{"id":6989,"date":"2026-08-17T03:09:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T07:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/?p=6989"},"modified":"2026-08-17T03:09:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T07:09:42","slug":"david-faflik-the-literary-gift-in-early-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/2026\/08\/17\/david-faflik-the-literary-gift-in-early-america\/","title":{"rendered":"David Faflik. The Literary Gift in Early America.<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n
\n

David Faflik. The Literary Gift in Early America.<\/em><\/h1>\n\n
\n
\n
Cecile M. Jagodzinski<\/a><\/div>\n\n
in <\/span>Book review<\/a>, <\/span>Reviews<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"Cover<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

David Faflik. The Literary Gift in Early America<\/em>. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2025. xi, 314 pages. ISBN 9781503639676. US $75.00 (cloth).<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

David Faflik\u2019s book is a study, not of gift books per se<\/em>, but of the \u201cbook as gift.\u201d Faflik, an English Professor at the University of Rhode Island, departs from earlier attempts to define the \u201cgift book,\u201d or \u201cliterary annual,\u201d such as Michael Felmingham\u2019s The Illustrated Gift Book, 1880\u20131930<\/em> (Scolar Press 1989) and Katherine D. Harris\u2019s Forget Me Not: The Rise of the British Literary Annual, 1823\u20131835<\/em> (Ohio University Press 2015), to focus on <\/em>the gift book as a carrier of exchange\u2014between giver and receiver, publisher and author, and author and reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faflik presents his argument in the form of five \u201creception histories\u201d (p. 2), with a mix of political figures (Roger Williams, Benjamin Franklin), poets (Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson), and a successful antebellum writer (Catharine Maria Sedgwick) who was eagerly read by the audiences of that day. He uses these five authors to establish his thesis: that we can only understand the development of a truly American literature by examining these writers\u2019 circulation of gift books as a method of literary (and financial) exchange. Gift books are important, Faflik states, not because they are material<\/em> representations of thoughtfulness or advice-giving, but because, in the end, they circulate<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In chapter 1, Faflik examines Roger Williams\u2019s A Key into the Language of America<\/em> (1643). Now, A Key<\/em> is not what most readers would call a typical gift book, with that genre\u2019s literary content and ornamental features, that would develop in the late eighteenth century in England and in early nineteenth-century America. Williams\u2019s book, instead, is a key to the language and customs of Native Americans. It was also, for Williams, a means of religious conversion and \u201can Implicite Dialogue\u201d (p. 31) between the Old World and the New, between Christian and Native American readers. Faflik traces the transmission of The Key<\/em> from its first edition printed in London to later American editions published in 1827, 1866, and 1936. The Key\u2019s<\/em> circulation across continents, between Native Americans and settlers, within a gentlemen\u2019s bibliophilic society, and between libraries and historical societies makes it one of the earliest instances of the \u201cgiftedness\u201d (p. 48) of all books in early America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chapter on Benjamin Franklin, politician, diplomat, and printer, tells the story of Franklin\u2019s Poor Richard<\/em> (1733), along with The Way to Wealth<\/em>, an essay in Poor Richard<\/em> that advises readers on the surest way to success. It became \u201ca worldwide phenomenon\u201d (p. 95) and was translated into numerous languages. Faflik\u2019s examination of The Way<\/em> is preceded by two perhaps overly long narratives on Franklin\u2019s civic gifts to his country: his experimentation with electricity and his gift giving as a diplomat in France, where gift giving became so ingrained in diplomacy that an exchange between heads of state is now a requirement. It is here that Faflik cites Robert Darnton, arguing that not only was the book a part of the communications circuit, but it became its \u201cengine\u201d and a place \u201cof perpetual motion of continuous exchange\u201d (p. 70).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faflik\u2019s chapter on Catharine Maria Sedgwick, a contributor to what we now think of as the gift book, describes her as a literarily shrewd and successful author who had conflicting feelings about her own authorship and the material and financial exchange of gift books. While she profited from her published works, she expressed reservations about the entire business of gift book publication. Perhaps because she succeeded so well financially, she felt the need to present the moral argument for selfless gift giving in two of her novels, where the female protagonist personifies the ideal gift giver\u2014the woman who not only gives material gifts, but provides a loving home for her family. This chapter also contains a useful description of the business history of literary annuals, from their marketing, sale, and critical reception to their arrival at the home of the recipient, who exhibited them, coffee-table style, to display her (and it was<\/em> mostly \u201cher\u201d) learning and refinement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In chapter 4, Walt Whitman\u2019s Leaves of Grass<\/em>, first published in 1855, takes center stage. Faflik explores the ambivalence with which Whitman offered his self-published book to the public. With its nontraditional self-portrait as the frontispiece to the personal and sexual openness of the text itself, Leaves<\/em> might be seen as a gift from one common man to another. However, while he gave away numerous copies of the first edition, it was clear that Whitman, who had a background in printing and publishing, knew he had to sell<\/em> his work to readers who might be reluctant to pay for Whitman\u2019s experiment in free verse in a market flooded by cheap print. Revised four more times by the author, it was not until the edition of 1881\u20131882 (the first published by a mainstream publisher) that the poems appeared in diverse fonts, with distinctive ornamentation, paper, and bindings. For Faflik, this edition was the \u201cepitome of Leaves\u2019<\/em> movement toward the more obvious commercial manifestations of the American gift book\u201d (p. 167). Whitman even offered an 1889 edition of his poems to the public as a holiday gift book entitled Gems from Walt Whitman<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final chapter of Faflik\u2019s book deals with the \u201ccontradictions\u201d (p. 201) of American literary gift culture in the person of Emily Dickinson. Well known for her habit of \u201cgifting\u201d her manuscript poems to others, Dickinson was not above experiencing \u201ca reception deficit\u201d (p. 221) in both her poetry giving and letter writing. As a student, she kept count of letters received, a habit that continued with both her poetry and her letters for the rest of her life. Her \u201cgift-poems\u201d exhibit both her desire to disseminate her poetry and to withstand the \u201cpainful exchanges\u201d (p. 220) resulting from unequal exchange between giver and receiver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A brief conclusion and a substantial bibliography of primary and secondary sources round out the volume. Both scholars of book history and American literature will find Faflik\u2019s unique approach\u2014using a popular genre, the gift book, to describe a nascent American literature that was adventurous, changeable, and formally experimental\u2014compelling and will want to read this book. Perhaps they, too, will want to participate in their own cultural (and perhaps resisting) exchange with this author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cecile M. Jagodzinski, independent scholar<\/p>\n\n\n

authorship<\/a>, <\/span>illustration<\/a>, <\/span>material culture<\/a>, <\/span>North America<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Faflik’s book examines the gift book as a carrier of exchange\u2014between giver and receiver, publisher and author, and author and reader\u2014in the form of five reception histories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":6997,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"wp-custom-template-post-template-reviews","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1888,1887],"tags":[1904,1934,1940,1942],"class_list":["post-6989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","category-reviews","tag-authorship","tag-illustration","tag-material-culture","tag-north-america"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6989"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6998,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6989\/revisions\/6998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}