The Raunchy World of Edmund Curll

I am thrilled to welcome Brian Watson to the salon, with the tale of one of my favourite Georgians, Edmund Curll, publisher of saucy literature!

---oOo---

First I wanted to thank our lovely host, Madame Gilflurt, for inviting me to write up a post on my favorite Georgian of all time: Edmund Curll. Although Gilflurt's guide has touched upon this 'saucy publisher' in the past, I'm going to expand on him a little bit more so we can all get a clearer picture of him, because he is very important to both the Georgian era and to our modern lives.

I hear you ask--how could a little-known eighteenth century publisher of stolen letters and somewhat raunchy books be so important? Well, for one, he plays a central role in the history of pornography/obscenity and, indeed, on the history of how sex 'became bad,' which is the topic of my academic research and my blog at the Annals of Pornographie (some entries NSFW). When Curll was dragged in irons before the Court of the King's Bench in 1725, the result of his trial (after nearly three years of agony) was the creation of the legal term 'obscene libel,' which is legalese for a sort of dirty book that could deprave and corrupt the morals of the English public. This was the first time in history the state had come down on suggestive or erotic material in such a public way, and it would ripple down through the centuries, causing the category of works that we know today as 'pornography'.

Curlls-Labratory: This is likely the only surviving image of Edmund Curll. In the center panel, to the right, he is represented as the two-faced man. (Grub Street Journal)

But we get ahead of ourselves. First, a few biographical details!

Edmund Curll was likely born on the 14th of July 1683, somewhere outside of London. Not much is known about his childhood or adolescence because, as it turns out, the names Edmund and Curll were sort of the 'John' and 'Smith' of eighteenth century England. Nevertheless, the record shows that he was definitely apprenticed at the age of 14 in 1679, and by 1706 had opened his very own shop.

While it might make the most sense to call Curll a bookseller--as he had a shop where he sold books--the book market of the 1700's was a very different world than today. Today, when an author writes a book, they then get an agent, who sells a book to a publisher and then the publisher pays someone to print, advertise, and distribute copies to bookstores. In the 1500s and 1600s, these things were often combined--one building could house a shop of books in the front, a printing press in the back, and hired authors on staff! By the time Curll came on to the scene, the printers and the booksellers had become separate, but Curll still combined the modern roles of bookseller, publisher, and advertiser in one. And what an advertiser he was!

Curll was perhaps the first blatant and unrepentant capitalist and in many cases he pioneered advertising strategies that modern corporations still use today. He would publish literally anything with the faintest whiff or hint of scandal surrounding it. Indeed, the first book he published, in 1707 was The Works of the Right Honourable the late Earl of Rochester--a British Earl who was famous in the 1600's for his sexual escapades and his sexual poetry. Nor was he afraid to steal from others or republish things as his own. Indeed, until April of 1710, it was perfectly legal for him to do so--there was no such thing as copyright law, nor any sort of law addressing what was appropriate and legal to publish.

And he certainly got into a lot of trouble doing so. To quote from his biographer:

There was never a man that was called by so many names. There was never a man who succeeded in irritating almost beyond endurance so many of his betters. And nothing could make him see the 'error' of his ways: he just continued to irritate. If, for instance, objection was raised to some book of his of the bawdier kind, it would likely as not be followed by another even more scandalously improper. If a furious author declared that a book of his, published by Curll, was wholly unauthorized, he would probably find that a 'Second Volume' of his work was being advertised as 'Corrected by the Author Himself.

Sometimes, of course, Curll went too far, and he would run into an absurd series of misadventures:

He was given an 'emetick' on a celebrated occasion by [Alexander] Pope he was beaten by Westminster schoolboys, he was several times imprisoned, and once he stood in the pillory. Actions were brought against him in the Courts, he was almost annually lampooned, and word was even coined from his name to describe the regrettable methods of business. Pachydermatously, Curll continued to exist.

You read that right--the famous and supposedly pure Alexander Pope, of all people, actually resorted to poisoning Curll's beer at the bar, all over the fact that Curll supposedly published a poem by Pope that he didn't want public.

Venus: Frontispiece for Curll’s 1725 Venus in the Cloister. (British Library)

Anyhow, his biggest misadventure was in the year 1725, when he published two works, A Treatise on Flogging in Veneral Affairs (a work about using whips in the bedroom, that might make even the most leathered Fifty Shades of Gray fan blush), and a work called Venus in the Cloister.

This latter work, Venus in the Cloister, is essentially a discussion between two different nuns, in which an older nun, Sister Angelica, slowly seduces a younger one, Sister Agnes, be convincing her that it was a-OK to fool around with her. Religion, she says, is comprised of “two Bodies, one of which is purely celestial and supernatural, the other terrestrial and corruptible, which is only the invention of Men.” In order to "truly commune" with God, Agnes should “dispense with the Laws, Customs, and Manners to which [she] submitted herself at her Entrance into the Monastery,”and explore her sexuality (and, one assumes, explore Angelica).  Venus in the Cloister is not all sex--it is also filled with some funny stories--such as one particularly hilarious scene where a an unfortunate nun uses a chamber pot that a lobster had crept into, much to the dismay of the lobster and her genitals. (If you want to know more, I discuss in greater detail here and here --NSFW.)

Regardless, certain groups (like the Society for the Reformation of Manners) took great offense to this sort of work and had Curll arrested in 1725 by the government for being a “the Printer and Publisher of several obscene Books and Pamphlets, tending to encourage Vice and Immorality.” The trial would take three agonizing years to be resolved, mainly because the judges disagreed about whether they had the right to punish Curll for such an offense. When they finally decided there was a need for it, they announced that “This [judgement] is for printing bawdy stuff. . .stuff not fit to be mentioned publicly,” and sentenced Curll to pay a fine of £100 and spend a day in the pillory.

Curll-Humiliated: Curll Humiliated by Westminister Schoolboys (University of Liverpool)

In the end, however, our wily Curll managed to even escape what could have been a very bad day in the pillory–people were known to have been stoned to death in a couple hours. He cleverly managed to avoid being pelted to death by printing and distributing to audience members a pamphlet that said the man before them was there not for obscene libel, but for defending the memory of the deceased Queen Anne, who was well loved by the English population.

I’ll let Curll’s biographer Ralph Strauss close us out:

The crowd came to look and to jeer, and possibly throw a few eggs. One man exercised his privilege and threw an egg. He was nearly lynched. The others smiled and grumbled at Governmental stupidity… In any case, ‘he was treated with great Civility by the Populace,’ and when he was released he seems to have been lifted on to the shoulders of an admiring crowd and taken away to a tavern and [had] as many drinks as even he wanted.”

About the Author

Brian Watson is a historian of pornography and obscenity, and also studies the history of privacy, marriage, and sexuality. He obtained his B.A. in English and History from Keene State College, and his M.A. in History & Culture at Drew University, and is currently expanding his master's thesis into a book on the history of obscenity atwww.annalspornographie.com. You can follow him on twitter @HistoryOfPorn

This post copyright © Brian Watson, 2015.

Edmund Curll: A Saucy Publisher!

Edmund Curll (c. 1675 – London, England, 11th December 1747)

Saucy books have recently become very vogueish if, indeed, they ever fell from favour, with any number of lewd literary offerings currently crowding the shelves of bookshops. Today we mark the death of Edmund Curll, writer of scandalous and entirely unauthorised biographies and publisher of a handful of the notorious Merryland books. This peculiarly Georgian genre was highly popular for a period in the eighteenth century and remains entertaining today, though not necessarily for the right reasons.

The Merryland books came into being in the 1680s and described the female body in topographical terms, charting the hills and valleys, highways and byways of the feminine, lyrical form. As you can see from the extract below, one could never accuse the authors of such works of subtlety!

"I shall conclude this Chapter of the Soil of MERRYLAND by saying, "her Vallies are like Eden, her Hills like Lebanon, her Springs like Pisgah, & her Rivers as Jordan; that she is a Paradise of Pleasure, & Garden of Delight..."

Curll gathered together existing Merryland material and published collections that proved to be big sellers, including a collection of maps that followed the theme! Apart from Merryland, Curll's dedication to publishing scurrilous poems and biographies earned him the enmity of Alexander Pope; he endured time in the pillory and even prison yet none of this did anything to dissuade him from his business.

Although Curll also published plenty of serious literature, it is for his more notorious works that he is remembered. He certainly was a true Georgian character!

The Observer Hits the Streets

Much is written and spoken nowadays about the death of print and more and more, those hungry for current affairs turn away from traditional newspapers in search of the stories of the moment. There is something reliable abut a newspaper though, a sense of tradition and authority that I cannot help but associate with Sundays and the ever-thicker parcels of paper and supplements that were lugged along the streets by our ever reliable paperboy.

On 4th December 1791, a newspaper was published that remains a weekly staple here in the United Kingdom and is, in fact, the oldest Sunday newspaper in the world. The publication in question is, of course, The Observer.

http://i.guim.co.uk/static/w-620/h--/q-95/sys-images/Media/Pix/pictures/2010/2/12/1265998336212/The-Observer-first-issue-001.jpg

The Observer was the brainchild of WS Bourne, a young and ambitious publisher who saw a golden opportunity to make himself a tidy fortune by capturing the news market with an independent publication. He borrowed £100 and went into business, declaring The Observer:

"Unbiased by prejudice – uninfluenced by party. Whole principle is ­independence, whole object is truth, and the dissemination of every species of knowledge that may conduce to the happiness of society."

In fact, Bourne's starry eyed dreams of wealth were to prove very wide of the mark and barely three years had passed before he found himself over £1500 in debt, a frightening figure indeed. Dreams of independence were soon set aside and Bourne turned to the government and offered to sell them his newspaper. Although the offer was rejected, it was agreed that the paper would receive a government subside if it abandoned its policy of political impartiality.

With the assistance and guidance of his brother, Bourne decided that he had no choice but to accept. Although his credit was saved, Bourne's heart was no longer in the project and in 1807 he gave up his role as editor. Seven years later, Bourne sold the newspaper to William Innell Clement and left the newspaper business for good.

Mary Katherine Goddard and the Goddard Broadside

Mary Katherine Goddard (Connecticut, America, 16th June 1738 – Baltimore, Maryland, America, 12th August 1816)

Mary Katherine Goddard

A few months ago I introduced a lady who made waves in the English printing and publishing industry and today it is my pleasure to welcome another, America's Mary Katherine Goddard. Her place in history is assured not only as a woman who strove to succeed in a challenging world but also because she played a very important role in one of America's most significant moments.

Goddard came from a family steeped in print and post, the daughter of a postmaster and, with her brother, William, the owner and operator of the Providence Gazette. She would later become a postmaster herself, though she lost her role on the Gazette after a somewhat vitriolic falling out with William.

Goddard Broadside, 1776

On 18th January 1777, the Continental Congress proposed that the Declaration of Independence should be more widely distributed. Hearing this, Goddard immediately offered up the use of her printing press, not caring a jot for invoking the ire of the British. She printed the Goddard Broadside, the first printed copy of the Declaration of Independence that contained the names of all signatories. This was a hugely significant act as it was the first time all signers of this at the time treasonous document were identified; it was a huge scoop for Goddard and a politically momentous moment.

Eventually Goddard's career began to decline and though she was a postmaster of repute and respect in Baltimore, she was ousted from the role in favour of a man. Despite her efforts to retain her position it was not to be and she began a new career as a bookseller, living on to a ripe old age.

The Publication of the Daily Courant

Well, there is nothing I like more than settling down with a cup of tea and something to read. I have always had a passion for current affairs and in our century there was always something exciting happening somewhere in the world, sometimes on your own doorstep. On a chilly, misty day like this one a lady doesn't always want to venture out to the print shop and so I was very pleased when, on this date in 1702, the estimable Elizabeth Mallet published The Daily Courant.

The Courant was the first daily English language newspaper to be published in Britain and Mallet produced it from her premises beside the Kings Arms on Fleet Bridge. It was, of course, only one page, so no troublesome glossy supplements to clutter up the salon, but one could read reports of the news of the day and then turn over and browse advertisements on the reverse. Mallet's intention was to present only overseas news and to offer no opinion or bias, believing that her readers were intelligent enough to draw their own conclusions on important matters.

Well aware that a female name on the byline might not endear her newspaper to the public, Mallet published the Courant under the name E Mallet. She passed ownership of the paper to Samuel Buckley in 1703 and then faded from the annals of history until 1706, when reference can be found to  her estate, suggesting that Mallet was dead by this date. Buckley, of course, went from strength to strength and eventually made his name as the printer of The Spectator.

The Courant was not without its controversies though and on 7th April 1712, the paper printed an account of business in the House of Commons translated from a Dutch source. Publishing the business of parliament was a serious matter and Buckley was punished with a hefty fine for his wrongdoing.

The Courant continued for 34 years under Buckley's stewardship and in 1735 it merged with the Daily Gazetteer. Buckley himself passed away five years later, his place in the history of printing assured.

Charles Rivington, Publisher

Charles Rivington (Chesterfield, England, 1688 - London, England, 22nd February 1742)

Charles Rivington by Sir Emery Walker

Today we meet a man who left his midlands home for London and a new life as a bookseller. Surrounded by the printed page, Charles Rivington truly found his niche and branched out to establish a hugely successful publishing house that endured for centuries.

Rivington was born in Chesterfield to butcher Thurston Rivington and Mary Wynn. However, the young man had no wish to follow his father's trade and in his early twenties he moved to London, where he took a position as apprentice to bookbinder, Emanuel Matthews. He remained with Mathwes for some years before moving into book selling when he took over the business of Richard Chiswell. His new venture specialised in educational and ecclesiastical literature with some success, eventually gaining particular note for Methodist texts as the years drew on.

As his professional stature grew, Rivington married Eleanor Pease, with whom he would eventually have 13 children. In fact, this was the start of a publishing dynasty that endured into the twentieth century.

However, Rivington was not content with his usually most respectable topics and branched out in 1724 by publishing the popular, A General History of the Pyrates. In 1736 he joined with a partner to found a company of booksellers named The New Conger, a response to the established company, The Conger. By now hugely influential in the publishing world, Rivington befriended Samuel Richardson and convinced him to write a novel in the form of letters, which would eventually become Pamela, or, Virtue Rewarded. Rivington published Pamela and it caused a sensation, becoming the must-read novel of the 1741.

Upon Rivington's death his publishing house passed into the ownership of his sons, John and James. John established a similar business in New York whilst James remained in London, making his name as the publisher of choice for the Church of England.

The Publication of Pride and Prejudice

Today I relate the story of a literary classic and a book that has become beloved of millions of readers in the years since its initial publication. A tale of manners, morality, love and life, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice has become a legend.

In autumn 1796,  21 year old Jane Austen took up her pen to begin work on a novel entitled, First Impressions. She spent the better part of a year preparing the manuscript and her father took it upon himself to offer the work to London publisher Thomas Cadell, who declined any further interest. Jane worked on other novels and writing until 1811 when she returned to the work and made a number of significant revisions to the story, as well as giving her manuscript a new title. Gone was First Impressions and in its place was Pride and Prejudice.

Title page from the first edition of the first volume of Pride and Prejudice

Renaming the novel was no doubt a wise move as two other books with the same title had been published in the years since she first began work and the time when she returned to make revisions. With the newly reworked novel now ready for publication, Jane submitted it with an asking price of £150 to Thomas Egerton of Whitehall. The firm agreed to take the work and a payment of £110 was negotiated. This proved a costly error as Jane agreed that the copyright would pass to Egerton in return for this single payment, meaning that all risk and any profit passed to him. In fact, the book would go on to be a success, with Jane seeing no additional royalties from its publication

The first edition was published in three volumes on 28th January 1813 and it was a hit. Critically lauded, the book sold out and a second edition followed towards the end of the year, with a third edition hitting the shelves four years later. It has gone on to become a literary legend, printed in dozens of languages and beloved by millions.

The Founding of the London Corresponding Society

Don't tell grandmother Gilflurt, but we've the radicals in today...

The London Corresponding Society was founded by attorney John Frost and radical shoemaker Thomas Hardy on 25th January 1792, both of whom decided that the time was right for working men to have the vote. The single most important aim of the Society was to force reform on the British parliament, including far greater representation of the working classes. In addition, the learned members of the group loudly and vociferously opposed the government on a number of points, as did their affiliate groups throughout the land.

London Corresponding Society handbill, 1793 

The Society sought similar like-minded groups through England and slowly but surely began to grow in size and followers until, within 18 months, 6000 people had signed a petition in support of the aims of the LCS.

Finally the government had had its fill of these opponents and raided a convention of group leaders in Edinburgh in October 1793, arresting a number of attendees and trying them for treason. Whilst some members were transported as a result, Frost was only imprisoned for six months and the intervention did little to deter the members of the Society, who turned their attention to periodicals.

London Corresponding Society, alarm's' by James Gillray, 1798

The following year yet more members of the Society were arrested yet all efforts to try them for treason proved unsuccessful. With public support for the Society growing, thousands of people attended public meetings and members even stoned the carriage of George II at the opening of Parliament. The government answered by passing the Treasonable Practices Act and the Seditious Meetings Act of  1795, following these with yet more arrests as the Society began to fracture.

Corresponding Society Meeting by James Gillray, 1795

By 1798 small groups were forming away from the main Society and though it struggled on for some time, the successful passage of the Corresponding Societies Act in 1799 proved the last nail in the coffin. The Act effectively outlawed any further meeting of the LCS and the Society and its affiliated groups faded into history, though their ideals and aims lived on in those who had been members.