Catherine Ingrassia

One of the most prolific writers of the early eighteenth-century, Eliza Haywood (1693?-1756) is often thought of as only a writer. Yet evidence in the Public Record Office, (Chancery Lane, London) concerning her 1749 arrest for seditious libel reveals her to have been intimately involved with every aspect of book production. Not only did she own and operate her own book-selling shop, but she also apparently produced and distributed a number of texts for other booksellers. She worked as a full-fledged member of the book trade, and was recognized as such by her colleagues. This information provides us with new insight into Haywood's career--and the role of women in the early print industry--and complicates further the already peripatetic life of one of the most important writers of early fiction. A version of this essay is forthcoming in Notes and Queries, July 1997.