Part 3

The Press produces two periodicals descriptive of its publications: 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.

§ 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.

§ 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.

§ 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.

§ 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.

SHOW ROOMS AT THE NEW YORK BRANCH