Scholarly Reprints

Abstract

ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS in publishing since the Second World War has been the growth, on both sides of the Atlantic, of the ‘scholarly reprint’ business. To readers who cannot afford to buy expensive books this may seem by now to have become something of a luxury trade, the high prices asked—two, three and four pounds a volume—suggesting excessive profits. But in the context of such things as university expansion and the establishment of specialist libraries in need of standard works not normally available in the well‐known cheap editions, reprints of books which enjoy an acknowledged reputation in the world of learning have suddenly assumed a new importance. The demand for certain classes of books is so great that secondhand booksellers cannot meet it: and even if they could, they are under certain disadvantages when their wares are contrasted with freshly reprinted material coming straight from a modern publishing house.

Citation

Mackerness, E.D. (1969), "Scholarly Reprints", Library Review, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 131-133. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb012523