Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Sources
- Note on Dates and Places
- Abbreviations
- Chapter 1 London and the Country
- Chapter 2 A Century of Growth
- Chapter 3 The Market for Books
- Chapter 4 The Distribution System
- Chapter 5 The Bookselling Business
- Chapter 6 The Printing Office
- Conclusion
- Appendix I Ellen Feepound's Book Stock
- Appendix II William Seale's Paper Stock
- Appendix III John Cheney's Printing Equipment
- Appendix IV The Universal British Directory
- Appendix V Subscribers to Thomas Hervey's The Writer's Time Redeemed
- Appendix VI Subscribers to Elisha Coles's Practical Discourse
- Appendix VII Subscribers to Job Orton's Short and Plain Exposition
- Notes
- Index of the Provincial Book Trade
- General Index
Chapter 5 - The Bookselling Business
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Sources
- Note on Dates and Places
- Abbreviations
- Chapter 1 London and the Country
- Chapter 2 A Century of Growth
- Chapter 3 The Market for Books
- Chapter 4 The Distribution System
- Chapter 5 The Bookselling Business
- Chapter 6 The Printing Office
- Conclusion
- Appendix I Ellen Feepound's Book Stock
- Appendix II William Seale's Paper Stock
- Appendix III John Cheney's Printing Equipment
- Appendix IV The Universal British Directory
- Appendix V Subscribers to Thomas Hervey's The Writer's Time Redeemed
- Appendix VI Subscribers to Elisha Coles's Practical Discourse
- Appendix VII Subscribers to Job Orton's Short and Plain Exposition
- Notes
- Index of the Provincial Book Trade
- General Index
Summary
A Youth designed for a Bookseller, ought to have a Genius for Letters, a general Knowledge of Books and Sciences, a clear Head, and a solid discerning Judgment: He ought to have a Taste for the Languages, and a good Memory to acquire them. His Education ought to be as liberal as if he was designed for any of the learned Sciences; and his Knowledge of Men and Things as extensive as either the Divine, Lawyer, or Physician. A mere Title-Monger can never make any thing but a Bungler, is liable every Day to be imposed upon, runs out his Stock upon Trifles, and loads the Public with the Rubbish of the Press.
The ideal bookseller portrayed by Campbell was not entirely unknown in the eighteenth century, even in the provinces, but he was uncommon. At the other extreme, as late as 1787 Lackington claimed to have found that, in practice, there was nothing but ‘Trifles’ and the ‘rubbish of the Press’:
It is true, at York and Leeds there were a few (and but very few) good books; but in all the other towns between London and Edinburgh nothing but trash was to be found.
Lackington was trying to prove that he had transformed English bookselling, while Campbell, as is clear from his Preface, was pursuing a vendetta against the trade. Yet both statements have a germ of truth in them. It was not easy to keep a good bookshop successfully in a country town; Thomas Miller discovered at Bungay, Suffolk between 1755 and 1804, that a good stock was not in itself a guarantee of success in business.
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- The Provincial Book Trade in Eighteenth-Century England , pp. 69 - 97Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1985