How The Marquis de Lafayette Invented American Publishing

not really, but meet Mathew Carey, Irish Revolutionary

Publishing as we conceive of it today didn’t really exist before the 19th century in the United States (or elsewhere, really); until then, printers were publishers (as well as booksellers), and more often than not they were reprinting books already published in England. But if you are going to decide to call one person “the first” publisher (and walk right over the Elizabeth Glover, the woman responsible for printing/publishing/selling the first book published over here, gasp), Mathew Carey is a fine choice. Why the publishing and literary worlds know so little about Carey, and so much other publishing history for that matter, is a constant source of wonder (and something I am slowly trying to rectify)*.