'Grossly Material Things'

Smith has produced a study that argues convincingly for the integral engagement of women with the materiality of the printed text. The strength of this work comes from the wealth of illustrative examples placed within a convincing discussion of the many facets affecting the production and use of early modern books. * Jessica Malay, Women's History Review *
Far from mere handmaids to their more accomplished male contemporaries, the early modern women who people this extraordinary book are revealed not only as patrons, printers, and translators of male-authored works, but also as stationers, chapwomen, and active readers who shape those works' very meanings. A welcome corrective to the familiar emphasis on prescriptive literature, Smith's work immerses us in the dirty, noisy world of early modern England where men and women jostled for position in the burgeoning economy of London and beyond. * Christina Luckyj, Early Theatre *
brings a wealth of new insights to the field of book history * Alice Eardley, Journal of the Northern Renaissance *
Smith's emphasis on materiality certainly alerts us to some tantalizing glimpses of the place of women in both printing houses and Stationers' Hall. * Maureen Bell, Times Literary Supplement *
Smith presents a meticulous study of the participation of women in all aspects of book production ... the volume may prove useful to anyone researching the social, economic, and intellectual composition of the book trade. * N.C. Aldred, The Library *
Helen Smith's fascinating Grossly Material Things opens an important window onto the basic circumstances of the Renaissance printing house and sheds new light on the significant roles women played in early modern Englands print marketplace ... Combining elegant writing with an abundance of useful details, Smith's study demands that we pay greater attention to the colophons of our favorite Renaissance books ... When others explore the role of women in the production of books in other markets, those scholars would do well to take Helen Smith's book as a model. * Andrew Fleck, Renaissance Quarterly *
Helen Smith's Grossly Material Things is a fascinating, insightful, superbly researched book on the contributions women made to manuscript and book production in the Early Modern period. Anyone interested in the history of reading or of the book will learn a great deal from her investigation ... The great strength of her work is to refocus our attention on the web of gendered relations in writing, translating, patronizing, publishing and reading in this period. * Tom Rooney, Early Modern Literary Studies *
Smith prods scholars to widen their definitions of textual labor to include books' physicality - an unexamined aspect of their cultural and intellectual impact. * Kathryn Narramore, Textual Cultures: Texts, Contexts, Interpretation *
This ambitious, well-researched, and timely study sets out to revise our understanding not only of early modern women's roles in book production (as its subtitle promises) but also of their myriad contributions to the entire communications circuit, including the commissioning, manufacture, distribution, and consumption of print publications in England, and between England and the Continent ... it will be of interest to a wide array of readers including, but not limited to, specialists in book history. * Natasha Korda, Joural of British Studies *
This monograph will be indispensable for early modern book historians as well as scholars of women's writing in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. * Gillian Wright, SHARP News *