Book Peddlers
During the 18th and early 19th centuries, book peddlers were quite common in the US and around the world. They weren’t just book sellers, but they would often travel with their books and sell them from door to door. Book peddlers were treated differently than other hawkers, who were usually frowned upon.
Book peddlers would offer “samples” of the books: a sort of a teaser or an advertisement of the books – which contained a table of contents, some illustrations and a bit of text, in order to sell their books. While the occupation of book peddlers is obsolete by now, we’re still familiar with salesman selling goods from door to door.