Literary Patronage in England, 1650–1800

This is the first comprehensive study of the system of literary patronage in early modern England and it demonstrates that far from declining by 1750 - as many commentators have suggested - the system persisted, albeit in altered forms, throughout the eighteenth century. Combining the perspectives of literary, social and political history, Dustin Griffin lays out the workings of the patronage system and shows how authors wrote within that system, manipulating it to their advantage or resisting the claims of patrons by advancing counterclaims of their own. Professor Griffin describes the cultural economics of patronage and argues that literary patronage was in effect always 'political'. Chapters on individual authors, including Dryden, Swift, Pope and Johnson, as well as Edward Young, Richard Savage, Mary Leapor and Charlotte Lennox, address the author's role in the system, the rhetoric of dedications and the larger poetics of patronage.

"Explores boldly and intelligently the complex relationships among various forms of monetary reward and symbolic capital....Rigorously argued and well-researched, this study offers a compelling rereading of the culture of late-seventeenth and eighteenth-century patronage." Studies in English Literature, "Dustin Griffin's admirable and exemplary study conveys good news to the scholarly community....it opens a discussion of the real influences on the patronage system on eighteenth-century letters and invites further analysis. Such an analysis of how the system affected the myriad minor and women authors remains to be considered, but Griffin has provided the necessary framework and set an exemplary critical standard." Betty Rizzo, Eighteenth-Century Fiction, "...clearly written, substantive, and well-argued...." "...Griffin's important book...will inevitably testify to the considerable strength of the case it makes." Robert C. Evans, Albion, "Dutin Griffin's Literary Patronage in England thoroughly examines patronage practices throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and concludes with a chapter tracing the continuance of patronage into the careers of Crabbe and Burns." John Kandl, The Wordsworth Circle, "Dustin Griffin's necessary and welcome book on literary patronage in England's aggrandized eighteenth century is now the most thoughtful and important account of its subject." Robert Folkenflik, Bibliographical Society of America