{"product_id":"9781609385033","title":"The Portrait and the Book: Illustration and Literary Culture in Early America","description":"In the nineteenth century, new image-making methods like steel engraving and lithography caused a surge in the publication of illustrated books in the United States. Yet even before the widespread use of these technologies, Americans had already established the illustrated book format as central to the nation’s literary culture. In \u003ci\u003eThe Portrait and the Book\u003c\/i\u003e, Megan Walsh argues that colonial-era author portraits, such as Benjamin Franklin’s and Phillis Wheatley’s frontispieces; political portraits that circulated during the debates over the Constitution, such as those of the Founders by Charles Willson Peale; and portraits of beloved fictional characters in the 1790s, such as those of Samuel Richardson’s heroine Pamela, shaped readers’ conceptions of American literature.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Illustrations played a key role in American literary culture despite the fact there was little demand for books by American writers. Indeed, most of the illustrated books bought, sold, and shared by Americans were either imported British works or reprinted versions of those imported editions. As a result, in addition to embellishing books, illustrations provided readers with crucial information about the country’s status as a former colony.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Through an examination of readers’ portrait-collecting habits, writers’ employment of \u003ci\u003eekphrasis\u003c\/i\u003e, printers’ efforts to secure American-made illustrations for periodicals, and engravers’ reproductions of British book illustrations, Walsh uncovers in late eighteenth-century America a dynamic but forgotten visual culture that was inextricably tied to the printing industry and to the early US literary imagination.","brand":"University of Iowa Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47181586661616,"sku":"9781609385033","price":65.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781609385033_p0.jpg?v=1763835142","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781609385033","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}