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Benjamin Guild
American bookseller From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Benjamin Guild (1749-1792) was a bookseller in Boston, Massachusetts, in the late 18th century.[1] He ran the "Boston Book Store" and a circulating subscription library in the 1780s and 1790s at no.59 Cornhill, "first door south of the Old-Brick Meeting-House."[2][3]
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Born in 1749 to Benjamin Guild and Abigail Graves, Benjamin attended Harvard College (class of 1769); classmates included Theophilus Parsons, Alexander Scammel, Peter Thacher, William Tudor, and Peleg Wadsworth.[4][5] He later tutored at Harvard, 1776-1780,[5] and travelled abroad.[6] In 1784 he married Betsey Quincy (1757-1825).[7][nb 1] He served as a charter member and an officer of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,[8][9][10] and on the editorial committee of the Boston Magazine.[11]
Guild sold books from his shop at no.8 State Street from around 1785 until 1786, when he moved to Cornhill (1786-1792).[12] In addition to the bookshop, he ran a circulating library, one of the first in post-war Boston. The library contained "several thousands" of volumes, which, according to its 1787 newspaper advertisement "will furnish such a fund of amusement and information as cannot fail to entertain every class of readers ... whether solitary or social -- political or professional -- serious or gay."[13] Subscribers paid eight dollars per year, or "two dollars per quarter -- to have the liberty of taking out two books at a time and no more -- to change them as often as the subscriber pleases -- and no book to be retained longer than one month."[14] Guild stipulated that "any book lost, abused, leaves folded down, writ upon or torn, must be paid for."[14] After his death in 1792, Guild's bookshop and library were taken over by William P. Blake.[15]
Among the titles in Guild's circulating library in 1789:[16]
- Addison's Works
- Algerine Spy in Pennsylvania[17]
- Robert Bage's Barham Downs, a novel
- Countess de Genlis' Adelaide and Theodore
- Madame de Lafayette's Zayde, a Spanish History
- Raynal's Revolution in America
- John Rice's Art of Reading
- Robin's New Travels in America[18]
- Baron de Tott's memoirs of the Turkish Empire
- Nathaniel Wanley's Wonders[19]
- Wraxall's Tour
- Wyld's Practical Surveyor[20]
- Wynne's History of America[21]
- Yorrick's Sentimental Journey
- Zimmerman's Political Survey of Europe
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Notes
- Elizabeth Quincy was the daughter of Josiah Quincy I.[5]
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