Literary Ephemera

In this special issue, contributors examine a range of paper-based literary ephemera, including single-sheet print objects such as broadsheets and musical, elegiac, and commemorative broadsides; publishing prospectuses, proposals, and tickets; and more durable job-printed works such as illustrated pocket diaries and the illustrations that collectors inserted into volumes they aimed to grangerize, or extra-illustrate. Considering the essential part these printed ephemera play in the formation of cultural literacy, some authors explain how the literary ephemera they study once served as central media in the mnemonic cultures that relied on the visual to convey meaning. Others appear to have shifted meaning once the usefulness of their studied literary ephemera was exhausted.

Contributors: Luisa Calè, David Duff, Dianne Dugaw, Margaret J. M. Ezell, Sandro Jung