Faith in Reading: Religious Publishing and the Birth of Mass Media in America (Religion in America)

224 Pages·2004·1.14 MB·English

by  David Paul Nord

Faith in Reading:
Religious Publishing
and the Birth of Mass
Media in America
DAVID PAUL NORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Faith in Reading
Recenttitlesin
RELIGIONINAMERICASERIES
HarryS.Stout,GeneralEditor
PRINCETONINTHENATION’SSERVICE THEUNIVERSALISTMOVEMENTIN
ReligiousIdealsandEducationalPractice, AMERICA,1770–1880
1868–1928 AnnLeeBressler
P.C.Kemeny
AREPUBLICOFRIGHTEOUSNESS
CHURCHPEOPLEINTHESTRUGGLE ThePublicChristianityofthePost-Revolutionary
TheNationalCouncilofChurchesandtheBlack NewEnglandClergy
FreedomMovement,1950–1970 JonathanD.Sassi
JamesF.Findlay,Jr.
NOAH’SCURSE
TheBiblicalJustificationofAmericanSlavery
TENACIOUSOFTHEIRLIBERTIES
StephenR.Haynes
TheCongregationalistsinColonialMassachusetts
JamesF.Cooper,Jr.
ACONTROVERSIALSPIRIT
EvangelicalAwakeningsintheSouth
INDISCORDANCEWITHTHE
PhilipN.Mulder
SCRIPTURES
AmericanProtestantBattlesoverTranslating
IDENTIFYINGTHEIMAGEOFGOD
theBible
RadicalChristiansandNonviolentPowerinthe
PeterJ.Thuesen
AntebellumUnitedStates
DanMcKanan
THEGOSPELWORKINGUP
ProgressandthePulpitinNineteenth-Century SOMEWILDVISIONS
Virginia AutobiographiesbyFemaleItinerantEvangelists
BethBartonSchweiger inNineteenth-CenturyAmerica
ElizabethElkinGrammer
BLACKZION
African-AmericanReligiousEncounters NATHANIELTAYLOR,NEWHAVEN
withJudaism THEOLOGY,ANDTHELEGACYOF
EditedbyYvonneChireauand JONATHANEDWARDS
NathanielDeutsch DouglasA.Sweeney
BLACKPURITAN,BLACKREPUBLICAN
GODFORBID
TheLifeandThoughtofLemuelHaynes,
ReligionandSexinAmericanPublicLife
1753–1833
EditedbyKathleenM.Sands
JohnSaillant
AMERICANMETHODISTWORSHIP
WITHOUTBENEFITOFCLERGY
KarenB.WesterfieldTucker
WomenandthePastoralRelationshipin
Nineteenth-CenturyAmericanCulture
TRANSGRESSINGTHEBOUNDS KarinE.Gedge
SubversiveEnterprisesamongtheSeventeenth-
CenturyPuritanEliteinMassachusetts, A.J.TOMLINSON
1630–1692 PlainfolkModernist
LouiseA.Breen R.G.Robins
THECHURCHONTHEWORLD’STURF FAITHINREADING
AnEvangelicalChristianGroupataSecular ReligiousPublishingandtheBirthofMass
University MediainAmerica
PaulA.Bramadat DavidPaulNord
Faith in Reading
Religious Publishing and the Birth
of Mass Media in America
david paul nord
1
2004
1
Oxford NewYork
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Copyright(cid:1)2004byOxfordUniversityPress,Inc.
PublishedbyOxfordUniversityPress,Inc.
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OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,
storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,
electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise,
withoutthepriorpermissionofOxfordUniversityPress.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Nord,DavidPaul.
Faithinreading:religiouspublishingandthebirthofmassmediainAmerica/DavidPaulNord.
p. cm.—(ReligioninAmericaseries)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-19-517311-2
1. Religiousliterature—Publishing—UnitedStates—History—19thcentury. 2. Tractsocieties—
UnitedStates—History—19thcentury. 3. Bible—Publicationanddistribution—Societies,etc.—
UnitedStates—History—19thcentury. 4. AmericanTractSociety—History—19thcentury.
5.AmericanBibleSociety—History—19thcentury. 6. Christians—Booksandreading—United
States—History—19thcentury. 7. Booksandreading—UnitedStates—History—19thcentury.
I. Title. II. ReligioninAmericaseries(OxfordUniversityPress)
Z480.R4N672004
070.5'0973'09034—dc22 2003020144
Rev.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
onacid-freepaper
For the AAS
Thevariedmechanicalartsnecessarytothespeedandperfectionofprinting
haveadvanced,untilasinglenewspaperpresswillissueathousandtimesas
manywordsinaminuteasaspeakerwillutterinanhour.Whatevermay
havebeenthemightofthisagencywhileinitsinfancy,asemployedinthe
greatReformationunderLuther—howeverpotentinitsyouthinbringing
religiondownfromthepalacetothecottage,aswieldedbythePuritansof
theseventeenthcentury,orasemployedbyBritishChristiansinantagonism
toinfidelityatthecloseoftheeighteenthcentury,itremainedforassociated
systematicChristianenterpriseinthenoonofthenineteenthcentury,to
developethefullpowerofthisamazinginstrumentoflightinitsripened
manhood.
—AmericanMessenger,June1851
Theworldhasgonetoreading,andreadtheywill,forwealorwoe.
—AmericanMessenger,May1849
Acknowledgments
Thisisabookaboutbooksandreaders,andtowriteitIdepended
almostentirelyuponthosegenerousinstitutionsthattakebooksand
readersmostseriously:libraries.Iwarmlythankthelibrarians,cura-
tors,andreaderservicesstaffsoftheAmericanAntiquarianSociety,
LibraryCompanyofPhiladelphia,NewberryLibrary,Presbyterian
HistoricalSociety,New-YorkHistoricalSociety,UnitedMethodist
ArchivesandHistoryCenteratDrewUniversity,andthelibrariesof
theUniversityofChicago,UniversityofPennsylvania,Princeton
TheologicalSeminary,andIndianaUniversity.Ofthese,themost
importantbyfarwastheAmericanAntiquarianSocietyatWorcester,
Massachusetts.Forme,theAAShasbeenmuchmorethanalibrary;
ithasbeenabenefactor,apublisher,acommunity,andagateway
intothehistoryofthebook.IamdeeplygratefultoNancyBurkett,
JoanneChaison,EllenDunlap,JohnHench,MarcusMcCorison,
CarolineSloat,andmanyotherfriendsattheAAS,myfavoriteli-
braryonEarth.Tothemall,thisbookisdedicated.
Myunderstandingofthehistoryofbooksandreadingwasstim-
ulatedandencouragedbymyinvolvementwithagroupofsplendid
scholars(nowfriends)assembledbytheAmericanAntiquarianSoci-
etyastheeditorialboardoftheHistoryoftheBookinAmericaproj-
ect.Ithankthemall:HughAmory,JamesGreen,RobertGross,
PhilipGura,DavidHall,CarlKaestle,MaryKelley,StevenNissen-
baum,JaniceRadway,JoanShelleyRubin,MichaelSchudson,and
MichaelWinship.Myworkinthehistoryofpopularreligionwas
viii acknowledgments
enthusiastically supported by Mark Noll, Harry S. Stout, and Leonard Sweet.
Ithankthemaswell.Inboththehistoryofbooksandthehistoryofreligion,
mychiefmentorhasbeenDavidD.Hall,whosekindness,intellectualsupport,
andscholarlyexamplehaveinspiredmeformanyyears.
Thelibrariesandarchivesoftworeligiousinstitutionswereindispensable
totheresearchforthisbook:theAmericanBibleSocietyofNewYorkCityand
the American Tract Society of Garland, Texas. I am especially grateful to Ste-
phenSlocumandthelateMarthaKohleroftheATS.
Second only to books, scholars need dollars to get the job done. For fel-
lowships and other financial support, I thank the American Antiquarian So-
ciety, the Lilly Endowment, the Louisville Institute at Louisville Presbyterian
Seminary, the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton
College,theAmericanTractSociety,andtheOfficeofResearchandtheSchool
of Journalism at Indiana University. My dean at the School of Journalism,
Trevor Brown, supported this project for many years with money and good-
humoredencouragement.Iappreciateboth,especiallythelatter.
Portions of this book have appeared in different form over the years as
articlesandbookchapters.Ithanktheeditorsandpublishersofthosejournals
andbooksforpermissiontousethismaterial:
“TheEvangelicalOriginsofMassMediainAmerica,1815–1835.”Journal-
ismMonographs88(May1984).
“SystematicBenevolence:ReligiousPublishingandtheMarketplacein
EarlyNineteenth-CenturyAmerica.”InCommunicationandChangein
AmericanReligiousHistory.EditedbyLeonardI.Sweet.GrandRapids,
Mich.:Eerdmans,1993.
“ReligiousReadingandReadersinAntebellumAmerica.”Journalofthe
EarlyRepublic5(Summer1995).
“FreeGrace,FreeBooks,FreeRiders:TheEconomicsofReligiousPub-
lishinginEarlyNineteenth-CenturyAmerica.”ProceedingsoftheAmer-
icanAntiquarianSociety106(October1996).
“BenevolentCapital:FinancingEvangelicalBookPublishinginEarly
Nineteenth-CenturyAmerica.”InGodandMammon:Protestants,
Money,andtheMarket,1790–1860.EditedbyMarkA.Noll.NewYork:
OxfordUniversityPress,2002.
Finally, I thank my family, including my parents, Harry and Paula Nord,
who taught me more about reading and religion than they ever thought they
did.