How Consumer Expectations Shaped Printing in England, from the Introduction of the Printing Press
Before the printing press was introduced, scribes in England copied works and documents by hand, carefully hand-producing entire books that were expensive to create and bind. The introduction of the printing press dramatically altered how information was shared in English society. No longer were works so expensive and time-consuming to create. Books could be printed for entertainment, not preservation – and not only for the elite or ruling classes. Because of this, the printing press broadened its reach and written works were created for a new consumer. Immediately, the impact of the printing press was felt as it produced mass communications and shared ideas faster than ever before. The lower cost of printing revolutionized the expectations of the consumer on the content of British literature in the eighteenth-century, impacting how information is shared in the press to this day.
Nelson points out in his essay in the Washington Post that it was due to the printing press that copies and news of Martin Luther’s theses were able to be shared and circulated across Europe in 1517, driving the “rift in the church and ending its long religious supremacy” (Nelson). Understanding the marketability of print, William Caxton published the first book ever printed in England in 1477, a translated book by Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers (Kurlansky 180). What was remarkable about this decision was that Caxton intentionally printed cheap books in English for England’s lay reading population, rather than printing expensive, scholarly works in foreign languages for the upper-class as was the standard of the time. His target audience remained middle- to lower-class citizens. After Caxton’s death in 1491, Wynkyn de Worde filled Caxton’s role, becoming England’s wealthiest printer, publishing “inexpensive books with mass appeal” (181). Unlike Caxton, he included illustrations, cutting costs by ordering cheap, local paper. In general, he chose religious books to publish, but also capitalized on popular romances and poetry. Both of these printers demonstrate a shift in printing – treating printing as a business with a product demanded by the reading market. By the eighteenth century, consumers were reading “more for entertainment and much less for instruction,” reflective of the relationship of consumers and printing houses today (237).
The age of Enlightenment corresponded with the boom of the printing press, the lower cost of printing facilitating the ability to quickly and inexpensively share the works of the great thinkers with larger audiences. In an effort to help writers effectively communicate with their readers, John Locke “produced a method for reasoning that made sense to educated Britons” (Kingsley 97). In his work, Essay Concerning Human Understanding, published in 1690, Locke analyzed what made communication clear, concise, and understandable. He removed the flowery language and artistic metaphors of the past, speaking clearly and directly, and establishing the format of written arguments that is still used today. Locke says, “‘Clear and distinct ideas’ are terms which, though familiar and frequent in men’s mouths, I have reason to think everyone who uses does not understand” (Locke 2154). Locke’s intentions are clear: writers must communicate in a style that appeals to their reader, a method still employed today.
With the focus of the printers shifting from “preserving ‘authoritative’ documents to a focus on broad distribution,” a new career opportunity opened up to any person with the ability to write well, regardless of station of birth (Nabi Part VI). The audience of written communications was no longer the ruling class – educated enough to understand complicated publications with means to afford expensive editions – but had broadened to the reading public who desired to be entertained. Printing became an industry with the goals of making a profit and reaching an audience, and thus there was a need for writers. However, a career as a writer was not immediately available upon the introduction of the printing press. During the sixteenth century, writers sold works to printers outright, with no royalties or copyright (The Sixteenth Century). Writing was a hobby or an extension of the work conducted by great minds. While patronage was the main form of support for writers for centuries, the eighteenth century saw the beginning of writers earning royalties and where celebrity writers, such as Lord Byron, were born. Following this, came an age of literary giants, such as the Bloomsbury Group. From this, writers took a different place in the minds of English society and writing shifted from being a pastime to a career, with the same goals from the birth of the printing press: distribution and the speaking to their audience.
With an established audience and a means to produce works, writers and readers demanded a continued exploration and evolution of genres, writing styles, standardization of language and thought, and improvement of printing. Samuel Johnson summarizes this circular relationship between published works and writers in his biography written by James Boswell, “The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write” (Boswell 545). Essentially, written communications produced more written communications. Eisenstein discusses this “Commonwealth of Learning” and how the printing press completely changed writing styles – standardizing the language but also involving the reading public in the process. Sixteenth-century printers established “vast networks of correspondents, solicited criticism of each edition, sometimes publicly promising to mention the names of readers who sent in new information or spotted errors which would be weeded out” (Eisenstein chap. 2). This method of “Letters to the Editor” strongly resonates with today’s culture of online commenting, writing letters and emails to publishing houses, and soliciting feedback.
When the printing press was introduced into England, it ushered in a new era of for-profit printing, completely and permanently altering the market for printed works. As written materials became more accessible with innovations in technology and savvier printers, writers began to consider their consumers when drafting their works. Locke identified clear and direct communications to be the most effective way to present the writer’s thoughts to the reader and he outlined how to do this, techniques which are still in place today. Even with this technology, publishing was still viewed as a hobby. It wasn’t until writers such Lord Byron burst into the writing scene, demonstrating his “success in developing a style that spoke to a popular audience,” becoming the first celebrity and moving writing from a hobby to a profession (George Gordon 612). Writers continued to model Byron’s writing method and literary lifestyle, studying and previously written works to produce more works, perpetually evolving written entertainment to satisfy public demand. The technology and platforms that publications are shared on has evolved, but the foundation laid by the introduction of the printing press has continued to revolutionize the expectations of the reading public to present times.
Works Cited
Boswell, James. The Life of Samuel Johnson. Dent, 1910. Google Books, https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Life_of_Samuel_Johnson/xMdEAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1. Accessed Dec. 2019.
Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformations in Early-Modern Europe. Cambridge University Press, 1979.
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. 4th ed., vol. 1, W.W. Norton & Company, 2014.
“George Gordon, Lord Byron: 1788-1824.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period. 9th ed., vol. D, W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 612-616.
Kingsley Kent, Susan. A New History of Britain since 1688: Four Nations and an Empire. Oxford University Press, 2017.
Kurlansky, Mark. Paper: Paging Through History. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.
Locke, John. Essay of Human Understanding. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8th ed., vol. 1, W.W. Norton & Company, 2006. 2152-2155.
Nabi, Robin L., and Mary Beth Oliver. The SAGE Handbook of Media Processes and Effects. SAGE, 2009.
Nelson, Heming. “A History of Newspaper: Gutenberg’s Press Started a Revolution.” Washington Post, 11 Feb. 1998. www.washingtonpost.com, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/1998/02/11/a-history-of-newspaper-gutenbergs-press-started-a-revolution/2e95875c-313e-4b5c-9807-8bcb031257ad/. Accessed Nov. 2019.
“The Sixteenth Century.” W.W. Norton & Company, 2016. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8th ed., vol. 1, W.W. Norton & Company, 2006. 485-511.