Prophets, Publicists, and Parasites

"Gordon has written an account of American print culture's formative surge but an account battening on steam power rather than literary cults, with a bulked-up cast and a verbal poise that is economical and engaging. This new book is without question the real thing, truly original."—Kathleen Diffley, author of Where My Heart Is Turning Ever: Civil War Stories and Constitutional Reform, 1861–1876

"With many glances back to English forebears, this erudite yet approachable book focuses especially on the 1830s and 1840s. Gordon does not write a conventional narrative: his book is not a history of critical doctrine, but instead (as its subtitle suggests) approaches its subject from the perspective of book history . . . This is a book all students of English literature will want to read, not just Americanists."—CHOICE

"By organizing the discussion of each critical genre—quarterly reviews, literary anthologies, magazine reviews, newspaper reviews, and newspaper reprints—around a single figure or episode, Gordon's author-centered approach to each critical genre not only deepens our understanding of each individual author's critical practice but also sharpens our topography of critical genres during the print era."—Poe Studies