Dedication (publishing)

A typical writer dedicated "their book to a high standing personality – to Fürsts or bishops – or to a city and tried to gain some money through this practice".

Byron wrote a mocking 17-verse dedication to his epic poem Don Juan in which he savagely pilloried Southey as a dull, reactionary "warbler" who had abandoned his political principles for favor and financial reward.

Whereas many Elizabethan dedications were erudite and witty, some modern authors have abandoned literary pretense, sometimes using profanity to shock or amuse their audiences.

Author Toni Morrison dedicated Beloved, her 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a fugitive slave who killed her own daughter, to "Sixty Million and more.

[6] Today, book dedications tend to be short, often thanking partners, family, friends or muses, in the form of a personal note.