Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/184

150 iSo CONSTABLE, CADELL, AND BLACK. his Copyright Bill, which, though it contained much that was good, was ultimately thrown out. Upon completion of the seventh edition, a number of cheap reprints were issued of the most famous articles of the " Encyclopaedia," and met with a very favourable reception. We have seen that in 1851 the Messrs. Black, in conjunction with Messrs. Richardson Brothers, became possessed of the Waverley Novels. Ultimately, the Messrs. Black purchased, it is said, the Messrs. Richard- sons' share, and are now believed to be the sole proprie* tors of Sir Walter Scott's works. In the management of this property Mr. Adam Black exhibited the same rare sagacity, and reaped the same successful reward as in the former important work. In the middle of 1852, he 'announced that 120,000 complete sets of the Waverley Novels had been sold in this country alone since their first publication ; and in 1858 an ingenious mathematician computed that the weight of the paper used for them was upwards of 3500 tons. Among the most important editions issued by Messrs. Black we may instance the following : s. d. A Re-issue of the " Cabinet Edition " 1111853-54 at 3 15 o 1860 3 10 o The "People's Edition" in 5 vols. ,,1855 2 20 " Railway Edition " in 25 vols. ,,1858-601 I 17 6 New Illustrated Edition in 48 vols. founded on Author's Favourite" ,, 1859-61 10 13 O " Shilling Edition " in 25 vols. ,,1862-63 150 At our present writing a beautiful new edition, the " Centenary," is being published. The moment that the copyrights of the earlier novels expired the market was flooded with cheap