Ann Lemoine

Ann Lemoine (born Ann Swires, fl. 1786 – 1820) was a British chapbook bookseller and publisher who specialized in Gothic Blue Books. She innovated the marketing and distribution of short Gothic tales. Her works were found in prominent circulating libraries. On 8 January 1786,[1] she married Henry Lemoine at St Luke Old Street. Lemoine was an author, pedestrian bookseller, and chapbooker. They had two children. By 1794, the Lemoines encountered financial troubles in their business, which led to the husband's imprisonment. She separated from Henry who was shortly reduced to selling books without an office although he went on to write several non-fiction works.[2] Meanwhile, Ann had begun publishing chapbooks on her own in 1795.[3] By 1798, Lemoine established her own business as a London publisher,[4] publishing more than 400 chapbooks between 1795 and 1820, some of which she may have written.[5]

References

1. "Literary Mushrooms: The Gothic Bluebook". The History of Gothic Publishing, 1800-1835: Exhuming the Trade. Archived from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
2. Goldthorpe, David (2004). "Lemoine, Henry (1756–1812), author and bookseller". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16430. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
3. Bearden-White 2007, p. 32.
4. Potter, Franz J. (2013). "Lemoine, Ann". In William Hughes; David Punter; Andrew Smith (eds.). The Encyclopedia of the Gothic. Wiley Blackwell. doi:10.1002/9781118398500.wbeotgl004. ISBN 9781118398500.
5. Bearden-White 2007, p. 33.

Bibliography

• Bearden-White, Roy (2007). How the Wind Sits; Or, The History of Henry and Ann Lemoine, Chapbook Writers and Publishers of the Late Eighteenth Century. ISBN 978-0-549-37869-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)