The quarrel between the poet Alexander Pope and the publisher Edmund Curll has long been a notorious episode in the history of the book, when two remarkable figures with a gift for comedy and an immoderate dislike of each other clashed publicly and without restraint. However, their dispute has never, until now, been chronicled in full.
Ripe with the sights and smells of Hanoverian London, The Poet and the Publisher details the pair's vitriolic exchanges, drawing on previously unearthed pamphlets, newspaper articles and advertisements, court and government records, and personal letters. The story of their battles in and out of print includes a poisoning, the pillory, fraud and a landmark case in the history of copyright. This indecently entertaining book is a forensic account of events both momentous and farcical.