Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/342

* BOOKSELLING. 302 BOOKSELLING. tlip Associated Booksejlers of Great Britain ^1874). the I.ondon Foreign Booksellers' Asso- ciation ( 18)15), and the Publishers' Association (ISOG). Stationers' Hall, in London, is the headquarters of the business, and the Publishers' Circular and the Bookseller are its recognized organs. The English Ciitiiluguc has, since 1835, furnished an annual list of all books published in the United Kingdom. The principal French association is the Cercle de la Librairie, uhose organ is the Bibliogruphie de la France (1811). Italy has its Associazione Tipografico-libraria Italiana, publishing the liihliografia Itiiliana. The English book trade was finally released from the earlier restrictions in 1738, and began to develop rapidly. A nundjcr of Eighteenth Cen- tury booksellers have left behind them a repu- tation for literary as well as business ability. Michael Johnson ( 1656-1731), father of the great lexicographer, used to travel from town to town with a stock of books which he sold at auction. Andrew Millar (1707-68) was the publisher of Thomson and Fielding, and had a large share in Johnson's Dictionary. Dibdin calls Thomas Osborne (11. 1738-67) "the most celebrated book- seller of his day." Some idea of the profits of the business in this period may be gained from the statement which in his old age he used to make with pride, that he had been in business more than forty years and was worth more than £40,000. That these profits were not always easily made, is recalled by the story of Osborne's being knocked down by Dr. Johnson with a folio Bihlia Grcccd tfeptuaginta (Frankfort. 1594). His name ajjpears on a number of title-pages as a sbai'eholder with several other publishers, according to the sociable custom of those days, which gradually died out as the spirit of com- petition gained ground. A late analogy to this method may be found in the history of the 'Friends of Literature,' an association of book- sellers which existed from 1805 to 1811, and during that time published a number of large editions, which were for the most part divided among the members, though sometimes other booksellers were allowed to hold .shares in these undertakings. Bernard Lintot ( 1674-1735), the publisher of Pope's Homer, and Robert Dodsley (q.v., 1703-04), with his brother James (1724- 97), are also conspicuous figures in this era. The novelist Richardson (q.v.), as a printer, and in 1754 master of the Stationers' Company, has a place here. Charles Eivington (1688-1742) founded the famous house to which he left his name, and gave it the somewhat theological character which it long retained. (See also Kivi.MiXON, J.vME.s, and consult Rivington, The Publishing House of Rivington, London, 1804.) Thomas Longman (see Longmans) founded an- other business, which, like that of the Elzevirs and Stephani, was continued from generation to generation ; and a third dynasty was begun by John Murray (q.v., 1778-1843). The gieat uni- versity presses, the Clarendon (q.v.) at Oxford, and the Pitt at Cambridge, liave published a vast number of books, largely classical texts, in a uniformly scholarly manner. There is some controversy as to the placing of the honor of producing the first book pub- lished on the. ierican Continent. It is asserted that a printer subsidized by Mendoza printed the Spiritual Ladder of Saint John Climacus in Mex- ico, in 1532; but a counterclaim is put in for another Mexican publication of seven years later, a t'unipfiidiuui of Christian Doctrine in S])anish. A hundred years after the publication of this latter work, we come to the beginning of print- ing in the English colonies in America. In 1639 Stephen Daye printed the Freeman's Oath and an Almanack at Cambridge, Mass.; and in the fol- lowing year appeared the famous Bay Psalm-Book (q.v.), which is now worth more than its weight in gold. This Cambridge Press turned out one book a year for the next twenty-one years. Apart from these origins, the history of publishing and bookselling in America may be divided into four periods: (a) the Colonial period; (b) from the Revolution to 1820; (e) from 1820 to 1860; (d) from I860 to the present time. The selling of books, mostly imported, was usually combined with that of other wares; thus Benedict Arnold sold books and drugs. The early publishers were all primarily jirinters. and book-publishing was merely an incident in their business. Most of them pul>lished newspapers; a thorough account of their work is given in Xorth, Eistorij and Present Condition of the 'Newspaper and Periodi- cal Press of the Vnited States, a part of the re- port of the Tenth Census (Washington. 1884). The second period was the real beginning of the American publishing business in any modern sense. The first book-trade organization was ef- fected through the efl'orts of Mathew Carey. The principal object was to introduce annual gatherings similar to the Leipzig book-fairs. Several such meetings were hidd, the last one in Elizabethport, N. .J., this place being selected for the meeting on account of its central position in the inadequate traveling facilities of the time. These book-fairs were succeeded by the 'trade sale,' held twice a year, first in Philadelphia and later in New York: the heads of pub- lishing houses themselves stood on the plat- form and sold their books only to members of the trade. The system decayed when ])eo- jde who were not legitimate booksellers gained admission, and indulged in reckless underselling and speculation. A final attempt to go back to the 'book-fair' arrangement was made in 1877, but it was too late, and the system iiuietly died out in the eighties. Throughout the second peri- od, whose production Sydney Smith characterized in his famous question, "Who reads an Ameri- can book?" the greater part of the business done in the I'nited States consisted in the imjiortation of English liooks; and in the third, probably more than half the titles comprised in the .meri- ean catalogues were the works of English au- thors, reprinted usually (in spite of honorable exce])tions) without compensation. This period, however, was really the golden age of American jjublishing, and witnessed the foundation of a number of the famous houses. The following dates may be given for the foundation of some of the more famous: Methodist Book Concern. 1789; Harper & Brothers. 1817; D. Ajjpleton & Co., IS25: J. B. Lippincolt & Co., 1835; G. P. Put- nam's Sons. 1836; Little, Brown & Co., 1837; Dodd, Me:id & Co., 1839; Charles Scribner's Sons, 1846. Stereotyping was introduced into the LTnit- ed States in" 1813. and lithography in 1819. These mechanical imiirovcnii'iits. together with the gradual develoi)ment of transportation facili- ties, gave a great impetus to the American book