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Transforming the Eighteenth-Century Book Trade

This chapter explores the fifty-year career of the eighteenth-century London bookseller John Nourse to establish that not only did he become the principal bookseller in the capital but that, through his publication list and through his national and international networks, his business became a focus, and a motor, of the Enlightenment, contributing more to European scientific, philosophical, and literary knowledge than any other English stationer. The key to Nourse’s success lay in the location of his bookshops in the Strand in the immediate neighbourhood of other booksellers and associated professionals. Drawing on new archival evidence, this chapter gives the fullest account available of the development of Nourse’s business, his movement between shops, his publications, and his professional associations, networks, and contacts.