Transatlantic Reprinting and the Authorizing Efforts of British Publishers

DeSpain reviews The Transatlantic Materials of American Literature: Publishing US Writing in Britain, 1830-1860 by Katie McGettigan, published by University of Massachusetts Press. McGettigan's book builds upon the foundational work of Meredith McGill's American Literature and the Culture of Reprinting (2003) to argue that British publishers helped expand the scope and audience for American literature by creating editions of American authors' works that lent them greater credibility. McGettigan's study offers in-depth case studies of British editions of hallmark American authors, including Longfellow, Poe, Melville, and Lydia Huntley Sigourney. Drawing on a comprehensive body of research into publishers' circulars, advertisements, and archives, McGettigan covers multiple media forms, including deluxe editions, the cheap series, the gift book, and the magazine. DeSpain argues McGettigan's book is an important contribution that reimagines the scholarly narrative about transatlantic reprinting as one of collaboration rather than contest. McGettigan's most important contribution is her extensive analysis of how the cheap series created a greater global context for literature, which will prove fruitful for new scholarship about the distribution and reception of the cheap series.