Reading Matter

Three new studies of the history of reading, literacy, and publishing bring together reception studies and book history to offer a nuanced and multifaceted look at the varieties of reading culture in the US during the nineteenth century. This essay offers an overview of the current state of nineteenth-century reception studies and book history, and discusses A Literate South: Reading Before Emancipation (2019) by Beth Barton Schweiger; Colonial Revivals: The Nineteenth-Century Lives of Early American Books (2018) by Lindsay DiCuirci; and Books for Idle Hours: Nineteenth-Century Publishing and the Rise of Summer Reading (2019) by Donna Harrington-Lueker.