Bell S Weekly Messenger

John Bell (1745-1831) was an English publisher. The Dictionary of National Biography has Charles Knight calling Bell a 'mischievous spirit, the very Puck of booksellers'. His 109-volume, literature-for-the-masses Poets of Great Britain Complete from Chaucer to Churchill, which rivalled Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1781), was published from 1777 to 1783. Each volume cost just six shillings, at a time when similar volumes usually cost many times that. The drawings and illustrations with which Bell adorned his publications influenced later publishers, as did his abandonment of the long S. Most notable, perhaps, was Bell's joint-stock organisation of his publishing company, which defied 'the trade' - at the time, forty dominant publishing companies - in order to establish a monopoly on the best publications. In addition to the immense Poets of Great Britain, Bell also published similar volumes on Shakespeare and the British Theatre, as well as the Sunday newspaper Bell's Weekly Messenger and other periodicals.

A major new history of the Royal Navy during the tumultuous age of revolution The French Revolutionary Wars catapulted Britain into a conflict against a new enemy: Republican France. Britain relied on the Royal Navy to protect its shores and empire, but as radical ideas about rights and liberty spread across the globe, it could not prevent the spirit of revolution from reaching its ships. In this insightful history, James Davey tells the story of Britain's Royal Navy across the turbulent 1790s. As resistance and rebellion swept through the fleets, the navy itself became a political battleground. This was a conflict fought for principles as well as power. Sailors organized riots, strikes, petitions, and mutinies to achieve their goals. These shocking events dominated public discussion, prompting cynical--and sometimes brutal--responses from the government. Tempest uncovers the voices of ordinary sailors to shed new light on Britain's war with France, as the age of revolution played out at every level of society.

For this catalog, Kalman A. Burnim has selected more than 360 portraits from various editions of the John Bell publication Bell's Shakespeare (including John Barker's continuation of 1799-1800) and from Bell's British Theatre (including George Cawthorn's 1797 edition). Philip H. Highfill Jr. has furnished the introductory essay for the catalog. Most of these portraits are by James Roberts and Samuel De Wilde, who were among the leading painters of actors and actresses between 1770 and 1820. Richard Cosway, William Hamilton, Gilbert Stuart, and other painters also have work represented in the catalog. The engraved versions are by James Thornthwaite, William Leney, Philippe Audinet, and others. When possible, each entry is illustrated by a reproduction of the engraving or by an original picture. For each entry, Burnim provides details of publication, the provenance and related pictures, the locations of the originals, and commentary.