Wright, LauraLangmuir, Christopher2020-07-022020-07-022019Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 54 (2019), pp. 157-1770081-6272http://hdl.handle.net/10593/25661In this paper we consider a much-quoted phrase published by the essayist Charles Lamb (1775–1834) in the London Magazine in 1822 about a desirable quality in books: that they should be ‘strong-backed and neat-bound’. We identify meanings of modifier neat as evidenced by different communities of practice in early nineteenth-century newspapers, and in particular we present meanings of neat as used in certain Quaker writings known to have been read with approval by Lamb. By this method we assemble a series of nuanced meanings that the phrase neat-bound would have conveyed to contemporary readers – specifically, the readership of the London Magazine.enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesscollocatescommunities of practicesocial networksleather-workersaccountantsQuakersArtykułhttps://doi.org/10.2478/stap-2019-0008