They learned of new publications in England from journals which were few in number and incomplete.

Doubtless advertising went by word of mouth.

The lists of things desired which Washington sent out to his agents, Robert Cary and Company, once a year or oftener, usually contained the titles of many books, chiefly on architecture, and he was especially intent on keeping up with new methods and experiments in farming.

Thus, among the orders in May, 1759, among a request for "Desert Glasses and Stand for Sweetmeats Jellies, etc.; 50 lbs.

Spirma Citi Candles; stockings etc.," he asks for "the newest and most approved Treatise of Agriculture--besides this, send me a Small piece in Octavo--called a New System of Agriculture, or a Speedy Way to Grow Rich; Longley's Book of Gardening; Gibson upon Horses, the latest Edition in Quarto." This same invoice contains directions for "the Busts--one of Alexander the Great, another of Charles XII, of Sweden, and a fourth of the King of Prussia (Frederick the Great); also of Prince Eugene and the Duke of Marlborough, but somewhat smaller." Do these celebrities represent Washington's heroes in 1759?
As time went on, his commissions for books were less restricted to agriculture, and comprised also works on history, biography, and government.
But although incessant activity devoted to various kinds of work was a characteristic of Washington's life at Mount Vernon, his attention to social duties and pleasures was hardly less important.