ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the emergence of a profession of journalism and its intersection with an embryonic profession of authorship in the nineteenth century. It records aspects of the debate on why literature should be regarded as a profession from the 1830s through to the end of the century and raises the question as to whether writers should receive state or charitable support. The book records the gradual process by which newspaper writing was acknowledged to be serious, responsible and an appropriate occupation for literary men. It focuses on the larger questions raised by the growth of newspapers, the role of the press as a ‘Fourth Estate’, more representative of and responsive to the people, it was alleged, than the Third Estate, the House of Commons.
