chapbook

OAB Definition

small booklet, usually used to privately publish small editions of original content, often poetry.

Chapbooks were originally folded down broadsheets. They got their name from chapmen, whose name was derived from the cheap goods they sold. The content of chapbooks varied greatly from folktales drawn from oral storytelling traditions, to cookbooks, to instructions for magic and fortune telling. Both chapbooks and pamphlets were short, inexpensively produced booklets, though pamphlets tended to be about current events and politics and were often used to sway political opinion.

In modern usage the distinction is clearer. Pamphlet usually refers to a physical form (single section, stitched or stapled through the fold), while chapbook usually refers to formal or informal publishing in short form. Modern chapbook productions are not necessarily cheap, and may be quite involved and costly.

ABT Definition

Small paper booklet usually made from a single sheet.

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