ABSTRACT
The market for popularized accounts of Isaac Newton's natural philosophy was a highly competitive one. With several books and lecture series all vying for the same consumer pounds, rivalries and outright antagonism were a certainty. One conflict began in late 1719 when the public lecturer and author John Theophilus Desaguliers and two booksellers, William Mears and John Woodward, produced editions of the same Newtonian textbook. Even William Whiston, whose steadfast Arianism had left him persona non grata within the college walls at Cambridge, could have his name used to sell books, as happened in the Daily Journal in March 1721. Natural philosophical circles were not the only places where Desaguliers's book received notice. In addition to working for the Royal Society, Desaguliers established himself as one of the pre-eminent public experimental lecturers in London. Modern advertising theory has addressed such concerns. For example, Marcel Danesi argues that Brand image is the creation of a 'personality' for the product.
