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Apamphlet is an unboundbook (that is, without ahard cover orbinding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet ofpaper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called aleaflet or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half andsaddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book.
In the "International Standardization of Statistics Relating to Book Production and Periodicals",UNESCO defines a pamphlet as "a non-periodical printed publication of 5 to 48 pages, excluding covers, published in a specific country and available to the public," while abook is "a non-periodical printed publication of at least 49 pages, excluding covers." These definitions are intended solely for UNESCO's book production statistics.[1]
The wordpamphlet for a small work (opuscule) issued by itself without covers came intoMiddle Englishc. 1387 aspamphilet orpanflet, generalized from a twelfth-centuryamatory comic poem with a satiric flavor,Pamphilus, seu de Amore ('Pamphilus: or, Concerning Love'), written inLatin.[2][3] Pamphilus's name is derived from theGreek nameΠάμφιλος, meaning "beloved of all".[4] The poem was popular and widely copied and circulated on its own, forming a slimcodex.
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The earliest appearance of the word is inThe Philobiblon (1344; ch. viii) ofRichard de Bury, who speaks of "panfletos exiguos" {'little pamphlets'}.[5]
Its modern connotations of atract concerning a contemporary issue was a product of the heated arguments leading to theEnglish Civil War; this sense appeared in 1642.[3] In some European languages, this secondary connotation, of a disputatious tract, has come to the fore: comparelibelle, from the Latinlibellus, denoting a "little book".[a]
Pamphlets functioned in place ofmagazine articles in the pre-magazine era, which ended in the mid-nineteenth century. There were hundreds of them in the United States alone. They were a primary means of communication for people interested in political and religious issues,such as slavery. Pamphlets never looked at both sides of a question; most were avowedlypartisan, trying not just to inform but to convince the reader.
Pamphlets can contain anything from information on kitchen appliances tomedical information and religious treatises. Pamphlets are very important inmarketing because they are cheap to produce and can be distributed easily to customers. Pamphlets have also long been an important tool ofpoliticalprotest andpolitical campaigning for similar reasons.
Apamphleteer is a historical term for someone who produces or distributes pamphlets, especially for a political cause.
Due to theirephemeral nature and to the wide array of political and religious perspectives given voice by the format's ease of production, pamphlets are prized by manybook collectors. Substantial accumulations have been amassed and transferred to ownership of academicresearch libraries around the world.
Particularly comprehensive collections of American political pamphlets are housed atNew York Public Library, theTamiment Library ofNew York University, and theJo Labadie collection at theUniversity of Michigan.[7]
The pamphlet has been widely adopted in commerce, particularly as a format formarketing communications. There are numerous purposes for pamphlets, such as product descriptions or instructions, corporate information, events promotions or tourism guides and they are often used in the same way as leaflets or brochures.
