The following appeared in the _Athenæum_, 27th Jan., 1849. “The new
business in bookselling which the farming of the line of the
North-Western Railway by Mr. Smith, of the Strand, is likely to open up,
engages a good deal of attention in literary circles. This new shop for
books will, it is thought, seriously injure many of the country
booksellers, and remove at the same time a portion of the business
transacted by London tradesmen. For instance, a country gentleman
wishing to purchase a new book will give his order, not as heretofore, to
the Lintot or Tonson of his particular district, but to the agent of the
bookseller on the line of railway—the party most directly in his way.
Instead of waiting, as he was accustomed to do, till the bookseller of
his village or of the nearest town, can get his usual monthly parcel down
from his agent ‘in the Row’—he will find his book at the locomotive
library, and so be enabled to read the last new novel before it is a
little flat or the last new history in the same edition as the resident
in London. A London gentleman hurrying from town with little time to
spare will buy the book he wants at the railway station where he takes
his ticket—or perhaps at the next, or third, or fourth, or at the last
station (just as the fancy takes him) on his journey. It is quite
possible to conceive such a final extension of this principle that the
retail trade in books may end in a great monopoly:—nay, instead of seeing
the _imprimatur_ of the Row or of Albermarle Street upon a book, the
great recommendation hereafter may be ‘Euston Square,’ ‘Paddington,’ ‘The
Nine Elms,’ or even ‘Shoreditch.’ Whatever may be the effect to the
present race of booksellers of this change in their business—it is
probable that this new mart for books will raise the profits of authors.
How many hours are wasted at railway stations by people well to do in the
world, with a taste for books but no time to read advertisements or to
drop in at a bookseller’s to see what is new. Already it is found that
the sale at these places is not confined to cheap or even ephemeral
publications;—that it is not the novel or light work alone that is asked
for and bought.
“The prophecy of progress contained in the above paragraph has been
fulfilled so far as the North-Western and Mr. Smith are concerned. His
example, however, was not infectious for other lines; and till within the
last three months, when the Great Northern copied the good precedent, and
entered into a contract with Mr. Smith and his son, the greenest
literature in dress and in digestion was all that was offered to the
wants of travellers by the directors of the South-Western, the Great
Western, and other trunk and branch lines with which England is
intersected. A traveller in the eastern, western, and southern counties
who does not bring his book with him can satisfy his love of reading only
by the commonest and cheapest trash—for the pretences to the appearance
of a bookseller’s shop made at Waterloo, at Shoreditch, at Paddington,
and at London Bridge, are something ridiculous. This should not be. It
shows little for the public spirit of the directors of our railways that
such a system should remain. Mr. Smith has, we believe, as many as
thirty-five shops at railway stations, extending from London to
Liverpool, Chester and Edinburgh. His great stations are at Euston
Square, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. He has a
rolling stock of books valued at £10,000. We call his stock rolling,
because he moves his wares with the inclinations of his readers. If he
finds a religious feeling on the rise at Bangor, he withdraws Dickens and
sends down Henry of Exeter or Mr. Bennett; if a love for lighter reading
is on the increase at Rugby, he withdraws Hallam and sends down Thackeray
and Jerrold. He never undersells and he gives no credit. His business
is a ready-money one, and he finds it his interest to maintain the
dignity of literature by resolutely refusing to admit pernicious
publications among his stock. He can well afford to pay the heavy fee he
does for his privilege; for his novel speculation has been a decided
hit—of solid advantage to himself and of permanent utility to the
public.”
—_Athanæum_, Sept. 5, 1851.