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Robert Bell (publisher)
Robert Bell (1732–1784) was a Scottish immigrant to the British colonies in America and became one of many Early American publishers and printers, early American printers and publishers active during the years leading up to and through the American Revolution. Bell became widely noted for printing Thomas Paine, Thomas Paine's celebrated work, ''Common Sense'', a highly influential work during the revolution that openly criticized the British Parliament and their management and taxation of the British-American colonies. Bell and Paine later had a falling out over profits and publication issues.#thomas1874a, Thomas, 1874, Vol. I, pp. 260–261 As a dedicated patriot, Bell printed many pamphlets and books before and during the revolution, many of which "glowingly" expressed his patriotic views.#landis1908, Landis, 1908, Essay He also reprinted a number of popular English works, presenting them to the colonies for the first time. He ran an auction house which sold rare books in Lanc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Bell Catalog Of Books
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honour, praise, renown" and ''berht'' "bright, light, shining"). It is the second most frequently used given name of ancient Germanic origin. It is also in use Robert (surname), as a surname. Another commonly used form of the name is Rupert (name), Rupert. After becoming widely used in Continental Europe it entered England in its Old French form ''Robert'', where an Old English cognate form (''Hrēodbēorht'', ''Hrodberht'', ''Hrēodbēorð'', ''Hrœdbœrð'', ''Hrœdberð'', ''Hrōðberχtŕ'') had existed before the Norman Conquest. The feminine version is Roberta (given name), Roberta. The Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish form is Roberto (given name), Roberto. Robert is also a common name in many Germanic languages, including English ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder (as in a wheelwright or cartwright). The words combine to indicate a person who has "wrought" words, themes, and other elements into a dramatic form—a play. (The homophone with "write" is coincidental.) The first recorded use of the term "playwright" is from 1605, 73 years before the first written record of the term "dramatist". It appears to have been first used in a pejorative sense by Ben Jonson to suggest a mere tradesman fashioning works for the theatre. Jonson uses the word in his Epigram 49, which is thought to refer to John Marston: :''Epigram XLIX — On Playwright'' :PLAYWRIGHT me reads, and still my verses damns, :He says I want the tongue of epigrams ; :I have no salt, no bawdry he doth mea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V, french: Charles Quint, it, Carlo V, nl, Karel V, ca, Carles V, la, Carolus V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain (Crown of Castile, Castile and Crown of Aragon, Aragon) from 1516 to 1556, and Lord of the Netherlands as titular Duke of Burgundy from 1506 to 1555. He was heir to and then head of the rising House of Habsburg during the first half of the 16th century, his dominions in Europe included the Holy Roman Empire, extending from Kingdom of Germany, Germany to Kingdom of Italy (Holy Roman Empire), northern Italy with direct rule over the Austrian hereditary lands and the Burgundian Low Countries, and Habsburg Spain, Spain with its southern Italy, southern Italian possessions of Kingdom of Naples, Naples, Kingdom of Sicily, Sicily, and Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia. He oversaw both the continuation of the long-lasting Spanish colonization of the Americas and the short-live ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Robertson (historian)
William Robertson FRSE FSA Scot (19 September 1721 – 11 June 1793) was a Scottish historian, minister in the Church of Scotland, and Principal of the University of Edinburgh. "The thirty years during which epresided over the University perhaps represent the highest point in its history." He made significant contributions to the writing of Scottish history and the history of Spain and Spanish America. He was Chaplain of Stirling Castle and one of the King's Chaplains in Scotland. Early life Robertson was born at the manse of Borthwick, Midlothian, the son of Rev William Robertson (1686–1745), the local minister, and his wife Eleanor Pitcairn, daughter of David Pitcairne of Dreghorn. He was educated at Borthwick Parish School and Dalkeith Grammar School. The family moved to Edinburgh when his father became appointed minister of Lady Yester's Church in 1733. His father moved to Old Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh in 1736. He studied divinity at the University of Edinburgh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commentaries On The Laws Of England
The ''Commentaries on the Laws of England'' are an influential 18th-century treatise on the common law of England by Sir William Blackstone, originally published by the Clarendon Press at Oxford, 1765–1770. The work is divided into four volumes, on the rights of persons, the rights of things, of private wrongs and of public wrongs. The ''Commentaries'' were long regarded as the leading work on the development of English law and played a role in the development of the American legal system. They were in fact the first methodical treatise on the common law suitable for a lay readership since at least the Middle Ages. The common law of England has relied on precedent more than statute and codifications and has been far less amenable than the civil law, developed from the Roman law, to the needs of a treatise. The ''Commentaries'' were influential largely because they were in fact readable, and because they met a need. The ''Commentaries'' are often quoted as the definitive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith (10 November 1728 – 4 April 1774) was an Anglo-Irish novelist, playwright, dramatist and poet, who is best known for his novel ''The Vicar of Wakefield'' (1766), his pastoral poem ''The Deserted Village'' (1770), and his plays ''The Good-Natur'd Man'' (1768) and ''She Stoops to Conquer'' (1771, first performed in 1773). He is thought to have written the classic children's tale ''The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes'' (1765). Biography Goldsmith's birth date and year are not known with certainty. According to the Library of Congress authority file, he told a biographer that he was born on 10 November 1728. The location of his birthplace is also uncertain. He was born either in the townland of Pallas, near Ballymahon, County Longford, Ireland, where his father was the Anglican curate of the parish of Forgney, or at the residence of his maternal grandparents, at the Smith Hill House near Elphin in County Roscommon, where his grandfather Oliver Jones was a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Traveller (poem)
''The Traveller; or, a Prospect of Society'' (1764) is a philosophical poem by Oliver Goldsmith. In heroic verse of an Augustan style it discusses the causes of happiness and unhappiness in nations. It was the work which first made Goldsmith's name, and is still considered a classic of mid-18th-century poetry. Synopsis The dedication to ''The Traveller'' sets out Goldsmith's purpose: I have endeavoured to shew, that there may be equal happiness in states, that are differently governed from our own; that every state has a particular principle of happiness, and that this principle in each may be carried to a mischievous excess. He begins the poem by extolling the happiness of his brother Henry's simple family life. Then, from a vantage-point in the Alps, he surveys the condition of the world. Every nation, he says, considers itself the happiest, but this is only because each nation judges by its own standards. In fact, happiness is probably equally spread, though in different ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' calls him "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". Born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, he attended Pembroke College, Oxford until lack of funds forced him to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London and began writing for ''The Gentleman's Magazine''. Early works include ''Life of Mr Richard Savage'', the poems ''London'' and ''The Vanity of Human Wishes'' and the play ''Irene''. After nine years' effort, Johnson's '' A Dictionary of the English Language'' appeared in 1755, and was acclaimed as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship". Later work included essays, an annotated ''The Plays of William Shakespeare'', and the apologue ''The History of R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The History Of Rasselas, Prince Of Abissinia
''The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia'', originally titled ''The Prince of Abissinia: A Tale'', though often abbreviated to ''Rasselas'', is an apologue about bliss and ignorance by Samuel Johnson. The book's original working title was "The Choice of Life". The book was first published in April 1759 in England. Early readers considered ''Rasselas'' to be a work of philosophical and practical importance and critics often remark on the difficulty of classifying it as a novel. Origin and influences At the age of fifty, Johnson wrote the piece in only one week to help pay the costs of his mother's funeral, intending to complete it on 22 January 1759 (the eve of his mother's death). Johnson is believed to have received a total of £75 for the copyright. Though this is still popular belief, Wharton and Mayerson's book, "''Samuel Johnson and the Theme of Hope''," explains how James Boswell, the author of Johnson's biography, was "entirely wrong in supposing that ''Rasselas' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pennsylvania Chronicle
The ''Pennsylvania Chronicle and Universal Advertiser'' was an American colonial newspaper founded in 1767 that was published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, prior to the American Revolution and was founded by William Goddard (publisher), William Goddard and his silent business partners Joseph Galloway and Thomas Wharton Jr., Thomas Wharton. Benjamin Franklin, an associate of Galloway, was also a partner with the ''Chronicle''. The newspaper was established to challenge the power of the Penn family and ultimately the Crown authorities who at that time were placing laws and taxes on the colonists without fair representation in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, British Parliament. The ''Chronicle'' was published once a week on a Monday, the first issue being released on January 6, 1767, and was printed from a new ''Bourgeois type set'' by Goddard's printing company in Philadelphia, ''The New Printing Office'', on Market-Street, near the Post-Office. The annual subscription rate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pennsylvania Gazette
''The Pennsylvania Gazette'' was one of the United States' most prominent newspapers from 1728 until 1800. In the several years leading up to the American Revolution the paper served as a voice for colonial opposition to British colonial rule, especially as it related to the Stamp Act, and the Townshend Acts. History The newspaper was first published in 1728 by Samuel Keimer and was the second newspaper to be published in Pennsylvania under the name ''The Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences: and Pennsylvania Gazette'', alluding to Keimer's intention to print out a page of Ephraim Chambers' '' Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences'' in each copy. On October 2, 1729, Samuel Keimer, the owner of the ''Gazette'', fell into debt and before fleeing to Barbados sold the newspaper to Benjamin Franklin and his partner Hugh Meredith, who shortened its name, as well as dropping Keimer's grandiose plan to print out the ''Cyclopaedia''. Franklin not only p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, a drafter and signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, and the first United States Postmaster General. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his studies of electricity, and for charting and naming the current still known as the Gulf Stream. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among others. He founded many civic organizations, including the Library Company, Philadelphia's first fire department, and the University of Pennsylvania. Isaacson, 2004, p. Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
