Dr. Spinke wrote a pamphlet in reply, and characteristically Curll wrote a reply to that and, to create a scandal, made the outlandish claim that Spinke was ignorant and offered five pounds if Spinke could come to Curll's shop and translate five lines of Latin.

In 1716, Curll again announced his intent to publish Matthew Prior's works, and Prior himself wrote letters of protest to the newspapers.

He wrote to Alexander Pope that dunces like Curll were tools for a satirist, that they were valuable in their way.

Pope wrote to Curll warning him not to publish the poems, which only confirmed for Curll the authorship.

While multiple sources confirm that Rochester was Barry's lover, the only source for the coaching story is a Life of Barry published in 1740 – 65 years after the events – by Edmund Curll, well known for his fanciful and inaccurate biographies.

The proceedings were printed in a volume of Miscellanies published by Edmund Curll in 1714.

Jacob Tonson had the sole rights to Prior's works, but Curll published anyway.

The quarrel with Tonson, and Prior's objections, only served as publicity, however, and Curll published the book anyway.

Pope published two pamphlet accounts of the incident and informed the public ( a la Swift's Bickerstaff Papers ) that Curll was dead.

In 1718, Curll published Eunuchism Display'd, and Daniel Defoe attacked it as pornography, calling it a " Curlicism.

Curll published an apology and promised to quit publishing, but the apology was an ad for two new titles.

While Curll was in prison, he met John Ker, who wished his memoirs published.

Pope and Curll tangled again in 1726, when he published some of Pope's letters without authorization.

In his last years Curll published a series of " Merryland " books which constitute a major contribution to the somewhat peculiar genre of English seventeenth and eighteenth century erotic fiction in which the female body ( and sometimes the male ) was described in terms of topographical metaphor.

Other works published by Curll include A New Description of Merryland.

* Elizabeth Barry ( an actress whose biography Curll published )

An early pioneer of the publication of erotic works in England was Edmund Curll ( 1675 – 1747 ) who published many of the Merryland books.

While in the King's Bench Prison he sold to Edmund Curll the bookseller, a fellow-prisoner who was serving a sentence of five months for publishing obscene books, the manuscript of ( or possibly only the materials on which were based ) the Memoirs of John Ker of Kersland, which Curll published in 1726 in three parts, the last of which appeared after Ker's death.

Edmund Curll, in an attempt to antagonize and siphon off money from Swift, published it in 1710 from a manuscript stolen from Swift ( which forced Swift to publish a corrected and authorized version that he also had to write from memory ), but the satire's origins lie in Swift's time at Moor Park, Surrey, when he acted as Secretary to William Temple.

All of these, however, were less vicious than the attack launched by Edmund Curll, a notoriously unscrupulous publisher, who produced his own pirate copy of the Dunciad with astounding swiftness, and also published ' The Popiad ' and a number of pamphlets attacking Pope.

( Curll had published numerous works by " Joseph Gay " to trick the public into thinking they were by John Gay.

Much of our knowledge about Delarivier Manley is rooted in her insertion of " Delia's story " in the New Atalantis ( 1709 ), and the Adventures of Rivella she published as the biography of the author of the Atalantis with Edmund Curll in 1714.

Edmund Curll ’ s arrest was not just an action directed against Curll the individual but also the types of books he usually published.

A report in The Whitehall Evening Post, claims that Lord Townshend was responsible for having Edmund Curll arrested in 1725 because he published " obscene Books and Pamphlets, tending to encourage Vice and Immorality ".

When Curll published Memoirs of John Ker, Townshend found enough reason to send him behind bars once again, and this time with plenty of legal reason.

It was published by the notorious English publisher Edmund Curll.

** Dean Swift's Literary Correspondence ( pirate publication by Edmund Curll, for which he was sued by Pope )

Swift was angry at Curll for revealing his authorship of the works ( as Swift was ascending in the Church of England ), but he was also amused at the dullness of Curll's explication of his works.

Another alleged case of unauthorized publication came with the poet Edward Young, who sent a poem to Curll for publication, with a letter of solicitation.

Curll seized upon the publicity for his own purposes, as well.

Also in that year, Curll was sent to jail for publishing an account of the trial of the Earl of Wintoun.

Curll suspected that Pope and his friends were somehow responsible for his treatment, and he began to employ the " phantom poet.

Curll became notorious for his indecent publications, so much so that " Curlicism " was regarded as a synonym for literary indecency.

The first conviction for obscenity in England occurred in 1727, when Edmund Curll was fined for the publication of Venus in the Cloister or The Nun in her Smock under the common law offence of disturbing the King's peace.

The conviction in 1727 of Edmund Curll for the publication of Venus in the Cloister or The Nun in her Smock under the common law offence of disturbing the King's peace was the first conviction for obscenity in Great Britain, and set a legal precedent for other convictions.

However, when Curll prays to Cloacina, Pope provides more motivation for her hearing his prayer:

Edmund Curll had met John Ker in jail — he was an old man with quite an adventurous history and conveniently enough for Curll, he had just finished writing his memoirs which was also quite libelous.

For issuing the first part of the Memoirs, which purported to make disclosures damaging to the government, but which Curll in self-justification described as vindicating the memory of Queen Anne, the publisher was sentenced to the pillory at Charing Cross ; and he added to the third part of the Memoirs the indictment on which he had been convicted.

Curll rose from poverty to wealth through his publishing, and he did this by approaching book printing in a mercenary and unscrupulous manner.

Curll kept publishing his Charitable Surgeon, however, and expanded it with A new method of curing, without internal medicines, that degree of the venereal disease, called a gonorrhea, or clap.

As with previous scandals, Curll attempted to turn it to profit by publishing The Humble Representation of Edmund Curll and rushing forward a new edition of Venus in the Cloister.