Authors

Abstract

Authors in the early modern period in England were essential for the creation of printed texts, but they were generally considered secondary to the other agents of bookmaking. This chapter examines the tension between writers’ limited authority within the early modern print trade—legally, practically, and financially—and their increased presence in printed texts. Privileging literary authorship but also taking into account other, more popular types of writing, the chapter addresses how manuscript practices, printing conventions, and reading habits contributed to the growing opportunity that writers experienced and claimed for themselves in creating their publications. By the late 1600s, authors continued to collaborate with Stationers, but they began to perceive—and, gradually, to exploit—the material text’s significance in shaping both the meaning of a literary work and the endurance of their own reputations.