Chapbook Historiography by Alec Follett
Alec Follett
HIST6190: Topics in Scottish History
Professor E. Ewan
December 6, 2012.
Chapbooks are short, inexpensive books that were popular between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.[1] These books contained religious, political, and historical ideas as well as songs, poems, narratives and adaptation of canonical literature.[2] This multi-genre form was the primary reading materials for many Scots during the long eighteenth century, with roughly 200 000 chapbooks sold by chapmen yearly between 1750-1850.[3] Because of their immense popularity and interesting content they deserve serious academic study. Despite their generally agreed upon social importance the study of Scottish chapbooks has been sporadic, vague, and lacks theoretical and historical support. The most troubling fact is that there has only been one book-length study written in over a century.[4] There have been articles published on the topic with most interest occurring over the last forty years. These studies have explored chapbooks in a variety of ways. Scholars have worked to define what exactly constitutes a chapbook.[5] They have explored how chapbooks should be catalogued and reproduced.[6] The study of chapbooks also involves studying chapbook publishers, chapmen, and readers.[7]
The most recent book published on the topic is titled Folk in Print: Scotland’s Chapbook Heritage 1750-1850, coauthored by Edward J. Cowan and Mike Paterson. This is the only book-length study on the topic since William Harvey’s 1903 book titled Scotland’s Chapbook Literature. The tone, scope, and purpose of Folk in Print is explained most clearly by the following quote that is located on the back cover of the book; “this collection is a user-friendly introduction to the genre and a sampling of the attractions and possibilities, set, where appropriate, in the relevant cultural and historical contexts.”[8] According to this quote the text is an introductory study that seeks to give an overview that will be of interest to the average reader but can also serve as a starting point for scholars that are beginning work on chapbooks.
The text begins with a lengthy introduction that is followed by reprinted chapbooks that are contextualized and categorized. The thirty page introduction discusses the first and last chapbooks as well as their content, printers, and sellers.[9] They note that although interpretation is troublesome, we should “listen to the voices of the past” that can be found in chapbooks.[10] The rest of the book contains annotated reproductions of chapbooks. This is a valuable resource as it includes contemporary, albeit brief, contextualization. The texts are organized into several categories, including “The Chapmen, The Folk in their Condition, Trades and Occupations, Courtship and Wedding Bliss.”[11] These titles are telling, rather than categorizing chapbooks according to genre like nineteenth-century studies have done, Cowan and Paterson take an approach that urges the reader to view the texts as primary documents. By categorizing topics according to daily concerns the authors promote their statement that the texts offer a window into the past.
This is an informative introduction that should be considered required reading for anyone who is interested in chapbooks, popular culture, or the study of reading and the book trade in Scotland. Although the text shares similarities with earlier introductions, it gains significance because it is the only contemporary introduction to the topic. Particularly helpful are the contextualized reprinted chapbooks that will act as a base for more specific studies. The book will help remind academics and others that chapbooks are important and engaging material. Ironically, the book is important because it is a survey, but being a survey is one of its flaws. With digitized chapbook projects underway perhaps Cowan, an accomplished historian, may put his pages to better use by including more historical detail, and more analysis about specific printers, chapmen, texts and readers. In a 2009 interview Cowan stated that he would like to publish more, consequently it is possible that he continues with this project but thus far he has only briefly engaged with chapbooks in his article “Alexander McLachlan; The ‘Robert Burns’ of Canada.”[12] At very least scholars can thank Cowan and Paterson for creating a foundation on which further studies can stand. Although Chapbooks became antiquated roughly 160 years ago the field is still satisfied with introductions. With only one monograph printed on the subject, questions are aroused; what was completed prior to Folk in Print, and why did it take a century for a book-length study to appear?
The thirty year period between 1873 and 1903 produced more work on Scottish chapbooks than the next seventy years combined. John Fraser’s book The Humorous Chap-Books of Scotland, published in 1873 was the first of four important books to be published in the period. Fraser’s book is split into three chapters. The first chapter broadly defines chapbooks and outlines his study.[13] This chapter also contains a short historiography of Scottish chapbooks in which he discusses a few publications that make brief references to chapbooks. He also discusses the writers William Motherwell’s and Walter Scott’s interaction with chapbooks.[14] He argues that scholars had completed more scholarship on French, English, and Irish chapbooks.[15] This statement is sadly still relevant 140 years later. In a nationalist fervour he champions the quality of Scottish chapbooks over those from other nations.[16] Not only are they better, according to Fraser, but scholars must turn to chapbooks “for the fullest and truest expression of the habits, humours, and every-day life of the Scottish commonality during that period.”[17] He also states that “it is impossible thoroughly to understand the history of Scotland, or the character of her people during the last century, without studying these vulgar, but graphic and intensely Scottish, productions” and that “they were the reading material of the lower and agricultural middle classes, throughout the lowlands; and in them we have reflected the mind, superstitions, customs, and language of the people who read them.”[18] Fraser’s belief that chapbooks are a necessary area of study for a proper understanding of the past, as well as the notion that they reflect the average Scott are beliefs that have changed very little since his study.[19] He concludes this chapter with a social and political history of eighteenth century Scotland.[20] This attempt to connect chapbooks with wider themes in political and social history is useful, and has often been left aside by more contemporary historians.
The second chapter is focused on the history and origin of ballads and chapbooks with an emphasis on classifying these books by genre.[21] The final chapter is devoted solely to Dougal Graham. The chapter includes a thirty page biography, reprints and analysis of his work, in which Fraser aims to demonstrate how the texts accurately depict eighteenth-century Scottish life.[22] Demonstrating how Graham’s work is an accurate reflection of daily life is continued by Alexander Fenton, over a century later, in his article “The People Below: Dougal Graham’s Chapbooks as a Mirror of the Lower Classes in Eighteenth Century Scotland.”[23] Fraser’s scholarship is surprisingly modern, as subsequent scholars have engaged with his definition of the term chapbook, and have agreed with his ideas about the importance of chapbooks, and their ability to give us insight into daily life. However, the type and format, as well as some of his nationalist conjectures remind readers that this book is antiquated. Although several publishers have reprinted the work through facsimile there is no modern edition of the text. The creation of a modern edition of the text with corrected formatting, an introduction, annotations, and connections to more recent academic studies would be useful.
Ten years after Fraser’s study, George MacGregor’s The Collected Writings of Dougal Graham “Skellat” Bellman of Glasgow was published.[24] This two volume study contains a section on Graham’s life, his writing, and on Scottish chapbooks. In these introductory pages MacGregor engages, often critically, with Fraser’s work.[25] The majority of the work reprints Graham’s chapbook writings with annotation and introductions.[26] This text is representative of the correct direction the study of chapbooks should take. MacGregor’s two volume text on Dougal Graham builds upon Fraser’s work by referencing Fraser and by devoting more text to the study of a prominent figure in the chapbook trade. This method of engaging with previous studies and including more detail is the way to build a strong field of study.
The interest in chapmen nascent in Fraser’s and MacGregor’s work is developed by John Strathesk, the editor of William Cameron’s autobiography. William Cameron was another important Glaswegian chapman working in the early nineteenth century. Hawkie: The Autobiography of a Gangrel was published in 1888, although it was written many years prior to its publication.[27] Cameron’s autobiography contains one chapter that focuses exclusively on his experience selling chapbooks. This chapter gives a lot of insight into the chapman’s relationship with printers, the authorities, and consumers. His inclusion of performance locations and titles sold are very helpful as well.[28] This text can help future historians create a more detailed and focused history of the chapbook trade in 1820s Glasgow. With any autobiography the narrator’s reliability must be questioned. Cameron may have altered his autobiography accidently by misremembering events or intentionally for a variety of motives. The possibility of an unreliable narrator is even more likely since the text was edited after Cameron’s death. Iain Hutchison argues that the text was altered by Strathesk who used the text as a polemic against charity. Because the editor’s beliefs were inserted into the text scholars must be critical of the reliability of this source.[29]
William Harvey’s Scottish Chapbook Literature, is an academic study published in 1903 that engages with the previous works by Fraser, MacGregor, and Cameron.[30] Harvey’s text is important as it builds upon previous works but it also begins an unfortunate trend in the study of Scottish chapbooks in which scholars coalesce previously published ideas into introductory studies. Harvey defines chapbooks very generally. He states that broadsides, large volumes, and those texts in between can be considered chapbooks. Chapbooks are not defined by their size, or by their content. Rather, chapbooks are defined by the way that they were sold. For Harvey, chapbooks are any texts that were sold by chapmen.[31] This is an important, though disputed, definition. By focusing on the seller he is attempting to define chapbooks by how they existed in their historical context rather than defining them by genres or categories that may have been arbitrary to those in the period. Despite this definition Harvey still structures his chapters by genre.[32] He identifies the first Scottish chapbook, printed in 1508 and discusses their era of popularity, 1688-1830.[33] Dating is a preoccupation other scholars, including Cowan and Paterson address. Harvey follows the method that Fraser and MacGregor have instilled as he reprints chapbooks and gives explanations and descriptions. He argues that chapbooks can “give a striking and faithful representation of rustic life and manners in the eighteenth century.”[34] This quote is similar to the sentiment that most previous and future scholars share. Harvey’s study is important because it engages with previous works and broadens the scope of study by including a variety of chapbook genres such as instructive, romantic, superstitious, that had not yet received enough attention.[35] The fact that Harvey’s study marks the final book-length study until Cowan’s and Paterson’s Folk in Print is unfortunate. Even more troublesome is that the period between 1873-1903 produced several strong studies that would have been a great foundation for the study of Scottish chapbooks, if only scholars had not waited so long to build upon these works.
In 1934 James Cameron Ewing wrote a short piece titled Brash and Reid Booksellers in Glasgow and their Collection of Poetry Original and Selected.[36] Unfortunately, Ewing is more concerned with Brash’s and Reid’s poetry publication, which was rare and in demand by the 1930s, than he is with their connection to chapbooks.[37] Although focused on their poetry the text does note that Brash and Reid sold chapbooks. It also includes a brief history of the lives of Brash and Reid.[38] The firm, which was active between 1790 and 1817, is also discussed.[39] The text also includes reprints of several Brash and Reid advertisements.[40] Although the article is brief, and is not interested in chapbooks the publication does give insight into how Brash and Reid marketed themselves to their Glaswegian patrons. Parts of this study could be put to use in a detailed project on Brash and Reid, or in a more general study of the Glaswegian chapbook trade. After Ewing’s article the study of Scottish chapbooks is non-existent for almost forty years.
The study of Scottish chapbooks emerges momentarily in Leslie Shepard’s A History of Street Literature, published in 1973.[41] The book has a broad scope and surveys different types of street literature from different geographic locations and time periods.[42] Although he writes about American and European street literature, he makes reference to Scottish chapbooks and has an informative section on Scottish chapmen.[43] Unfortunately, Shepard does not include imbedded citations which make evaluating and engaging with his sources problematic. At the end of the text he does include a bibliography that contains the aforementioned works by Fraser, MacGregor, Cameron, and Harvey.[44] By incorporating Scottish chapmen and chapbooks into his work the study becomes cross cultural and comparative. The comparison between the Scottish chapbook trade and the chapbook trade in other countries has been ignored by other Scottish chapbook historians. In this book scholars will find a re-emergence of interest in Scottish chapbooks, but yet will only find another survey text.
The next study to focus exclusively on Scottish chapbooks is G. Ross Roy’s Some Notes on Scottish Chapbooks. This 1974 journal article is yet another overview of the topic with a fitting title since it does not have a detailed focus or overarching argument. Despite this preliminary engagement Roy makes several important statements about chapbooks and offers suggestions for future studies. Roy was surprised that Scottish chapbook studies were being neglected even as the study of popular culture was emerging into an important field.[45] His concern is worth deeper exploration. Why were historians of popular culture so hesitant to explore Scottish chapbooks?
Roy discusses the lack of bibliographical information located in chapbooks.[46] The author, date, publisher, and location are important to archival categorization. Unfortunately, this information is not always present in chapbooks, consequently impeding the archival process.[47] This is an important assertion, since archival issues could result in one of the reasons why scholars have been hesitant to conduct work on Scottish chapbooks. The statement also informs would-be chapbook scholars of one of the field’s hazards. However, this has not hampered the study of English chapbooks although they have the same archival issues to overcome.[48]
Roy also shares concerns with previous chapbook scholars. He is interested in locating the first Scottish chapbook, which he believes was printed in 1508. He also attempts to define chapbooks. Roy challenges Fraser’s definition stating that most chapbooks were eight pages long, not twenty four. He also challenges Harvey’s definition of chapbooks that was not concerned with page numbers or price as criteria. Roy believes that a broadside should not be considered a chapbook, nor should an expensive four paged book. Like others, Roy believes that Dougal Graham was important because he was “responding to a growing market for inexpensive reading material, usually light enough for a sizeable number of copies to be carried by a packman on his rounds to outlying districts.”[49] Roy’s comment shifts focus from Graham as a writer who accurately depicts daily life, to a writer who is responding to a market. By including economic in his analysis Roy may be implicitly challenging the notion that Graham was simply reflecting daily life.
Roy demonstrates the centrality of chapbooks to historians’ understanding of the period. He argues that “Considering that broadsides and chapbooks were the staple reading material of a very large proportion of the population of Scotland for over a century, anyone interested in the social and cultural history of the period must, if he is accurately to assess the reading habits of the nation, familiarise himself with this aspect of the literature of the period.” Although chapbooks are incredibly important in Roy’s view, he also reminds the reader that we know very little about the arrangement between author, printer, and chapman. Consequently, this is an area that deserves further study. Roy notes that the book trade was not threatened by chapbook publishers, usually ignoring copyright infringements.[50] Roy’s various arguments are helpful, and can be put to use by future scholars depending on their project. Even though there are many good ideas present in the article, its length and aim leave the reader in hopes of more detailed analysis and study.
Roy does offer some suggestions for future studies. He believes that an index of the first line of every Scottish chapbook should be made. He argues that the next area of focus should be studies of major chapbook printers.[51] Unfortunately this plea has gone unanswered, with only one short, broad article on the topic by Adam McNaughtan. Roy also suggests that someone complete a survey of Scottish chapbook literature.[52] This last challenge is taken up by Cowan and Paterson, twenty three years later. These suggestions are helpful for future scholars. Unfortunately, the study of Scottish chapbooks lay dormant for the following fifteen years until Roy publishes a short, but helpful article on the Brash’s and Reid’s publication of Burns.[53]
In 1990 Alexander Fenton wrote a brief article titled “The People Below: Dougal Graham’s Chapbooks as a Mirror of the Lower Classes in Eighteenth Century Scotland.” This interesting article focuses on several chapbooks that were likely written by Dougal Graham. He compares these texts with aspects of eighteenth-century life such as homes, sleeping, sanitation, and goods.[54] Through this comparison Fenton demonstrates that Graham’s texts are very accurate depictions of daily life. Fenton is right to warn his readers that they must be critical, and interpret texts carefully. But, if caution is used historians can use these chapbooks as a primary source to help construct a social history of eighteenth-century Scotland.[55] This article is unlike most of the previous studies since it is very focused. Although focused, the article is very short and leaves the reader with only preliminary results.
In the same year Adam McNaughtan published an article titled “A Century of Salt Market Literature 1790-1890.” This article explores publishers who specialized in inexpensive literature. McNaughtan argues that between 1790 and 1890 the Salt Market area of Glasgow went from being a hub of publishing to having no publishers located in the district.[56] McNaughtan mentions the booksellers Brash and Reid but he does not reference Ewan’s study.[57] Perhaps this is because Ewan’s article is hard to find. Fortunately, the University of Guelph’s archives has a copy. Even though he misses a reference and only writes a limited amount about each printer his study is helpful because it is focused on a specific aspect of chapbooks in a specific location.
McNaughtan’s use of primary resources is also interesting. He is comfortable using William Cameron’s autobiography as a primary source.[58] This sets a precedent in which the edited autobiography can be read as a primary source. Using the autobiography in this way could be problematic because McNaughtan is not a trained historian. Consequently, he may be unfamiliar with methods of scrutinizing potential primary sources. Although not a trained historian, he is knowledgeable and engaged with the topic. Between McNaughtan and Fenton, the use of chapbooks and autobiographies as primary sources has become more ingrained in the literature.
John Morris is one of the only authors to have written more than one study on Scottish chapbooks.[59] His first effort, published in 1997, is titled “Scottish Ballads and Chapbooks.” It is a brief article that explores different printers, periods and texts.[60] Morris offers the reminder that by studying the chapbook’s woodcuts the printer of the text may be gleaned.[61] This is an interesting and unique method of analysis. Small sections of this text could be put to use depending on the focus of a specific project. Unfortunately, the text serves as another short general introduction that is further hindered by his inclusion of both chapbooks and broadsides in the same article.
The study of Scottish chapbooks has had a checkered existence. There are three periods in which chapbooks have gained critical attention. The first era of chapbook studies was in 1873-1903, with four important books published on the topic. In the early 1970s chapbooks gained brief attention by Roy and Shepard but then again lulled until 1990 to 2009. Most studies have been published in this recent nineteen year period. Unfortunately, recent interest will not necessarily result in an increase in scholarship. One troublesome trend that has occurred is that there are lengthy periods in which nothing is written about the topic. After a long period of inactivity, a scholar will write a contemporary introduction to Scottish chapbooks. But, in order to understand chapbooks better scholars must move beyond introductions and surveys. This circle of revamping introductions has occurred throughout the study of Scottish chapbooks. Harvey publishes his introduction thirty years after Fraser’s. Roy’s introduction appears seventy one years after Fraser’s. Morris’ introduction is published twenty three years after Roy’s. Ten years after Morris’ introduction, Cowan and Paterson publish their own survey. The length between these publications surely warrants revised introductions. Surveys help to spread interest to the public and scholars who may be interested in working on chapbooks in the future. But, they lack detail, and unless a scholar takes the challenge and produces a full length study on a specific aspect of Scottish chapbooks, the trend of writing an introduction followed by a period of inactivity and a revised introduction will likely continue.
This problem is further perpetuated by the inability of Scottish chapbook scholars to devote their careers to these texts. Scholars have been inclined to dabble with chapbooks then move on in different directions. This may be more unique to the study of Scottish chapbooks than it is in chapbook studies of different countries. For example, Roger Chartier has written important studies on French chapbooks and has devoted much of his career to studying the early modern book and reader.[62] Likewise, Andrew O’Malley a literary studies scholar working at Ryerson University has published two books and two articles on English chapbooks over a ten year period.[63] The inability of scholars to focus on Scottish chapbooks is not for lack of sources. Over 200 000 were sold per year between 1750 and 1850.[64] Chapbooks can be accessed at the National Library of Scotland, the University of Glasgow and the University of Guelph as these institutions boast large collections of Scottish chapbooks.[65] Regardless of the reasons why scholars have been hesitant to study Scottish chapbooks, scholars working on chapbooks from other countries have managed to focus on them for a sustained period of time and have gone beyond introductory texts.[66] There is no reason why Scottish chapbooks should not receive the same attention.
Most scholars believe that chapbooks will provide insight into the past and that they can be used as primary sources. This assertion is slightly troubling. Often scholars are much more hesitant to accept literary sources as “windows” into the past. There is a complex relationship between fiction and the historical moment that bore them that must be accounted for. This is not to say that chapbooks cannot be read as primary sources but rather the concern is that scholars need to explain the reasoning behind their beliefs more clearly. This sentiment is shared by R.A Houston in his review of Cowan’s and Paterson’s Folk in Print. Houston states that “throughout the book the assumption seems to be that chapbooks represent popular mentalities. This may well be true, but the exact nature of the representation needs to be shown rather than left to speak for itself, for listening to ‘the voices of the past’ is not straightforward…[chapbook] authors and publisher…constructed arguments about Scotland past and present.” Moreover, “for all their apparent crudity and simplicity, chapbooks are complex and layered with meaning….” therefore, “some detailed content analysis or engagement with theories about authorial intent and readers’ reception would have provided a better springboard for future work.”[67] Houston’s critique of Cowan and Paterson could be easily applied to most authors working on Scottish chapbooks.
Perhaps the hesitation to engage with theories of intent and response has occurred because many working on Scottish chapbooks are not historians. Morris works at the National Library of Scotland, while McNaughton is a school teacher and a folk singer.[68] Interest from those who are not historians is encouraging as it suggests that chapbooks have a wide appeal. Cowan and Paterson were attuned to the potential of attracting a general audience. Future scholars could consider following their lead and engaging with a public that is likely interested. The possibility for creative performance projects exists as well. In addition to engaging with the public, future chapbook scholars should consider interdisciplinary projects. One historian whose work effectively straddles the line between literary studies and history is Roger Chartier. Chartier’s interest in theory is effective and would be helpful to the study of Scottish chapbooks. In his article, “Culture as Appropriation: Popular Cultural Uses in Early Modern France” Chartier reminds scholars that chapbooks are not necessarily a window into the lives of the popular class. Instead he argues that the ideas and sources found in a text such as a chapbook come from both elite and popular cultures.[69] He also suggests that studying distribution will not lead scholars to the culture of the popular class since distribution is much more complex than scholars usually believe. A more productive route, according to Chartier, is to look at the way different groups of people use the same texts.[70] For example, Walter Scott and an urban labourer may have read the same chapbook but they likely did so in different ways. In brief, Chartier argues that different groups appropriate and adapt texts to suit their need. This method, spurred on by his engagement with the theorist of everyday life, Michel DeCerteau, shifts scholarly focus to the intertextual elements of chapbooks and the way different readers appropriated these texts.[71] Chartier’s work challenges most of the previous work on Scottish chapbooks that uncritically accepts the chapbooks’ ability to give us a window into the past. Chartier’s method is not the only way forward but he has certainty devoted his time to considering the ways in which we may be able to understand texts. At very least historians of Scottish chapbooks should be aware of his methods.
One scholar who is currently exploring chapbooks in a way that is similar to Chartier is David Buchanan. His article titled “Scott Squashed: Chapbook Versions of the Heart of Midlothian” was published in 2009. Although he does not cite Chartier, his project implicitly engages with Chartier’s concerns about high and low culture. Buchanan is concerned with the relationship between publishers, readers, and the historical moment. By exploring these connections Buchanan attempts to understand how Scott’s canonical novels were adapted to the chapbook format.[72] This work is similar to the studies put forth by O’Malley whose work on English chapbooks and chapbook adaptation of Dafoe’s Robinson Crusoe is directly influenced by Chartier.
The problem of Scottish chapbook studies acting as an insular unit is further demonstrated by the incessant need for these scholars to slightly alter the definition of a chapbook. Unfortunately, each scholar who proposes a new definition engages with a previous definition of Scottish chapbooks and then changes it slightly based on his own evidence. Scottish chapbook scholars should be engaging with definitions of non-Scottish chapbooks. As suggested by Houston engagement with chapbook studies from other countries such as England, France, and Germany would be productive.[73] Forging connection with other aspects of Scottish history would be helpful as well. One example would be for legal historians to explore the relationship between chapbooks, printers, and copyright issues. Studying chapbooks in connection to gender or identity formation would also be useful. Unfortunately, there have been no female scholars that have worked on Scottish chapbooks. Perhaps male scholars are attracted to the topic because of a guilty romanticism in which they find a sort of masculine virility in the chapmen’s alcohol fueled wanderlust or in the crude songs and adventure narratives. Consequently it would be beneficial for scholars, male or female, to approach this topic with gender in mind. One possible project would be to explore the early nineteenth-century construction of masculinity through chapmen such as William Cameron. Combining gender studies and the historical methods that are engaged with performance would result in important studies.
In addition to connection with literary studies, other chapbook traditions, and larger themes in Scottish history, historians could study chapbooks using quantitative methods. Quantitative methods would be particularly useful when studying printers. How many texts did they print, what texts were printed and in what era? Also, quantitative historians could explore the economics of the chapbook trade. How much did families of different classes allocate to popular reading materials, how much money did chapbook printers and sellers make? One resource that quantitative historians, as well as qualitative historians should be making use of is the National Library of Scotland’s Scottish Book Trade Index (SBTI). The index is an unfinished project but includes a list of “printers, publishers, booksellers, bookbinders, printmakers, stationers, papermakers.”[74] Scholars are asked to contribute to the index if they have data that has not been included. Aside from helping to create the book trade index quantitative historians can use the index in a variety of ways. One possible project would be to create lists of all the printers in a given region, or in a given period. Or quantitative historians can begin to determine which sellers sold chapbooks and which did not. Mapping this data would also be useful. These types of projects would be helpful for scholars who are trying to produce work on chapbooks that is geographically specific or national in scope.
The study of Scottish chapbooks has been troublesome. Years of inactivity, an abundance of surveys, and the inability of scholars to devote their careers to the topic, among other issues has hindered the study of Scottish chapbooks. Historians and literary scholars working on chapbooks from other countries have devoted their careers to the topic, have written in more detail, and have engaged with theoretical and methodological concerns. Because Scotland has a rich chapbook heritage, and because of the importance of these books during the eighteenth century it is absolutely vital and possible that historians of Scotland begin to focus on conducting in-depth studies of the topic. Doing so would surely yield results that would help increase and better shape our understanding of Scottish book history, popular culture, social history, gender, community, among other themes. Fortunately, the future of Scottish chapbook studies could be bright. Cowan and Paterson’s expansive and contemporary introductory text is only six years old which means that current scholars can begin to focus on more detailed studies. These scholars can apply a variety of methods and theories to their focused projects while engaging with various themes. The study of Scottish chapbooks can be turned into a strong and important field of study.
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