Scope and Contents
Incoming correspondence from authors and prospective book purchasers, some annotated by the publishers, is interfiled with copies of replies written by Thomas Cadell and William Davies. The records also include a few letters addressed to the elder Thomas Cadell, as well as notes from printers such as Richard Watts and Luke Hansard. These letters have been interfiled chronologically within the correspondence files.
The correspondence typically concerns negotiations between the author and Cadell & Davies. The letters offer insight into the complex network of relations among printer, engraver, publisher, and author; the roles that subscribers and patrons played in supporting the printing of specific works; the impact that advertising and literary reviews were believed to have on sales; and the difficulties of contemporary transport. The records also detail financial transactions, printing expenses, and the firm's contractual arrangements with authors and other booksellers.
The largest single correspondence is that between Charlotte Turner Smith and Cadell & Davies, which numbers over 130 letters, and provides an ongoing account of the circumstances prompting her literary career. In a letter dated October 20, 1797, she wrote that she was "too acutely sensible of the misery, the humiliation of being compelled, with so handsome a fortune of my own, and such claims on behalf of my children to be dependent on my writing... doomed from year to year to invent fable for the public & to take as a favor any price offered." The correspondence also includes Charlotte Smith's opinions of her worth as a writer, details about her family life and writing process, and information about the publication of Elegiac Sonnets (1789-1800), Rural Walks (1795), and Rambles Farther (1800).
The records also contain a significant amount of correspondence between Cadell & Davies and the travel writer Edward Daniel Clarke, primarily regarding the publication of his Travels (1810-1824) and ongoing contractual disputes. The historian Nathaniel Wraxhall's letters offer heated commentary on the Napoleonic Wars (1800-1815). Other correspondents with substantial material include George Huntingford, William Magee, Edward Maltby, Isaac Milner, and Charles Simeon.
Wrappers that previously enclosed the records have been placed at the end of the series in two folders. These wrappers include earlier cataloging information and occasionally provide biographical notes about correspondents.
Dates
- 1767 - 1831
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
Conditions Governing Use
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Extent
1.67 Linear Feet (4 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Overview
CADELL & DAVIES
The firm was dissolved in 1836 when Thomas Cadell died, although several years passed before the Cadell imprint disappeared. Remaining stocks and copyrights were sold in 1840.
For additional information, see The Publishing Firm of Cadell & Davies: Select Correspondence and Accounts, 1793-1836, edited with an introduction and notes by Theodore Besterman (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1938).
Processing Information
- Adolphus, John, 1768-1845
- Authors and publishers -- England -- London
- Authors, English -- 19th century
- Barrow, John, Sir, 1764-1848
- Booksellers and bookselling -- England -- London
- Bowdler, H. M. (Henrietta Maria), 1750-1830
- Cadell & Davies
- Cadell, T. (Thomas), 1742-1802
- Cadell, Thomas, 1773-1836
- Clarke, Edward Daniel, 1769-1822
- Coxe, William, 1747-1828
- Davies, William, -1820
- Gisborne, Thomas, 1758-1846
- Huntingford, George Isaac, 1748-1832
- Magee, William, 1766-1831
- Maltby, Edward, 1770-1859
- Milner, Isaac, 1750-1820
- Mitford, William, 1744-1827
- Pinkerton, John, 1758-1826
- Pretyman, George, 1750-1827
- Promissory notes
- Publishers and publishing -- England -- London
- Receipts (financial records)
- Redesdale, John Mitford, Baron, 1748-1830
- Simeon, Charles, 1759-1836
- Smith, Charlotte, 1749-1806
- Wraxall, Nathaniel William, Sir, 1751-1831
Creator
- Title
- Guide to the Cadell & Davies Records
- Status
- Under Revision
- Author
- by Beinecke Staff
- Date
- July 1996
- Description rules
- Beinecke Manuscript Unit Archival Processing Manual
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository
Location
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Opening Hours
Access Information
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