Chambers Miscellany of Useful & Entertaining Tracts

Chambers Miscellany of Useful & Entertaining Tracts 1st Edition – Vols 13 & 14, Edinburgh 1846 £25 . "Entertaining tracts" combined moral, educational, and leisure reading into cheap, bite-sized publications, . In the 19th century, a tract was a short, cheap booklet. Before the Chambers brothers, tracts were almost exclusively religious or political pamphlets designed to convert or reform people. They were notoriously dry, grim, and preachy. . William and Robert Chambers wanted to hijack this popular, cheap format but fill it with "entertaining" content. . Our favorites are the ‘Shoemaker’s anecdotes'!. .