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From: wmartin@brl-vgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Chapbooks?
Message-ID: <41@brl-vgr.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 10-Apr-84 13:29:59 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-vgr.41
Posted: Tue Apr 10 13:29:59 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Apr-84 07:07:30 EST
Organization: Ballistics Research Lab
Lines: 20

I recently saw a reference in sf-lovers to some otherwise-unobtainable
writings being "occasionally reprinted in chapbook form overseas".
My dictionary is singularily unhelpful in telling me what a "chapbook"
is -- it says "Any small book...such as were formerly carried about
for sale by chapmen." A "chapman" turns out to be a peddler. Another
dictionary defines "chapbook" as "a small book or pamphlet of poems,
ballads, religious tracts, etc."

Before this, I don't believe I had ever heard the term "chapbook" before.
Does this refer to the thin, 5 x 8 inch (or so), paperbacks in which
struggling young poets seem to often be published, usually by vanity
presses? Or is that a different thing? If so, just what is a chapbook?

Is the term "chapbook" commonly used in the book trade in the US,
or is this a Briticism?

Finally, what distinguishes a "chapbook" from a "paperback" -- size,
marketing, whatever?

Will