The Early British Book Trade (bibliography)

          Of the topics listed by Professor Burton, the workings of the book trade fascinated me. I had already blogged a little bit about how I thought that writing and publishing must have seriously influenced the economic processes of the day. My research ended up focusing on the effects of these things in early Britain. It was interesting to me to see how the sources I found all seemed to end up pointing toward the same general line of research. This was illuminated particularly when I found a book that listed one or two of my previous sources in its own bibliography. Another helpful insight I gained was the value of this kind of research. As a new kid on the researching scene, my previous experience has been limited to google searches. This project opened my eyes to the different tools at my disposal for research. So without further ado, here is my annotated bibliography.

Brenni, Vito J. Book Printing in Britain and America. Greenwood Press, 1983. This reference work contains twenty-one sections of bibliographies on various book-printing subjects. This was the first source I consulted, and it led me to find the Mumby book listed below. I found this book with the help of Professor Burton, and the Harold B. Lee library search function on their website.  

Mumby, Frank A. Publishing and Bookselling. J. Cape, 1934. Mumby discusses many aspects of the book trade, spanning a few hundred years. Particularly fascinating is the section on the beginnings of the book trade, which explores the first known bookselling, and the first evidence of an established book trade. This particular book is the “Further Revised Edition 1954”. Mumby is the first to really explore and write about a lot of these issues, and he is referenced in other works. 

This book’s location came up in a HBLL catalog search. I found this title in the reference book listed above. The row of shelves this book was on would provide other helpful sources.

Ferdinand, C. Y. Benjamin Collings and the Provincial Newspaper Trade in the Eighteenth Century. Clarendon Press. Oxford. 1997. Ferdinand uses the Salisbury Journal to illustrate the growing importance of newspaper publishing. He explores the economic side of the newpaper/writer/reader relationship, as well as the newspaper’s influence.

While scanning the shelf for the Mumby book, I stumbled upon this book and found it appropriate to my topic.

Snowdon, Ria. Sarah Hodgson and the Business of Print, 1800-1820. This was a paper presented at a Print Networks and Texts, Markets Conference held in 2008. Going in a slightly different direction, it deals with some of the emerging gender issues associated with the business of printing. This is very modern research, with less authority that some of the other sources might carry.
The summary of the article and the conference was published in the Quadrat a self described “periodical bulletin of research in progress on the history of the British book trade”. The full article was found in a book called Periodicals and Publishers in the HBLL.

Brown, Stephen. The Market for Murder and Edinburgh’s Eighteenth-Century Book Trade.  The author connects the relationship between the book and newspaper trade, a murder trial, and freedom of the press in Scotland. Explores the various impacts an economic force like printing can have.
This paper was also presented at the previously mentioned conference and briefly summarized in the Quadrat. The full paper was published in Periodicals and Publishers.

Catherine Armstrong (editor). Quadrat. British Book Trade Index, Summer 2011. This periodical is the resource I used earlier in my bibliography. The British Book Index uses this periodical to summarize findings and provide excellent resources to those interested in their subject material. It is a great place to head for the most current research on the subject of the early British book trade. 

Raven, James. The Business of Books, Booksellers and the English Book Trade. Yale University Press, 2007. This book is an absolute gold mine. My research started naturally focusing on Britain, as there seems to be a more coordinated research effort for this area. This book contains sections such as “investing in books” “boosting demand” and “promoting the wares”. This source would be core in any research of the economics of the book trade. [I remember seeing this title in one of my other resources. I couldn’t remember where though, so I searched for it on the HBLL website. I found the book a few shelves below where some of my others were.]

Out of curiosity, I checked the bibliography of this book and it referenced material from my first source, Publishing and Bookselling by Frank Mumby. This was exciting to realize that I had finally gotten to a place where the research was consistent and referential to other works I had found.