Advertising Sterne’s Letters in the 1770s

This paper explores the emphasis on authenticity by publishers of two posthumous editions of Laurence Sterne’s letters in 1775, focusing on publication advertisements and book reviews. It examines the rivalry between Lydia Medalle’s collection and a largely spurious work by William Combe, which was published four months earlier under a similar title. Medalle and her publisher Thomas Becket published their advance notices ahead of Combe’s release, creating a competitive atmosphere reflected in newspaper notices, where announcements of publication often appeared in close proximity. To attract more readers, advance notices and advertisements for both collections employed strategies highlighting the genuineness of the letters. Their veracity was further supported by combined sales in the advertisements, where the letters were promoted alongside original works, such as ‘The History of a Watch Coat’ or Letters from Yorick to Eliza. The paper reviews the marketing tactics used to promote Letters of the Late Rev. Mr. Laurence Sterne, to His Most Intimate Friends and Sterne’s Letters to His Friends on Various Occasions, illustrating the various ways contemporary readers accessed this segment of Sterne’s literary legacy .