The Street Philosopher
Page 48
The massive amount of contemporary literature generated by the Art Treasures Exhibition served as the foundation for the Manchester sections. This included the lengthy coverage provided by the Times, the Art Journal and the Illustrated London News; the enormous catalogue; the Art Treasures Examiner, the official magazine of the Exhibition published throughout its run; and the plethora of unofficial, slightly domineering guidebooks with titles like What to See and Where to See it. Especially informative were Cornish’s Stranger’s Guide through Manchester and Salford and The Visitor’s Guide to Six Days in Manchester–general guides to the city produced to coincide with the Exhibition which provided a detailed and fascinating counterpoint to the famously grim portrait of mid-nineteenth century Manchester found in Friedrich Engels’ The Condition of the Working Class in England.
Two modern histories were particularly helpful: The Public Culture of the Victorian Middle Class: Ritual and Authority in the English Industrial City 1840–1914 by Simon Gunn, which introduced me to the concept of street philosophy, and Martin Hewitt’s exhaustive study The Emergence of Stability in the Industrial City: Manchester 1832–67.
Thanks are due to my agent, Euan Thorneycroft, without whom it simply wouldn’t have happened, and all at AM Heath; my editor, Susan Watt, whose guidance and incisive comments were instrumental in shaping the novel, and the team at HarperCollins; Emma Logan and Lorna Plampin, who waded through the first draft and offered early encouragement; Katie Espiner and Joy Chamberlain, for help and criticism in the initial stages; James Middleton, for those articles on the Crimea; the staff of the British Library and National Art Library; my mother and brother, for their unwavering support; and SLH, the best, always.
About the Author
The Street Philosopher
Matthew Plampin was born in 1975 and grew up in Essex. He read English and History of Art at the University of Birmingham and then completed a PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. He now lectures on nineteenth-century art and architecture. This is his first novel.
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First Published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2009
Copyright © Matthew Plampin
MAP © John Gilkes, 2008
Matthew Plampin asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2009 ISBN: 9780007310043
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