The Moving Market: Continuity and Change in the Book Trade

Citation

Powell, S. (2002), "The Moving Market: Continuity and Change in the Book Trade", Library Review, Vol. 51 No. 7, pp. 379-386. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.2002.51.7.379.12

This fifth volume of the Print Networks series has its roots in the research of a group of librarians, bibliographers, and booksellers, who were keen to uncover “the history of the book trade in the North”. They believed that the historical centres of printing and publishing, the “golden triangle” of London, Oxford and Cambridge, had for too long overshadowed the “provincial” book trade, where cities such as Manchester, Newcastle and Middlesborough had played a substantial role in the history of the book trade. Editor Peter Isaac, in his editorial to this text, terms the provincial book trade as “meat and potatoes”, in that the literature produced was not merely a regional overflow of the “golden triangle”, but an independent and flourishing trade in itself.

For those interested in the history of the book trade, Moving Market presents a rich selection of authoritative and well researched papers on the subject; mainly, though not entirely, on the contribution of the “provincial” book trade. Topics covered include former children’s bookseller David Hounslow’s essay “A moving market”, on the influence of nineteenth‐century street vendors and “The cries of London” on the regional trade; Terry Wyke, lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, and Michael Powell, librarian at Chetham’s Library, examining the development of the second‐hand book trade in 1830s Manchester, then the “world’s largest industrial region”; and two Welsh topics featuring the First World War and Welsh language problems (from lecturer Philip Henry Jones) and the troubled history of a Welsh newspaper publisher (from research student Lisa Peters). Other localities featured are Newcastle (Dr Jeffrey Smith on books and culture in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century); Derbyshire (lecturer Maureen Bell on reading in seventeenth‐century Derbyshire and, in particular, the Wheatcroft family, their books, and where they got them); Ipswich (Janet Phipps on book availability there over the years); Leicester (librarian John Hinks on the beginning of its book trade); Cumbria is the background to antiquarian bookseller Barry McKay’s piece on “lottery” books, literacy and John Locke’s theory of education; while Middlesbrough is the focus of Diana Dixon’s account of the development of the newspaper press in nineteenth century there. Scotland features in Richard Sher’s article on Scottish bookseller Andrew Millar’s career.

Taking the focus away from the British Isles are Sydney J. Shep, writing on the history of the New Zealand paper trade, and Wallace Kirsop, relating the account of “How a Dubliner became the Melbourne Mudie”, or how Samuel Mullen’s emigration to Australia influenced the book trade there. Some of the essays are supported by illustrations, or reproductions of engravings and book pages; and all have notes for further references. The index also lists the names, places and trades mentioned throughout the book.

What began in 1980 as a half‐day seminar on provincial printing has grown to include contributions from leading scholars and experts in the field from across the world. If this “moving market” of a book outgrew its original focus, no matter. These informative, detailed and well‐researched contributions give a fascinating insight into the development of the book trade in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The understanding of editor Peter Isaac, which is mirrored in some of the featured essays, is that “books are more than objects; they are written by people”. Finding out about what people wrote about over a 150 years ago, can also tell us something about them, and the “human face” of the book trade. The contributions to this handsome book are a welcome addition to our knowledge of the subjects covered and the editors and publisher are to be congratulated.