More acclaim for Catherine Golden's 'Posting It'

Catherine J. Golden, professor of English at Skidmore College, has received more acclaim forPosting It: The Victorian Revolution in Letter Writing (University Press of Florida, 2009), her chronicle of the impact of the launch of the Penny Post in the mid-1800s. 

The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP), a group of more than 1,000 historians in 20 countries, announced at its recent annual meeting in Helsinki that Golden received its George A. and Jean S. DeLong Book History Book Prize. The prize --  accompanied by a $1000 check - is awarded for the best book on  - any aspect of the creation, dissemination, or uses of script or print.  (For a list of prior winners, click here.) 

The SHARP prize committee praised Posting It - which sold out its initial print run and is now available in paperback -- for providing a - window into the burgeoning material culture of Victorian life, from the humblest family who could finally afford to receive mail as postage was prepaid, to the well-off who purchased and used the paraphernalia of letter writing: the desk, the inkwell, the letter holder and opener, the pen sharpener and the other items on postal stand at the Great Exhibition of 1851. . . . Posting It never fails to engage the reader with new evidence and relates it directly to the literary texts of the period.? 

The Smithsonian National Postal Museum hosted a well-attended lecture by Golden last January and has invited her to be a regular contributor to its blog. She continues to explore a wide range of subjects related to Victorian letter-writing, publishing in recent months on such subjects as Rowland Hill, the founder of the Penny Post; Victorian postal products; and 19th-century Valentine's Day cards.