New Wine in Old Bottles: Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary and the Development of Scholarly Publishing in America—A Bibliographic Essay

Abstract

The history of Lempriere's Classical Dictionary and its various editions and revisions charts the course of a publishing enterprisethat began in 1788 in England and continued in various formsfor 200 years. According to Edelman, “the publication history ofthe book ... parallels that of a considerable number of Britishbooks that were used in post-revolutionary America as vesselsfor the introduction of new knowledge and scholarship in thetime that the indigenous book industry evolved from a cottage industry to a truly national enterprise."