Prospectus is one of those words that gets tossed around quite a bit in publishing circles, although its meaning varies greatly depending on context. If one is a writer, prospectus usually means the same thing as book proposal: i.e., a written summary that gives potential publishers sufficient information to come to an informed publication decision based on the book's intellectual contribution, production complexities, and market potential. This is not the sense in which we will be using the term in today's post. (The term has different meanings in other contexts as well: e.g., finance, education, etc.)
The focus of today's post is a printed leaflet or broadside describing a forthcoming book; often with a specimen paper, illustration, and/or table of contents. The image below depicts what typically is meant by this meaning of prospectus: a sample page from the book being published is reproduced alongside details of the publication, and a tipped-in wood engraving gives an idea of how the title will be illustrated:
The first known prospectus for a printed book (in this sense) was published in 1469. The term is most frequently associated, though, with the rise of subscription publishing of luxe titles in the 17th century. Due to the great expense of publishing such titles, advance orders and -- most importantly -- payment usually was solicited in advance of publication. (In later centuries, salesmen's dummies and similar items would serve the same purpose.)
Prospectuses are avidly collected by book collectors. If one cannot afford the actual book, a prospectus at least affords one the satisfaction of owning a memento of the book's publication (leaf books serve much the same function for many collectors):
If a particular volume is announced but never actually published, a prospectus may well be the only way of knowing whether such publication was ever even intended. (The same is true if all known copies of a published title perish in a fire or similar disaster before the title can be distributed.)
Although it can be a bit difficult to collect prospectuses from past decades and centuries (due to the limited press runs and ephemeral nature of the material), such collecting can be done given sufficient time and financial resources:
Several books have been written which may prove helpful to the novice collector of such material. John Feather's two titles about pre-1801 prospectuses at the Bodleian Library often seem to be as scarce as the prospectuses about which he writes, but a copy of one or both titles does occasionally surface in the marketplace (usually sans microfiche). Fortunately, much of the information in both titles is repeated in English Book Prospectuses: An Illustrated History, a title Feather penned several years later for Bird & Bull Press (which includes 14 large facsimile prospectuses).
Because many of today's fine press titles still are published on a subscription basis, interested collectors may want to investigate such presses as a reliable and inexpensive way of collecting prospectuses. (Bibliographies of these presses often include a list of the prospectuses they've published. If you also end up buying some of the books these prospectuses describe, so much the better!)
A recent Whittington Press title, British Private Press Prospectuses 1891-2001, may prove helpful to folks collecting British private press prospectuses. (The deluxe edition includes several original prospectuses.)
We are unaware of similar titles devoted to prospectuses published in other countries. Should you know of any, please advise via Comment or email. (Folks who collect the books of America's distinguished Bird & Bull Press may want to pick up a copy of its 2008 title A conservatory for my prospectuses and specimen leaves, which includes several scarce original prospectuses for early publications of this press....)
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