chapbook

American  

[chap-book] / ˈtʃæpˌbʊk /

noun

1. a small book or pamphlet of popular tales, ballads, etc., formerly hawked about by chapmen.

2. a small book or pamphlet, often of poetry.

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chapbook British  

/ ˈtʃæpˌbʊk /

noun

1. a book of popular ballads, stories, etc, formerly sold by chapmen or pedlars

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Etymology

Origin of chapbook

1790–1800; chap (as in chapman ) + book

Explanation

An inexpensive literary booklet or pamphlet, often bound with hand stitching, is called a chapbook. If you want to share your poetry, you should make some chapbooks and pass them out to your friends. Chapbook was coined in the early 1800s from chap, short for chapman, a peddler who sold wares including chapbooks. Before the mid-19th century, they were wildly popular, especially with people who couldn't afford books. Religious tracts, folk tales, children's stories, almanacs, and many other types of literature were published as chapbooks. Poetry chapbooks, printed on stitched or folded sheets of paper, saw a resurgence in the 20th century that continues today.

Example Sentences

Winners of the Chapbook Program have been chosen and introduced by distinguished poets such as John Ashbery and Eavan Boland.

From New York Times • Nov. 6, 2018

Studies and Reviews Chapbook, 1-2, May, 1920: 28.Poetry,

From Contemporary American Literature Bibliographies and Study Outlines by Manly, John Matthews

Eliot deals more kindly, if more frigidly, with us in the Monthly Chapbook.

From Aspects of Literature by Murry, J. Middleton

Yet though this interesting number of the Chapbook said much that I could agree with at once, it left me as isolated and as helpless as before.

From Waiting for Daylight by Tomlinson, H. M. (Henry Major)

The result was a flight of small leaflet periodicals, quite like the Chapbook Renaissance of Eighteen Hundred Ninety-five and Eighteen Hundred Ninety-six, when over eleven hundred "brownie" and "chipmunk" magazines were started in America.

From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 05 Little Journeys to the Homes of English Authors by Hubbard, Elbert