Robert Dodsley

The Correspondence of Robert Dodsley 1733–1764 brings to light much previously unpublished detail for the study of eighteenth-century British literary and publishing history. It is a fully annotated edition of letters exchanged between Robert Dodsley - London’s leading literary publisher of the mid eighteenth century - and his authors, members of the book trade, and friends. Numbering about four hundred pieces, the correspondence reflects the publisher’s relations with such people as Edmund Burke, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield, David Garrick, Thomas Gray, David Hume, Samuel Johnson, Laurence Sterne, and Horace Walpole. A lengthy introduction provides an account of Dodsley’s publishing career, including his negotiations with authors and other publishers, and offers many insights into the technical and financial operation of the contemporary book trade.

This was the best-selling poetry anthology of the eighteenth century, edited by the most celebrated publisher of the era, Alexander Pope's protege, Robert Dodsley. It includes poems by Samuel Johnson, Thomas Gray, David Garrick, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Horace Walpole, Joseph and Thomas Warton, James Thomson, Elizabeth Carter, Pope himself, and many others. The Collection of Poems is an invaluable index of literary culture in the eighteenth century, and yet despite its great popularity and influence, it has not been in print for more than two hundred years.