the official _Bulletin_ distributed to booksellers, librarians, and
other professional buyers, and the unofficial _Periodical_ addressed
to amateurs. Number 1 of the _Bulletin_ (4 April 1912) consisted of a
single page; but the desire for more information was widely expressed,
and a recent number contains in eight pages a classified list of books
published during four weeks, with bibliographical and other particulars,
a statement of the various catalogues obtainable on application, extracts
from reviews, and a list of books which have gone out of print since
the current issue of the catalogue. This list is designed to protect
booksellers and the public against the assumption, too frequently made,
that any and every book is ‘out of print’ which cannot be produced at
a moment’s notice. The public are asked not to believe too easily that
books are unobtainable. A provincial bookseller (in a University town)
recently declared himself ‘unable to trace’ an Oxford book, published in
1920, reviewed at length by the leading literary papers, and advertised
nearly every other week in the _Times Literary Supplement_. Many books
no doubt (though not many Oxford books) have been and still are out
of print; and in the absence of an up-to-date index of current books,
the difficulties of the bookseller have been great. Now, however, when
the 1920 edition of the trade _Reference Catalogue_ is available, with
its single alphabetical index (of 1,075 pages in double column), the
ascertainment of the facts is not difficult except in so far as the
catalogues indexed have themselves become obsolete. All information about
Oxford books that is _not_ in the 1920 _Reference Catalogue_ may be found
in the _Supplement_ of Books published in 1920, or in the cumulative list
of _Price Changes_, or in the _Bulletin_; all of which every bookseller
has, or may have for the asking.
With the _Bulletin_ is issued from time to time a supplement calling the
attention of librarians and others to Oxford books in some special field.
The circulation of the _Bulletin_ is about 2,000.
The _Periodical_ is a ‘house magazine’, perhaps the first of its kind. It
was first published in December 1896, and now appears five times a year.
Its contents include extracts, of sufficient length to be readable, from
new Oxford books, specimen illustrations, quotations from reviews and
other newspaper comment on the productions of the Press, obituaries and
other honorific notices of authors (on appointment, decoration, or the
like), and a certain amount of quasi-literary gossip; for even authors
have their foibles. The original editor, who has compiled every number
for a quarter of a century, is still at his post, and the popularity of
the little paper increases. The demand comes from all over the world—the
United States takes nearly half the total and the number of copies
distributed gratis of each issue now exceeds ten thousand.
Oxford Bibles and Prayer Books can be inspected in mass at many
booksellers’, as well as in the Depository at 116 High Street, Oxford,
and in the showrooms at Amen Corner, in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and in
the Branches overseas. Lack of space has everywhere made it impossible
to exhibit the far greater number of Clarendon Press and other secular
books on the same scale, but the books may be seen on application at any
of the Press offices, and the popular series, gift books, &c., are always
displayed. It is hoped before long to increase the space available for
this purpose in the Oxford Depository, and to exhibit there all Clarendon
Press books, arranged by subjects as in the Catalogue, so that members of
the University and visitors may be able to inspect at one time and place
all the books offered in any subject that may concern them. It is hoped
to find room for separate exhibits of school-books, maps, and ‘juvenile’
books, so that the busy schoolmaster, with half an hour to spare in
Oxford, may make a rapid survey of the contents of the Educational
catalogue.
§ 9. _The Press and its Authors_
The Index to the General Catalogue contains the names of some three
thousand living authors and editors. With almost all of these the Press
deals direct, and not through agents, and their friendly co-operation is
of immense service to the Delegates and their officers both in planning
books and in securing for them the widest publicity.
Many of the books accepted by the Press are such as in the ordinary way
of business would not secure a publisher except under subvention from the
author or some favourer of learning; and of these the remuneration (or
at least the direct remuneration; for the publication of solid books,
like the knowledge of Greek in former times, ‘not infrequently leads to
positions of emolument’) is recognized as being nominal, and necessarily
inadequate to the labour and skill lavished upon the work. But for books
commanding a remunerative sale, if they are of a suitable kind, the Press
is prepared to pay the full market value; and it is believed that not
many of its authors are dissatisfied with the bargains they have made.
‘It is an immense advantage to an author to be printed by a famous
Press’, is the opinion of a veteran of letters, whose name appears in
many publishers’ catalogues. It is the aim of the Oxford Press to place
at its authors’ service its capacity for accurate and beautiful printing
and binding, the goodwill attached to the University imprint, and the
selling power enjoyed by its very large organization in the United
Kingdom and throughout the world. Publication by the Press gives to
an author the further security that his book will not be remaindered,
pulped, or allowed to go out of print on the mere ground that it does not
enjoy a rapid sale.
It is still sometimes said that ‘the Press does not advertise’. It
is believed that Oxford books, in an exceptional degree, advertise
themselves and each other—‘the Oxford book’, says an American
advertisement, ‘is half sold already’; but the magnitude and variety
of its business enable the Press to maintain an elaborate organization
of ‘publicity’, which directs its efforts both to the booksellers and
to the public at large. It relies largely upon the distribution, in
many thousands of copies annually, of its catalogues and bulletins, on
the direct dispatch of prospectuses to a large yet carefully selected
constituency of buyers in various fields, and on the incalculable factor
of public and private discussion. The value of judicious newspaper
advertisement is not overlooked, as readers of the _Times Literary
Supplement_ well know.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
§ 10. _Bibles and Prayer Books_
Some account has already been given of the exercise by the University
of its privilege of printing ‘the King’s books’ in early times. The
modern history of the printing and publishing of the Bible and the
Book of Common Prayer is a large subject. The University of Oxford,
like the other privileged printers, has appreciated the obligations
attached to the privilege as well as the opportunities which it affords.
Every attention has been paid to accuracy and excellence of printing
and binding, to the provision of editions suited to every purpose and
every eyesight, and to the efficient and economical distribution of
the books all over the world at low prices. In all these respects a
standard has been reached which is unknown in any other kind of printing
and publishing, and which is only made possible by long experience,
continuous production, and intensive specialization. The modern Bible
is so convenient to read and to handle that its bulk is not always
realized; it is actually more than four times as long as _David
Copperfield_. A reference Bible is, also, a highly complicated piece
of printing. Accuracy is secured by the employment of highly-skilled
compositors and readers—a new Bible is ‘read’ from beginning to end many
times—and by the use of the best material processes; for all Bibles are
printed from copper plates on the most modern machines, and the sheets
are carefully scrutinized as they come from the press. The Oxford Press
offers a guinea for the discovery of a misprint; but very few guineas
have been earned.
The bulk and weight of Bibles are kept down by the use of very thin and
opaque paper, specially made at the Press Mill at Wolvercote. The use of
such paper, and especially of the Oxford India paper, the combination in
which of thinness with opacity has never been equalled, may be said to
have revolutionized the printing of Bibles, by making possible the use of
large clear type in a book of moderate size and weight.
Of the Prayer Book as of the Bible a large number of editions is offered
to suit all fashions and purposes, and this in spite of the serious risks
arising from the liability to change of the ‘royal’ prayers. A demise of
the Crown, or the marriage of a Prince of Wales, makes it necessary to
print a large number of cancel sheets, which have to be substituted for
the old sheets in all copies held in stock or in the hands of booksellers.
A hundred years ago there were nineteen Oxford Bibles and twenty-one
editions of the Book of Common Prayer. There are now more than a hundred
of each. The Revised Version of the Bible, the copyright of which belongs
to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge jointly, is also published in
a large variety of editions.
[Illustration]
§ 11. _Clarendon Press Books_
By Clarendon Press Books are meant the learned, educational, and other
‘Standard’ works produced under the close supervision of the Delegates
and their Oxford Secretariate, and printed at Oxford. These books have a
long history, and the Catalogue contains very many titles which have been
continuously on sale for nearly a century. The Coptic New Testament of
Wilkins, published in 1716, is believed to have been continuously on sale
at the original price of 12_s._ 6_d._ until the last copy was sold in
1907, only a few years short of the second century. The current edition
of the General Catalogue mentions as ‘the oldest Oxford book still on
sale’ another edition of the Coptic New Testament by Woide, published in
1799 and now sold for two guineas; but it has since been noticed that an
injustice had been done, and that pride of place should have been given
to the Gothic Gospel, a magnificently printed quarto published in 1750,
of which some dozen copies (at 30_s._) still remain.
These are extreme examples; they are, however, the result not of oblivion
or of indifference, but of a policy which has long been and is still
being pursued. The Press produces many works of learning which are so
securely based that it is known that the demand, however small, will
persist as long as there are copies unsold; and it is the practice of the
Press to print from type large editions of such books. Clarendon Press
books are neither wasted nor sold as remainders, and when a book goes
out of print, some natural tears are shed.
This is one end of the scale; at the other are books commanding a large
and rapid sale, books like the _Oxford Book of English Verse_ or the
_Concise Oxford Dictionary_ and _livres de circonstance_ like _Why We are
at War_, which was published in September 1914 and in a few months went
through twelve impressions and was translated into six foreign languages.
Books of this kind are produced in mass, as cheaply as is consistent
with a high standard of workmanship, and are sold all over the world in
competition with rival publications and by the employment of appropriate
methods of advertisement.
Between these two classes lies a great mass of miscellaneous books, too
general in character to admit of description here. They are in many
languages, ancient and modern, of the East and of the West; of all
fields of knowledge, divine, human, and natural; and of all stages of
history from the Stone Age to the Great War. It follows necessarily that
Clarendon Press books appeal to widely different publics and call for the
application of various instruments of distribution and publicity. All,
however, benefit by the widely diffused appreciation of the standards
of scholarship and of literary form which the Press has set itself to
uphold. The public expects much of any Oxford book, and the satisfaction
of that expectation is often onerous; but the necessary effort is
justified by the results—‘the Oxford book is half sold already’.
III
THE PRESS ABROAD
§ 1. _The Press in India_
The activities of the Press in India are of relatively recent date.
Until 1912, when a branch was opened in Bombay, Oxford books had been
accessible only to those who were determined to procure them. The
existence of a distributing centre made it possible to reach more
directly the educational and the general public. But it early became
apparent to the Manager—Mr. E. V. Rieu of Balliol College—that the
educational needs of India could only to a small extent be met by direct
importation; that it was necessary to adapt existing books to the special
requirements of the country, and to create new books similar in kind.
In the course of a few years many such books were produced, at first
chiefly in England, but later to an increasing degree in India itself. By
1918 at least a dozen native presses were engaged in printing and binding
for the Branch. These books range from ‘simplified classics’ to editions
of Shakespeare’s plays, from school geographies to handbooks for students
of medicine and law. At the same time the sale of more advanced Oxford
books was largely increased. A brief description is given elsewhere of
the books produced at Oxford upon the history and art of India as well as
upon its classical literature and its religions. Books like Mr. Vincent
Smith’s _Early History of India_ and his _Fine Art in India_ command a
wide sale among the educated natives of India.
Another field of enterprise is in vernacular education. Here the
opportunities are vast, but the difficulties are great, for in most
provinces many languages are spoken, and no one press is adequately
equipped with the numerous founts of type required to deal with the
vernaculars of India as a whole. The Branch was therefore fortunate in
being, in 1916, invited by the Government of the Central Provinces to
produce a series of Readers—in Hindi and Marathi—for use in schools
throughout the province. At that time no paper could be imported from
England, and the staff of the Branch was depleted by war. Nevertheless,
within a year over half a million volumes had been written, printed, and
illustrated, and were ready for distribution over a country nearly twice
as large as England and Wales.
The activities of the Branch in placing the issues of the War before
Indian readers in a true light attracted in 1918 the attention of
Government; and the Branch was engaged by the Central Publicity Bureau to
produce an illustrated War Magazine and a mass of pamphlets in English
and the vernacular tongues.
In spite of these preoccupations the Branch has been able to emulate
the activities of the Press at home by co-operating with learned bodies
in India to produce books of scientific value. Notable among its
publications in this kind are the historical treatises of Mr. Rawlinson,
Mr. Kincaid, Mr. Mookerji, and other writers, and the economic studies
published on behalf of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.
Mention may also be made here of the _Classics of Indian History_ which
are being issued by the Press. In reviewing the latest volume of the
series—Meadows Taylor’s _Story of My Life_—The Times Literary Supplement
says: ‘It is one of those books from which history hereafter will be
written. The great books—in one sense or other—like Colonel Mark Wilks’s
_Historical Sketches of Southern India_, Grant Duff’s _History of the
Mahrattas_, Tod’s _Rajasthan_, Broughton’s _Letters from a Mahratta
Camp_, must be supplemented not only by the native records, which are
more and more becoming accessible, but by the personal narratives of
Englishmen who lived in out-of-the-way places and entered into the
lives of the rural inhabitants of India. Beside Colonel Sleeman’s
_Reminiscences_ must be put the autobiography of Meadows Taylor, a
much superior book.’ Of the books mentioned by _The Times_, Sleeman’s
and Tod’s have already been issued, uniform with Meadows Taylor’s,
Dubois’s _Hindu Manners_, Bernier’s _Travels_, Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali’s
_Mussulmanns_, and Cunningham’s _Sikhs_; editions of Grant Duff and
Broughton are in preparation.
Mr. Rieu, when in 1919 reasons of health compelled him to retire, had in
a few years proved himself a real pioneer. He had immensely increased
the volume of business done by the Branch, and had opened up new and
promising fields. His successor, Major G. F. J. Cumberlege, D.S.O.,
of Worcester College, who was accompanied by Mr. N. L. Carrington, of
Christ Church, took over a successful and growing business. The original
premises in Bombay had already been outgrown, and new offices opened in
Elphinstone Circle. The increase of staff has made it possible to open
a new branch in Calcutta—a sub-branch in Madras already existed—and it
is confidently hoped that in the near future the business done in Oxford
books, and adaptations of them, will be increased in volume, and that the
service rendered by Oxford to the Indian Empire will be further enhanced
by the activities of its Press.
[Illustration: THE BOMBAY BRANCH]
[Illustration: THE TORONTO BRANCH]
§ 2. _The Press in Canada_
The Oxford University Press Canadian Branch was founded in 1904 at 25
Richmond Street West, Toronto. The manager was Mr. S. B. Gundy, who still
presides at the same address; but the building was destroyed by fire in
1905 and completely reconstructed.
Although Canada has still a relatively small population, scattered
over an immense area, the volume of business done by the Branch is
substantial, and it continues to grow. The sale of Oxford Bibles,
Clarendon Press books, Medical and Elementary books is supplemented by
the sale of books published in Canada and the United States, for which
Mr. Gundy acts as agent. Thus the Branch sells all the publications of
the great American house of Doubleday, Page and Company; and through this
connexion it has recently become the sole publisher in Canada of the
works of Mr. Rudyard Kipling.
Among the more notable Canadian enterprises of the Press are the Church
of England Hymn Book (the _Book of Common Praise_), published in
1909, the large stocks of which caused Mr. Gundy ‘to overflow into a
neighbouring barber shop’, and the new edition of the Presbyterian _Book
of Praise_, produced in defiance of submarines and other obstacles in
1917. The editor, the Rev. Alexander Macmillan, carried the manuscript
across the Atlantic in small packets sewn into his clothes.
§ 3. _The Press in Australasia_
This part of the business was first developed by visits regularly
made from London by Mr. E. R. Bartholomew, who in 1908 became manager
of the Branch then established at Cathedral Buildings, Melbourne.
Australia is not only many thousands of miles from the great centres of
book-production, but is itself a land of great distances, as yet but
sparsely populated; and this creates difficulties for both publishers and
booksellers. It is remarkable how far these obstacles have been overcome;
and if regard is paid to the number and character of the population,
Australia, and New Zealand no less, have a right to be proud of the
quantity and quality of the books they buy.
The Branch has paid attention to the special needs of Australian
education, and in co-operation with the universities and schools has
produced a number of successful text-books.
It acts as agent for some of the leading British publishers, including
the houses of Murray, Heinemann, Black, Chapman and Hall, and Mowbray;
and for the large publishing business of Messrs. Angus and Robertson of
Sydney.
[Illustration: THE MELBOURNE BRANCH]
[Illustration: MARKHAM’S BUILDINGS, CAPE TOWN
in which the South African Branch is situated]
§ 4. _The Press in South Africa_
The South African Office of the Press is at Markham’s Buildings, Adderley
Street, Cape Town. Mr. C. R. Mellor, the present Representative, was
appointed to that post in March 1915. From his office at Cape Town Mr.
Mellor visits the principal booksellers, not only in the Cape Province,
but in the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and Natal.
§ 5. _The Press in China_
The Chinese Agency of the Press is at C 445 Honan Road, Shanghai, of
which Mr. T. Leslie is the present Representative. The first agent in
China for the Press was the Christian Literature Society of Shanghai, the
agency being started in 1913. Mr. Leslie, who had been manager of that
Society, took over the Press agency in 1917. Stocks of all Oxford books
likely to be in demand in China are held in Shanghai.
§ 6. _The Press in Scandinavia_
For many years before the war a traveller from Amen Corner visited the
Continent annually, but business in Scandinavia developed so rapidly
after the Armistice that it was found desirable to open a Branch, and
premises were accordingly secured in Copenhagen, Mr. H. Bohun Beet, the
Continental traveller of the Press, being appointed manager. The Branch
was opened in August 1920, at St. Kongensgade 40 H, close to the King’s
Palace. The Branch represents also Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton and the
Medici Society.
§ 7. _The Press in the United States_
The sale of Oxford books in the United States began long before the
foundation of the _American Branch_. It is recorded that ‘the growth of
the business was hindered by the Civil War, but after the restoration
of peace it grew rapidly’; and that a landmark in its progress was the
publication of editions of the American Book of Common Prayer.
The foundation of the Oxford University Press American Branch, an
institution which has made the name of Oxford familiar throughout the
Union, was due to the foresight and enterprise of Mr. Henry Frowde.
Acting on his advice the Delegates of the Press authorized the formation
of a Corporation in the State of New York, and the Branch in 1896 opened
premises at 91 Fifth Avenue, under the management of the late Mr. John
Armstrong. In the following year Mr. Armstrong added to the Bibles and
other books, previously sold by Messrs. Nelson, the Clarendon Press
publications, previously sold by the Macmillan Company. The business
grew rapidly in Mr. Armstrong’s hands, and in 1908 moved ‘up town’ to
the premises it now occupies at 35 West 32nd Street. Mr. Armstrong died
in 1915, and was succeeded by Mr. W. W. McIntosh, one of the original
members of the staff.
[Illustration: THIRTY-SECOND STREET, NEW YORK
The New York Branch is situated in the Central Building on the right]
SHOW ROOMS AT THE NEW YORK BRANCH
[Illustration: Bible Show Room]
[Illustration: Clarendon Press Show Room]
The main function of the Branch has always been that of keeping the
American public acquainted with Oxford books, both sacred and secular,
and of supplying the books without avoidable delay. To this end it
has been necessary to hold large stocks in New York, and to maintain
an expert staff which is in touch with the book-stores and with the
universities, the schools, and the book-buying public at large. The
Branch has its own catalogues and its own advertisements, and it has been
able to make Oxford Bibles and Clarendon Press books known and valued
throughout the United States. The Branch, however, is not merely an
importer; it has long recognized that many Oxford products are capable
of useful adaptation to special American requirements, and that such
adaptation is consistent with the preservation of what Americans have
themselves called ‘the Oxford stamp’. This aspect of the activities of
the Press in America is shown by the large number of Bibles which are
manufactured (‘made’ is the American idiom) in the United States—among
these the now famous _Scofield_ Reference Bible is conspicuous—and also
by books written—or at least rewritten—for American requirements. The
Branch, in co-operation with American scholars, has produced valuable
series of text-books for schools and universities—the _Oxford English
Series_, the _Oxford French Series_, and the _Oxford German Series_.
Even more important, perhaps, are adaptations of Oxford books of tried
merit. Thus the _Oxford Loose-Leaf Surgery_ derives from a (British)
Oxford original (one of the _Oxford Medical Publications_), but has
important differences in substance as well as in its novel form. This
very successful work is now being followed by the _Oxford Loose-Leaf
Medicine_, edited by Dr. Henry Christian and Sir James Mackenzie with
the help of leading physicians on both sides of the Atlantic. To promote
co-operation of this kind in medical science was a great part of the
life-work of William Osler, who, as Regius Professor at Oxford, and a
leading promoter of the Oxford Medical Publications, may be described as
the founder of the medical activities of the Oxford Press as they are now
carried on in Oxford, in London, in New York, and in Toronto.