These Haunts Obscure, a talk by Joe Crawford (History Section)

Full title ‘These Haunts Obscure’: Exeter as Regional Cultural Centre in the Long Eighteenth Century.

A talk by Dr Joe Crawford of Exeter University.

In the eighteenth century, Exeter was the main centre of the print trade in the South West of England. Aspiring authors who hoped to make a living by writing usually travelled to London, but South-Western doctors, gentry, printers, and clergymen with literary interests often sent their works to be printed at Exeter, instead: consequently, a survey of the works printed by the Exeter presses provides a valuable insight into the regional literary culture of Devon and Cornwall during this period.

In this talk Dr Crawford will discuss the literature of the eighteenth-century South West, introduce some of the now-forgotten poets whose works were published by Exeter’s early printers, and explore the connections between this regional literary culture and the subsequent development of British Romanticism, whose key ideas were established by the Devonshire poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge during his stay with William Wordsworth in the Quantock Hills.

Booking essential: DA members £3, non-members £5