Chap Book

a rudely gotten up tract or pamphlet, such as was formerly sold by a chapman or peddler. The term chap, or cheap, originally meant a market, or fair. A chapman was one who sold articles at a public market, or cheap. Cheap wares were such inexpensive articles as were vended at the cheap. A chap book, therefore, is a market book, such as a market man might find suitable for rustic trade on a fair day. These chap books were at one time the only popular literature. They were printed in broad-faced, black type, adorned with a few rude woodcuts. They were printed on a single sheet of the coarsest paper and folded into twenty-four pages. They covered a vast range of subjects, including religious tracts, the lives of heroes and martyrs, dreams, fortune telling, almanacs of the weather, stories of giants, ghosts, hobgoblins, witches, notable events in history, ballads, and songs. They sold usually for a penny. They went out of fashion over a century ago. Being unbound they have become very scarce. They now command a large price as rarities. See Books; Printing