Rachel Calder

Courses taught:

• Creative Writing and Publishing (Postgraduate)

Rachel has taught Publishing studies for many years not only at ARU but also at City University and UCL. She also teaches modules in the History of the Book at UCL and the Institute of English Studies and is a panel tutor for the Institute of Continuing Education at the University of Cambridge.

Background

Rachel runs one of the oldest literary agencies in the world, founded in 1896 by J. B. Pinker. This historical connection underpins her interest in the history of the book trade.

Rachel Calder has worked in the book trade for more than 30 years, mostly as a literary agent. She completed her Phd at UCL in 2021 with a thesis that analysed the nature and significance of the book trade publications of Joseph Whitaker (1820-1895). While still representing an active roster of writers, she also teaches creative writing students about how to get published and prepare their work for submission to agents.

Research interests

• The national and international publishing industry
• The history of the book and the book trades
• Ronald Searle’s publishing history 1946-2011
• J. B. Pinker and the early literary agents
• The book trades in Cambridge
• Nineteenth and twentieth century book trades

Areas of research supervision

Rachel is happy to supervise students whose proposed study falls broadly into her areas of research interest.

Teaching

Rachel currently teaches on the following modules:

• The Business of Publishing

Qualifications

• PhD UCL
• MA Open University
• BA University of Hull

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

• Fellow in Book History, Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London 2022-2025
• Convenor, London Rare Book School/ University of London course Bookshops and Booksellers: 500 Years of Bookselling 2023 - present
• Willison Foundation Trust Award for ‘Book Workers: Building a relational database of members of the Booksellers’ Provident Institution 1837-1900’, 2025

Selected recent publications

Calder, R. (forthcoming 2026). Joseph Whitaker, ‘Mechanic’ to the Book Trade. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Calder, R. (forthcoming 2025). ‘The Bookseller: The First Modern Trade Journal’, Victorian Periodicals Review, 55(1).

Calder, R. (2004). ‘Whitaker’s Almanack: The Most Comprehensive, the Cheapest, and the Best Almanack Ever Published in England’, Publishing History, 88.

Calder, R. (2022). ‘Higher than Snuff Dealers’: The Bookseller and the formation of trade identity’, Living Work for Living People. Work and the Nineteenth-Century Press, eds. Andrew King, Fiona Snailham, Elizabeth Tilley. London: Routledge.

Calder, R. (2020). ‘The Book Trade Press’, The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press 1800-1900, ed. David Finkelstein, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Calder, R. (2017). ‘Macmillan & Co in Cambridge 1843-1858: A Provincial Start-up in the Victorian Book Trade’, Publishing History, 77.