Edmund Curll

Peter Heaney (Staffordshire University)
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Edmund Curll, the bookseller-publisher, was born, by his own account, in the West of England in 1683, the son of a tradesman. He progressed from a stall-keeper to the embodiment of the new publishing phenomenon known now, as then, as Grub Street. He first comes to notice in 1706 with an edition published from the Strand, of Caesar's

Commentaries

. He was to become better known for less salubrious publications; Curll would sell anything by whatever means presented themselves. So, in his “Epilogue” to his

Compleat Key to The Dunciad

he concludes, characteristically: “There are but Two Things to be consider'd in every HEROIC Poem; First, how to write it, Secondly, how to make it sell”. His activities as publisher and bookseller were unscrupulous even for an age of fairly low…

1799 words

Citation: Heaney, Peter. "Edmund Curll". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 December 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1098, accessed 19 March 2024.]

1098 Edmund Curll 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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