Out of Print and into Profit
A History of the Rare and Secondhand Book Trade in Britain in the 20th Century
Published on 21. August 2006
Book
Hardback
432 pages
978-0-7123-4920-8 (ISBN)
Description
Published to mark the centenary of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association, this is the first book to map out the history of the rare book trade in the twentieth century - the end of this period broadly coinciding with the end of an era in traditional bookselling and the arrival of the Internet. Twenty contributors describe and explain the ways in which booksellers acquired their stock and sold books to customers, bringing to life the personalities in this most individualistic of trades; and offer many insights into changes in taste and fashion in book collecting, during what was also a formative period for many of the world's most important research libraries, especially in North America. Bibliographical scholars write alongside well-known experts from the book trade itself, drawing on a wide range of sources, including unpublished archives, marked sets of catalogues and the memoirs (published and unpublished) of members of the antiquarian book trade itself.
The book will appeal to historians of the book, and of twentieth-century cultural and intellectual life, as well as to everyone interested in the world of buying and selling rare books, either as booksellers themselves or as readers and collectors.
The book will appeal to historians of the book, and of twentieth-century cultural and intellectual life, as well as to everyone interested in the world of buying and selling rare books, either as booksellers themselves or as readers and collectors.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
British Library Publishing
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
55 b/w illustrations
ISBN-13
978-0-7123-4920-8 (9780712349208)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Content
List of Illustrations, ix; List of contributors, xiii; Introduction, xv; I. BUYING: HOW THE TRADE ACQUIRED ITS STOCK; FRANK HERRMANN The Role of the Auction Houses, 3; RICHARD FORD Private Buying, 35; BARRY SHAW Book Trade Weeklies, 53; II. SELLING: HOW THE TRADE SOLD ITS BOOKS; PAUL MINET A Century of Innovation in Selling Books, 63; MICHAEL HARRIS The London Street Trade, 75; PHILLIPPA BERNARD The Bookshops of London, 90; ELIZABETH STRONG Town and Country Bookshops in Scotland and Northern Ireland, 97; PAUL MINET West Country Bookshops in the 1960s: A Memoir, 115; H.R.WOUDHUYSEN Catalogues, 123; ANTHONY HOBSON The Phillipps Sales, 157; CHRIS KOLLER Making Collections, 165; MICHELE KOHLER The British Trade and Institutional Libraries, 177; DAVID CHAMBERS Dealers and the Specialist Collector, 185; ROBERT S. PIRIE Reminiscences of a Book Buyer, 192; III. CREATING FASHIONS AND CHANGING TASTE; DAVID PEARSON Patterns of Collecting and Trading in Antiquarian Books, 201; ANTHONY JAMES WEST The Market Fortunes of the First Folio, 215; ANGUS O'NEILL Patterns of Collecting and Trading in Modern' Literature, 221; PAUL MINET A Short Look at ABMR, 238; IV. PERSONALITIES: A TRADE OF INDIVIDUALISTS; ARNOLD HUNT Foreign Dealers in the English Trade, 245; A.S.G. EDWARDS The Antiquarian Book Trade and the World of Scholarship, 269; MARC VAULBERT DE CHANTILLY Booksellers' Memoirs: The Truth about the Trade?, 281; ANTHONY ROTA Defending and Regulating the Trade: A Hundred Years of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association, 309; APPENDICES; 1. Prices and ExchangeRates, 333; 2. A Note on the Dating of Catalogues, 336; 3. Founder-Members of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association, 337; 4. Twentieth-Century Rare and Secondhand Book Trade Archives: A Survey, 341; 5. Twentieth-Century Rare and Secondhand Book Trade Memoirs: A Checklist of Published Sources, 351; References, 367; General Index, 401; Index of Books, 406; Index of Booksellers, 409.