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chapbook

/ˈtʃæpˌbʊk/
IPA guide

Other forms: chapbooks

An inexpensive literary booklet or pamphlet, often bound with hand stitching, is called a chapbook. If you want to share your poetry, you should make some chapbooks and pass them out to your friends.

Chapbook was coined in the early 1800s from chap, short for chapman, a peddler who sold wares including chapbooks. Before the mid-19th century, they were wildly popular, especially with people who couldn't afford books. Religious tracts, folk tales, children's stories, almanacs, and many other types of literature were published as chapbooks. Poetry chapbooks, printed on stitched or folded sheets of paper, saw a resurgence in the 20th century that continues today.

Definitions of chapbook
  1. noun
    a small pamphlet containing ballads, poems, tales, or tracts
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