Routledge Art and Commerce in the British Short Story, 1880–1950 (The History of the Book)

The short story was a commercial phenomenon which took off in the late nineteenth century and lasted through to the rise of television and film. Baldwin uses a wide variety of sources to show how economic factors helped to dictate how and what a wide variety of authors wrote. Review 'a welcome addition ... packed with painstaking research' English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 'Apart from the argument it so well presents, the firsthand material taken from the diaries and letters of many highly significant writers and novelists will help students as well as scholars see these writers as real individuals affected by real life situations.' Review of English Studies 'a valuable, empirically-based study ... that will be returned to as much for the evidence it assembles as its overall arguments, and for this reason literary and book historians owe Baldwin a considerable debt.' SHARP News 'Baldwin makes us rethink what we thought we knew about the short story. He brilliantly restores the reputations of great British writers, overlooked in recent years. His intricate knowledge of publishing history shows us exactly how the changing markets for short fiction shaped its artistic development; and reminds us of the importance of the reader to the continuing vitality of the short story form.' Ailsa Cox, Edge Hill University