Page:Plomer Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers 1907.djvu/14

viii in this dictionary, with the single exception of John Ogilby—who has been included for the excellence of his work—were publishers in the sense in which we understand the term now. Every publisher is a bookseller in so far that he sells the books he publishes, but some publishers, Longmans and Methuen for example, are not booksellers in the sense of selling all kinds of books. On the other hand, Hatchards, of Piccadilly, and others that could be named, are not only retail booksellers in a large way of business, but they are also publishers. Such I conceive Herringman and Moseley are to be considered. Others again, such as Cornelius Bee and Samuel Thompson, visited the chief marts abroad, and bought largely on commission, and though they held shares in all the most important literary ventures of their day, and their names appear in the imprints, they are to be considered rather as retail booksellers than publishers.

I have not inserted any initials in this book. In the first place it must be remembered that during this period, when the censorship of the press was severe, printers and booksellers often contented themselves with placing their initials in the imprints, and almost every name that figures in this volume might have been duplicated amongst the initials, thus swelling the volume to an inordinate size, without any corresponding advantage to the student. Identification of such initials as, say, "T. B.," which may apply to half a dozen different men, must be largely guesswork, unless based on a special study of the work in which they occur.

There are no doubt many shortcomings in this book. Names may have been omitted that ought to be here, and the information is in many cases meagre. But I trust the reader will accept it as "spade" work in a field which has hitherto been almost totally neglected, and as a foundation upon which in time to come another builder will erect a more lasting edifice.