This article is copyrighted February 2005 by Virginia Mescher. It may not be reproduced or reprinted in any way, either printed or electronic and regardless of whether for fee or gratis, or posted to a website or mailing list without the written permission of the author. 

This article had previously appeared in the Society for Women and the Civil War newsletter, At Home and in the Field. For information about that organization, see www.swcw.org

“PICK UP A GOOD BOOK:”

LITERACY and POPULAR LITERATURE OF THE CIVIL WAR

Virginia Mescher

Civilians had opportunities for reading as did soldiers, when they had leisure time on their hands Difficulties arise when deciding what books were appropriate for reading and finding period looking books of the correct title. 

In the Civil War period, most people were literate. This meant that they could read and write in some fashion. The 1860 census records indicated that around eighty-eight percent of the population over the age of twenty could read and write. Below is a table giving the population and literacy breakdown for each state, which were derived from the 1860 United States Census.

NOTE: The above figures came from the 1860 U. S. Census but the calculations are my own. If mistakes were made in the calculations, please forgive the math-impaired author.

Not everyone read on the highest level but read they did and war did not stop people from reading. Civilians could loose themselves in reading, read aloud at sewing circles and work groups and soldiers liked to pass some of their leisure times. Popular literature, newspapers and magazines were always favorite reading matter of both civilians and soldiers. Ladies’ magazines such as Godey’s, Peterson’s, and Arthur’s Home Magazine were published during the war and were commonly available in the north. In the south, some reached the population via the blockade or by smuggling them from the north. Both the north and south read newspapers but in the south, paper and ink grew scarce which limited the newspapers published. A limited number of books were published in the south and one well known one was Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. One can research period titles in magazines and newspapers which usually had a literary column of recently published books.

Other than the Bible and Shakespeare, classical literature was enjoyed by many people. Works such as Cicero, Horace, Caesar, Virgil, Euripides, and Sophocles were among books sold by a store in a rural area of southern Virginia. Other book purchases from the same store were the Life of Washington, Tacitus, Natural Philosophy, and Scott’s Waverly novels. The Bible, The Iliad and The Odyssey; Pilgrim’s Progress; and poetry of Byron, Keats, and Shelly were also widely read. Popular dime novels were considered “trash,” but they were inexpensive, entertaining and easy to carry. Beadle’s and Company were one of the most prolific publishers of these dime novels.

Below is a listing of some more popular works and authors and the year the books were written. It is not all an inclusive list of the popular literature before and during the Civil War, but it does give an indication of period reading matter.

1820                Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

1821                Kenilworth by Sir Walter Scott

1822                The Pilot by James Fenimore Cooper

1823                The Pioneers by James Fenimore Cooper

1824                Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison by James E. Seaver

1826                The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

1832                Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

1832                Swiss Family Robinson by Johann R. Wys

1834                The Last Days of Pompeii by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

1834                The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo

1835                Poems by William Wordsworth

1837                Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

1837                Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

1838                Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

1839                Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

1840                The Pathfinder by James Fenimore Cooper

1840                Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

1840                Poems by Edgar Allen Poe

1841                Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper

1842                Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson

1842                Temperance Tales; or Six Nights with the Washingtonians by T. S. Arthur

1843                Conquest of Mexico by William Hickling Prescott

1844                A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

1844                The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas

1845                The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

1848                Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronteʹ

1848                Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronteʹ

1848                Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

1849                The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman

1849                The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexander Dumas

1850                David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

1850                Poems by Robert Browning

1850                Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

1850                The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

1851                Moby Dick by Herman Melville

1852                Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

1854                Walden by Henry David Thoreau

1855                Ten Nights in a Bar-Room by T. S. Author

1855                Ruth Hall by Fanny Fern

1855                The Age of the Fable by Thomas Bullfinch

1855                Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

1855                The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1857                Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

1858                The Courtship of Miles Standish by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1858                Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes

1859                The Prairie Traveler by Captain Randolph B. Marcy

1859                A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

1860                The Virginians by William Makepeace Thackeray

1860                Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin

1860                The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

1861                Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

1861                Silas Mariner by George Eliot

1862                Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

1862                No Name by Wilkie Collins

1863                The Tales of the Wayside by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1864                In War Time and Other Poems by John Greenleaf Whitter

1865                Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

1865                Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

READING MATTER FOR SOLDIERS

The time soldiers spent marching and in battle was very little over the course of the four years of war. They spent most of their time in camp, were most likely bored, and craved activities that could pass the time. Soldiers were from all walks of life and a large number of them desired to do something besides gambling, sleeping or writing letters. Reading was a time honored way to loose oneself in another world and briefly forget the current boredom and hardships of war and camp life.

Since soldiers had not always been soldiers, a great deal of “modern and ancient literature” had been read before the war began and reading matter was a soldier’s treasured possession, particularly in winter camp; in hospitals; and in some of the prisons. Books were often packed in boxes sent to soldiers from home, but that did not always fill the need for reading matter.

As early as 1821, General Wingfield Scott had recommended that funds be set aside for post libraries, but these stationery libraries would not serve many in a mobile army. In the north, the United States Christian Commission established portable lending libraries which contained both religious and secular books. The Christian Commission solicited donations for their libraries. One advertisement read, “GOOD READING MATERIAL — Send no trash. Soldiers deserve the best. A library is a valuable hygienic appliance. For the able-bodied, good publications are mental and spiritual food. For convalescents, lively, interesting books, the monthlies, the pictorials, works of art, science, literature, as well as those for moral and spiritual culture, such as you would put into the hand of a brother recovering.” There were no portable libraries available to confederate soldiers, but there were some permanent libraries established for the use of the soldiers stationed near the libraries. Two of the largest permanent libraries were in Lynchburg and Staunton, Virginia.

John Billings wrote in Hardtack and Coffee, “Reading was a pastime quite generally indulged in, and there was no novel so dull, trashy, or sensational as not to find some one so bored with nothing to do that he would wade through it. I, certainly, never read so many such before or since. The mind was hungry for something, and took husks when it could get nothing better. A great deal of good might have been done by the Christian Commission or some other organization planned to furnish the soldiers with good literature, for that way many might have acquired a taste for the best authors who would not have been likely to acquire it except under just such a condition as they were then in, viz.: a want of some entertaining pastime.”

Prisons had various policies for the availability of reading material for the prisoners. Point Lookout, Maryland has a fairly large lending library for the prisoners’ use but in the Johnson’s Island, Ohio prison, they were denied access to newspapers and even religious texts and hymnals were censored. Andersonville, Georgia allowed the prisoners to purchase newspapers from the guards but the prices were highly inflated. In Libby Prison, in Richmond, Virginia, the prisoners were allowed to purchase newspapers from newsboys and were allowed to receive reading material from the Christian Commission. Some prisoners were allow to borrow books from large private libraries in the area.

USING APPROPRIATE LITERATURE IN AN IMPRESSION

Now that one knows some of the books that are of the time period, the next hurdle is to find appropriate looking book. Purchasing an actual period edition book may prove expensive and it would be too fragile to take to a living history as well as looking too old for use. If one is portraying the 1860s, one would not want a book that looks like it is 150 years old. Viable alternatives are to purchase a modern book and rebind it so that it would look the age it would have been at the time, but it is not always easy to rebind a book. There are several series of classic literature that are bound to resemble the original binding and those are not very expensive. If one looks in used bookstores or large book sales, copies of appropriate titles that resemble period books may be found and used in a living history situation. Be sure to look for those books that were published before the use of the high acid paper of the 1920s. These older books are not usually expensive and solve most of the problems associated with finding correct looking items to use in living history.

There are some publishers that make reproduction books which are wonderful for living histories. The books are affordable, look similar to the books from the nineteenth century, and if a book is lost or damaged it is not the antique that is lost. Some sutlers also offer a selection of reproduction dime novels and give both the living historian and spectator a view of popular literature.

Reproduction newspapers are excellent items to include in a living history. They are inexpensive and, folded they are small enough to put in a pocket or haversack. Reproduction copies of Harper’s Weekly (see the website www.raggedsoldier.com; menu item “Books, 19^th Century Reproductions”) are being printed and are available either by single issue or by a yearly subscription. Some battlefield gift shops as well as have specific copies of area newspapers.

                                                               BIBLIOGRAPHY

Billings, John. Hard Tack and Coffee or the Unwritten Story of Army Life. Williamstown, MA: Corner House Publishers. 1987. (First published in 1887.)

Morgan, John. “Send No Trash: Books, Libraries and Reading During the Civil War.” Camp Chase Gazette. Marietta, OH: Camp Chase Publishing. July, 1992.

Mehaffey, Karen Rae. “ ‘Having A Good Read’: Books and the Mid-Victorians” Camp Chase Gazette. Marietta, OH: Camp Chase Publishing. August, 1991.

Mescher, Virginia. Historical Accounts: A Study of Store Ledgers from the Mid-Nineteenth with a Searchable Database. Burke, Virginia: Vintage Volumes. 2001.

Mott, Frank Luther. The Story of Best Sellers in the United States. New York: Bowker. 1947.

Mott, Frank Luther. A History of American Magazines 1850-1865. Vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1938.