Reading, Society, and Politics in Early Modern England

The idea for this volume had its origins in a conference held at the Huntington Library, San Marino, California. We would like to express our warm thanks to Professor Roy Ritchie and the staff of the Huntington for providing an opportunity to discuss this relatively new subject in a stimulating and critical environment. We should also like to thank Josie Dixon, who from the outset encouraged us to consider both a conference and a volume of essays and who contributed helpful suggestions about the range of topics. Some of the essays in this collection originated in papers for the conference and these have been revised for the collection; other essays were commissioned for the volume. We would like to thank all the contributors for their ready willingness to debate and to revise in the light of the editors' and readers' comments.

After the departure of Josie Dixon from Cambridge University Press, Linda Bree has worked with us in preparing the volume for publication and we thank her and the Press readers for their helpful suggestions, which have undoubtedly improved the shape of the whole.

More personally we would like to thank Malcolm and Jane Van Biervliet for the warm hospitality that facilitated the writing of the introduction together in a delightful environment in Oxford and Judy for all her sustenance and good company over a glass.

KEVIN SHARPE
STEVEN N. ZWICKER

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