A Publishing History of a Prohibited Best-Seller: The Abbé de Vertot and his Histoire de Malte. By Robert Thake

Abstract

Numerous bibliographers and book historians have written enthusiastically about the construction of ‘book biographies’. Roger Chartier sketched a theoretical model of a book's history from its genesis, publication, circulation, and reception in different forms and in different places across generations of use and conservation. Isabel Hofmeyr's influential study of Pilgrim's Progress shows what can be done when a book is charted according to its multiple republication and translation in unexpected places around the world. Paul Eggert followed Henry Lawson's 1896 collection While the Billy Boils, as he developed his writing career from short stories and sketches for newspapers. Fred Appel edited the Lives of Great Religious Books series published by Princeton University Press in which ‘all great religious books are living things whose careers in the world can take the most unexpected turns’. The Israeli philosopher Avishai Margalit is cited by Appel as declaring: ‘You know what I’d like to read? A biography of a great book—the story of its reception over time.’ Dozens of smaller initiatives have drawn inspiration from such ambition. Two years ago, for example, Robin Naughton at the new York Academy of Medicine began his ‘Biography of a Book’ project, an interactive exhibition exploring the production and use of twelve books and manuscripts across time.