The Bookrunner: A History of Inter-American Relations—Print, Politics, and Commerce in the United States and Mexico, 1800–1830 (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Bookrunner: A History of Inter-American Relations—Print, Politics, and Commerce in the United States and Mexico, 1800–1830 Keri Holt (bio) The Bookrunner: A History of Inter-American Relations—Print, Politics, and Commerce in the United States and Mexico, 1800–1830. Nancy Vogeley. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2011. 341 pp. The Bookrunner, by Nancy Vogeley, presents a provocative analysis of an exciting find—a collection of letters exchanged between book agent James Robeson and Philadelphia publisher Mathew Carey during Robeson’s trip to sell Carey imprints in Mexico in 1822. These letters, which include detailed information about sales records, inventory, shipping costs, profits, and business contacts, as well as Robeson’s observations about current political and social conditions in Mexico, provide a remarkable opportunity for examining the hemispheric dimensions of American print culture—a project that has gained increased attention in recent years through the work of Kirsten Silva Gruesz, Anna Brickhouse, Rodrigo Lazo, and, of course, Vogeley herself. By foregrounding the material, day-to-day [End Page 504] details of a burgeoning inter-American book trade, The Bookrunner makes a unique contribution within transnational American studies, one that successfully “anchor[s] airy theories of indebtedness in specific data” and “situate[s] the movement of men’s thoughts . . . in an economic context” (1). The Robeson-Carey letters, which cover a six-month period between July 1822 and January 1823, document an entrepreneurial experiment for the publishing firm of Carey and Lea. The end of the Mexican revolution in 1821 opened the door for new business opportunities in Mexico, and the Carey firm, like many other US businesses, wanted to explore the possibilities of cultivating expanded markets in the newly independent nation. After setting out from Philadelphia, Robeson traveled throughout Mexico and sent back detailed letters describing his traveling conditions, expenses, the types and quantities of titles sold, and his various encounters with Mexican customs officials, booksellers, and potential business partners. Vogeley devotes the third chapter to an in-depth analysis of the transactional contents of the letters, using the analytical tools of book history to examine the specific financial and logistical data concerning the sale of the Carey stock. Other chapters explore the broader literary, cultural, and political implications of the letters, allowing The Bookrunner to provide a balanced assessment of both the practical and ideological dimensions of Robeson’s project. Vogeley’s decision to refer to Robeson as a “bookrunner” exemplifies the close interconnections between economics, politics, and culture at work in this exchange. The instability of the new Mexican government, combined with uncertainties about the status of the free press, the interests of the Mexican market, and the legal logistics of international trade, meant that book agents—and, indeed, all new forms of business—faced forms of censorship and regulation that were hard to anticipate. In light of these uncertainties about this trans-American exchange, Vogeley thus refers to Robeson as a “bookrunner” rather than a “bookseller,” “suggesting he was like gunrunners who crossed with their illegal goods into uncertain territory . . . where they were subject to the whims of the government still controlled by an ecclesiastical court and a residual colonial monarchy” (7). Although describing Robeson as a “bookrunner” suggests that he was working in a market primarily defined by conflict and hostility, Vogeley’s study actually seeks to counteract such oppositional understandings of US-Mexico relations. While there were certainly governmental concerns about [End Page 505] the kinds of texts being brought into the country, on the whole, Robeson’s letters suggest that he found a ready and welcoming market in Mexico, particularly for political texts. Robeson’s inventory and sales records indicate that, although he sold some novels, poetry, and even a few cookbooks, his top sellers were political treatises such as Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Social Contract, Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man, Juan German Roscio’s Triunfo de la libertad (The Triumph of Liberty), and James Philip Puglia’s El desengaño del hombre (Man Undeceived). For Vogeley, the popularity of these works suggests that print was a primary means of helping Mexican citizens imagine an independent, postcolonial nation—an observation that prompts a close correlation between the role of...