Recent studies of reading in America focus upon either libraries of great authors or reading's transformative effects upon life trajectories. This article looks instead at the everyday context of common reading. It considers three levels of influence upon reading habits and choices of texts: natural and family cycles; religious and political commitments; and ephemeral events and encounters. The Daniel F. and Mary D. Child diary offers an unusual opportunity, for it provides for a twenty-two-year period (1839-1861) comprehensive information about the place of reading in one upwardly mobile Boston family's life. A database of all reading acts and other pertinent information yields a bibliographic calendar of imprints and manuscripts, including the date when each text was read. We argue that nonliterary biographical details operating on the three levels of influence are essential for understanding the motivation toward, and choices made, in reading.
BT - Libraries and Culture IS - 3 LA - English N2 -Recent studies of reading in America focus upon either libraries of great authors or reading's transformative effects upon life trajectories. This article looks instead at the everyday context of common reading. It considers three levels of influence upon reading habits and choices of texts: natural and family cycles; religious and political commitments; and ephemeral events and encounters. The Daniel F. and Mary D. Child diary offers an unusual opportunity, for it provides for a twenty-two-year period (1839-1861) comprehensive information about the place of reading in one upwardly mobile Boston family's life. A database of all reading acts and other pertinent information yields a bibliographic calendar of imprints and manuscripts, including the date when each text was read. We argue that nonliterary biographical details operating on the three levels of influence are essential for understanding the motivation toward, and choices made, in reading.
PY - 1997 SP - 285 EP - 323 T2 - Libraries and Culture TI - Reading and Everyday Life in Antebellum Boston: The Diary of Daniel F. and Mary D. Child VL - 32 ER -