Doctor Syntax, one of the most popular characters in nineteenth-century English fiction made his public debut in May 1809 in the first issue of Poetical Magazine under the editorial supervision of publisher and art dealer Rudolph Ackermann. Under the title 'The Schoolmaster's Tour', the magazine featured its first installment of the adventures and misadventures of this eccentric traveller and pedantic cleric, illustrated with aquatint drawings by the prolific caricaturist and comic artist, Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), with narrative commentary by William Combe.

Essays from twenty-seven leading book editors: “Honest and unflinching accounts from publishing insiders . . . a valuable primer on the field.” —Publishers Weekly Editing is an invisible art in which the very best work goes undetected. Editors strive to create books that are enlightening, seamless, and pleasurable to read, all while giving credit to the author. This makes it all the more difficult to truly understand the range of roles they inhabit while shepherding a project from concept to publication. What Editors Do gathers essays from twenty-seven leading figures in book publishing about their work. Representing both large houses and small, and encompassing trade, textbook, academic, and children’s publishing, the contributors make the case for why editing remains a vital function to writers—and readers—everywhere. Ironically for an industry built on words, there has been a scarcity of written guidance on how to approach the work of editing. Serving as a compendium of professional advice and a portrait of what goes on behind the scenes, this book sheds light on how editors acquire books, what constitutes a strong author-editor relationship, and the editor’s vital role at each stage of the publishing process—a role that extends far beyond marking up the author’s text. This collection treats editing as both art and craft, and also as a career. It explores how editors balance passion against the economic realities of publishing—and shows why, in the face of a rapidly changing publishing landscape, editors are more important than ever. “Authoritative, entertaining, and informative.” —Copyediting

The absurdities of fashion, the perils of love, political machinations and royal intrigue were the daily subject matter of Thomas Rowlandson, one of the leading caricaturists of Georgian England. Rowlandson was working at a time when English satirical prints were prized by collectors across Europe. A number of the works in the exhibition were purchased by George, Prince of Wales, later Prince Regent and King George IV. Ironically the Prince was often the butt of caricaturists' jokes and sometimes tried to prevent the publication of images that he felt were particularly offensive. Through Rowlandson's drawings and prints, the exhibition examines life at the turn of the 19th century. 0Exhibition: The Queen's Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, UK (11.2013).

Reproduction of the original: The History of Johnny Quae Genus by William Combe

This story of one of the great graphic satirists and watercolour artists of the British School is based upon a mass of new research. Rowlandson kept no diary, wrote few letters, and occurs only infrequently in the memoirs of others. Source material is not abundant. But in more than a decade's research, using church and official records, newspaper reports, contemporary accounts, sales catalogues and consideration of his pictures, the authors shed new light on Rowlandson's family background, his education and art training in London and Paris, his personal and professional associations, his travels in Britain and abroad, and the work itself. Fully illustrated, this contribution to scholarship will appeal to the general reader and specialist alike and is destined to become the standard work on this benchmark British artist.

Writing back to Rome in 36 AD from Londinium, the illustrator Malus Maximus wrote: "Depravity, plague and licentious debauchery seem to bring out the best in the rude, blunt, thick-skinned Saxon people. There is no shortage of subjects for me to depict." It's Dark in London features a generation of British artists who have developed a rich synthesis of the Continental graphic novel and American comic strips. Including the work of ? Neil Gaiman, David McKean, Alan Moore, Carol Swain, Dix ? in tandem with the stories of London writers like Iain Sinclair, Graeme Gordon, Christoper Petit and Stella Duffy. This fusion produces a portrait of London that captures the city's mixture of lofty towers and gutter sleaze, of suburban gentility and urban depravity, of private vices and public philanthropy. It is a book as graphic as it is visionary.