, 1853). The use of Josiah Henson\u2019s story, in particular, did not escape Henson and the connection between his story and Stowe\u2019s novel was used to market later editions of his narrative. Henson\u2019s edition first appeared in 1849 and was later expanded over the next three decades. Image 1 shows the title page and image of Henson from Western\u2019s copy of the London Ontario 1881 edition.
<\/span>[3]<\/span> My discussion of the printing and publishing of the various editions of Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin<\/em> is based on the thorough discussion in Michael Winship, \u201cUncle Tom\u2019s Cabin<\/em>: History of the Book in the United States\u201d http:\/\/utc.iath.virginia.edu\/interpret\/exhibits\/winship\/winship.html<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\nElizabeth Hulse, \u201cMACLEAR, THOMAS,\u201d in Dictionary of Canadian Biography<\/em>, vol. 12, University of Toronto\/Universit\u00e9 Laval, 2003\u2013, accessed December 17, 2019, http:\/\/www.biographi.ca\/en\/bio\/maclear_thomas_12E.html<\/a>.<\/span>
\n[5]<\/span> The Anglo-American Magazine<\/em>. Vol. 1 \u2013 Toronto, August, 1852. \u2013 No.2 p.174<\/span>
\n[6]<\/span> The thought that Maclear might reprint a board with a new imprint date follows a longstanding practice. In the case of Maclear, this alteration is also supported by his work on other publications. As Patricia Stone has shown in a detailed survey of one of Maclear\u2019s earliest works, copies of Maclear\u2019s first book survives in variant states, with plates and maps added, removed or rearranged. See \u201cThe publishing history of W. H. Smith\u2019s Canada: past, present and future: A Preliminary Investigation,\u201d Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada<\/em>, 19 (1980): 38\u201368.<\/span>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ specialty_columns=”2″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_row_inner _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”0px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column_inner saved_specialty_column_type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/impressions\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/123\/2020\/01\/Preface-Cutout3-numbered.png” title_text=”Preface Cutout3 numbered” align_tablet=”center” align_phone=”” align_last_edited=”on|desktop” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ custom_padding=”0px||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”||3px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|0px||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/impressions\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/123\/2020\/01\/AAM-and-Uncle-Tom-Covers-fitted-numbered.png” title_text=”AAM and Uncle Tom Covers fitted numbered” align_tablet=”center” align_phone=”” align_last_edited=”on|desktop” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ custom_margin=”-69px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ specialty=”on” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”9px||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ width=”100%” custom_margin=”|-40px||||” custom_padding=”|72px||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n