Goldsmith and Newbery

Abstract

In 1766 The Vicar of Wakefield was published by Francis Newbery, at the Crown, in Paternoster Row. There are probably few points of literary history of the last century more obscure and involved than the story of the writing, and sale of the copyright, of this book. Various and conflicting are the accounts which have been given of it, all of which — although they may have some common basis of truth — are much interlarded with conjecture. The story upon which most of them appear to have been founded is that which Boswell represents Johnson as telling….¹

A Bookseller of the Last Century. Being Some Account of the Life of John Newbery (London: Griffith et al., 1885) pp. 54, 55–7. Editor’s title.