Chapbook

A chapbook is an item of popular literature, as would have formed part of the stock of a chapman, peddler, or other itinerant trader. The term itself was coined by bibliophiles of the nineteenth century, and includes many kinds of printed material, such as ballad sheets, pamphlets, political and religious tracts, nursery rhymes, folk tales, and children's literature.

By their nature these tended to be cheaply produced ephemera, often flimsy and badly printed. They are now valued as a record of popular culture, preserving cultural artifacts that may not survive in any other form. Many early collectors, such as Peter Opie, collected chapbooks for essentially scholarly purposes; political pamphlets were probably sought after first, by historians.

Chapbook is also a term currently used to denote low-cost hard copy production, particularly of poetry.