The study of Jonathan Swift's works has most often focused on print publication, with less scholarly attention devoted to manuscript circulation. Based on extensive research into the manuscript versions of Swift's poetry, Stephen Karian's analysis breaks new ground in suggesting new ways of interpreting the different choices Swift made to circulate his texts in either print or manuscript form. He explains Swift's relationships with his publishers in England and Ireland; the ways in which his writings circulated in hand-written form; and the effect that political censorship had on the manner in which his most outspoken political poems were published. Working at the intersection of book history, bibliography, and textual and literary criticism, this book will open up new areas of study for Swift scholars, as well as developing an important methodology for the study of the distribution and reception of literary texts in the eighteenth century. 'Karian's welcome study is the first to pay serious attention to the complex origins and transmission of Swift's texts … Karian's study is learned and meticulous …' Eighteenth-Century Studies 'Not least among the merits of this perceptive and engaging study is the clarity with which Stephen Karian's opening sentences outline the subject and argument of his work: 'This book explores the uses of print and manuscript throughout Jonathan Swift's career. Its central premise is that our understanding of Swift as an author is incomplete without attending to both print publication and manuscript circulation as well as to their complex intersection' … Karian's book does not disappoint …' The Library An important study of how Swift's texts were circulated, and the different meanings of print and manuscript in his career. Stephen Karian is Assistant Professor of English at Marquette University.