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ENGLISH LITERATURE AND HISTORY -- EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

  • Princeton has about 20,000 books printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, and British North America during the 18th century. Special groups are the Edwards and Witherspoon libraries as well as the 18th century section of the Princetoniana [or (P)] collection. Major concentrations of English imprints are found in the Richardson classification sections for English history, literature, and religion of the General Rare Book Collection. The Library's holdings are recorded, of course, in NUC Pre-56 as well as in selected specialized listings such as David Foxon. English Verse 1700-1750. (Cambridge, 1975) [(ExB) 3582.357]. (Note: In August, 1984, the ExB copy of Foxon was marked for Princeton holdings as determined by Foxon, in order to provide easy identification of these books. The Library has many other Foxon titles yet to be noted as being held at Princeton.)

    The Library has completed reporting its holdings to the North American editorial office of the Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue. Note: The British Library has made the database ESTC available free of charge at this link.

    As a point of departure, refer to the Princeton University Library Chronicle XXV,2 (Winter, 1964) p. 160-172; [ full text], XXVII, 3 (Spring, 1966) p. 194-5 [ full text]; XXVIII, 3 (Spring, 1967) p. 193-4 [ full text]; XXIX, 2 (Winter, 1968) p. 156-60 [ full text]; XXX, 2 (Winter, 1969) p. 132-141 [ full text]; XXXI, 2 (Winter, 1970) p. 139-148 [ full text]; XXXII, 3 (Spring, 1971) p. 180-83 [ full text]; XXXIV, 1 (Autumn, 1972) p. 80-84 [ full text]; XXXIV, 3 (Spring, 1973) p. 186-191 [ full text]. Also, every Autumn issue of the Princeton University Library Chronicle between 1974 and 2011 (except 1976) has listed books relevant to this topic in the section called 'New & Notable.'

    Not to be overlooked for subject access to English books of this period is the following published by Dawson in 1979 for the Department of Printed Books of the British Library. It is Eighteenth-Century British Books: a Subject Catalogue Extracted from the British Museum General Catalogue of Printed Books. (4 vol.) [(F) Z1016 .B75 1979q].

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