One of the most prominent female publishers in the Gothic industry, Ann Lemoine (born Ann Swires, dates unknown) specialized exclusively in short tales of terror known as bluebooks (see
bluebooks
) or chapbooks. Lemoine is a conspicuous character in this Gothic bluebook trade, not just as a female in a male‐dominated field, but also as an innovator in the dissemination and marketing of short Gothic tales. Her publications were found in the most prominent circulating libraries, usually listed under the heading of pamphlets and available for a mere penny a night.
Thomas Tegg (1776–1845) was born in Wimbledon in Surrey. Orphaned at five, he was sent to a boarding school and later apprenticed to Alexander Meggett, a bookseller in Dalkeith, Scotland. Abused by the bookseller, he ran away and briefly made a living selling chapbooks at Berwick. He eventually obtained employment at the
Sheffield Register
, a local newspaper. In 1796 he traveled to London, briefly working at William Lane's Minerva Press in Leadenhall. He eventually secured a position at John and Arthur Arch's bookshop, where he learned the book trade.
The well‐known image of young Percy Bysshe Shelley clandestinely devouring forbidden tales of terror under the rose bushes at Sion House is a familiar, if not disquieting feature of literary history. Shelley's youthful predilection for ‘stories of haunted castles, bandits, murderers, and other grim personages – a most exciting and interesting food for boys’ minds’ was satisfied in the form of cheap Gothic chapbooks (Medwin 1847: 29–30). Notwithstanding the pleasure provided by these short tales of terror, adaptations of popular Gothic novels had the added benefit of being economical – sixpence or a shilling – or a penny a night from the circulating library which stocked dozens of thrilling and dangerous titles.
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