Bookselling

“ In consequence of the large consumption of books the machinery for the manufacture of copies was substantially perfected, and publication was effected with comparative rapidity and cheapness; bookselling became a respectable and lucrative trade, and the bookseller's shop a usual meeting-place of men of culture. ”

“ Bookselling.—Even those librarians who think that they know something about buying books, can with decided advantage read the article on Bookselling. The modern system goes back almost to the invention of printing. The earliest printers were also editors and booksellers but as they were not able themselves to dispose of the entire output of their presses they had agents at most of the universities. The religious dissensions following the Reformation created a great demand for books and there were troublous times for both printers and booksellers. ”

“ The most startling innovation he made in the trade of bookselling, and the one which led to the largest amount of opposition on the part of his fellow-tradesmen, was in regard to the way of dealing with what are called “remainders.” When a bookseller found a book did not sell well, it was his custom to put what remained into a private sale, “where only booksellers were admitted, and of them only such as were invited by having a catalogue sent them. ”

“ We have known grocers, greengrocers, coal-dealers, pianoforte-makers, printers, bookbinders, cheap-jacks, in London, adopt the selling of books as a means of livelihood. Sometimes—and several living examples might be cited—the experiment is a success, but frequently a failure. The knowledge of old books is not picked up in a month or a year. The misfortune which seems to dog the footsteps of many men in every move they make, does not fail to pursue them in bookselling. ”

“ On entering Mudie’s Select Library, from New Oxford Street, we pass through the show-rooms devoted to the sale of bound books; for though the directors do not enter into the usual speculations of the bookselling trade, the clean copies of popular works are put into ornamental bindings, and in this manner a very427 extensive business is done in works adapted for presents and prizes. ”

“ Books are now so dear that they are becoming articles of fashionable furniture more than anything else; they who do buy them do not read, and they who read them do not buy them. I have seen a Wiltshire clothier who gives his bookseller no other instructions than the dimensions of his shelves; and have just heard of a Liverpool merchant who is fitting up a library, and has told his bibliopole to send him Shakespeare, Milton, and Pope, and if any of those fellows should publish anything new to let him have it immediately. ”

“ From what you say, it would appear to be wiser to lay out one's money at a bookseller's than at a book-auction?
Lysand. Both methods must of necessity be resorted to: for you cannot find with the one what you may obtain at the other. A distinguished collector, such as the late Mr. Reed, or Mr. Gough, or Mr. Joseph Windham, dies, and leaves his library to be sold by auction for the benefit of his survivors. Now, in this library so bequeathed, you have the fruits of book-labour, collected for a long period, and cultivated in almost every department of literature. ”

“ Surely every book-collector is in his heart of hearts a specialist. Have you ever taken into your hands some choice gem of your collection without wishing that there were others in your library of the same genus? Is there not some one volume among your books that demands your first consideration when new shelving is put up, when your books are re-arranged; the volume to which you would fly first of all if a fire broke out in your sanctum? Brother bookman, I can almost hear you turn in your chair at the awful prospect of having to make choice between your beloved tomes! ”

“ Every new book or magazine added to the library, if uncut, should be carefully cut with a paper-knife before it goes into the hands of any reader. Spoiled or torn or ragged edges will be the penalty of neglecting this. You have seen people tear open the leaves of books and magazines with their fingers—a barbarism which renders him who would be guilty of it worthy of banishment from the resorts of civilization. In cutting books, the leaves should always be held firmly down—and the knife pressed evenly through the uncut leaves to the farthest verge of the back. ”

“ Whole piles of quired stock, meaning books unbound, are already crumbling to dust in the warehouses of booksellers, never to come to light as books, and many a volume designed to enrich the library of its possessor and to descend as an heir-loom to posterity, now presents to the mortified owner its elegant print surrounded by a margin of tan colour, which in some instances forms, as it were, a complete frame round each page, the oil varnish in the composition of the ink seeming to preserve the interstices between the print from the same kind of discoloration. ”

“ In referring to this class of book-buyers, Roswell Field says, "The book-lover, so-called, who lacks any of the thrills that go with the establishment as well as the enjoyment of a library in all of its appointments has deprived himself of many of the most pleasurable literary and semi-literary emotions. That bibliophile never pats his horse or his dog. To him his books are merely tools of trade, accessories to knowledge, to be pawed over, thrown away and replaced by new copies when worn out. ”

“ Rare things and precious, as manuscripts were before the invention of typography, are well preserved, but when the printing press was invented and paper books were multiplied in the earth; when libraries increased and readers were many, then familiarity bred contempt; books were packed in out-of-the-way places and neglected, and the oft-quoted, though seldom seen, bookworm became an acknowledged tenant of the library, and the mortal enemy of the bibliophile. ”

“ Once a month a number of booksellers gather here and we discuss matters of bookish concern over corn-cobs and cider. We have all sorts and conditions of booksellers: one is a fanatic on the subject of libraries. He thinks that every public library should be dynamited. Another thinks that moving pictures will destroy the book trade. What rot! Surely everything that arouses people's minds, that makes them alert and questioning, increases their appetite for books. ”

“ With the discontinuance of the older paucity of literature, the facilities for lodging within a modest bookcase a coterie of literary favourites have sorrowfully decreased, and a collector finds it imperative to draw the line more and more rigidly, if he does not [81] care to fall into one of two perils—excessive outlay or excessive bulk. For we have not, as regards the former, to go very far before we incur a serious expense, if it happens that the run is on the rarer English section or on what constitutes a picked library of the French type. ”

“ Uncut books are trimmed to a general line with a large knife, similar to a butcher's-knife, previous to being glued up. They are the special favourites of book-collectors. An uncut copy of a scarce work will always command a higher price than one that has been cropped.
STATIONERY OR VELLUM BINDING.
This branch of the Art of Bookbinding, in large towns, is a distinct business, and presents some difference in the mode of proceeding in several of the manipulations required. ”

“ The rivalry, which should have been universal, existed between France and England only. France excelled in taste and finish, but at some sacrifice of flexibility; while in England the soft and coaxing manner in which, by the skill of Hering or Mackinlay, “leaf succeeds to leaf,” was marred by the tarnishing of the once blazing gilt edges. It was of interest to American bibliophiles, as an evidence of the fact that the decline of the art of bookbinding was due to the apathy of the book collectors. ”

“ Care of Books.—In order to insure the proper handling 53 of books by the public, the staff must set a good example in this respect. Care should be used in opening a new book so as to loosen but not break the joints of the binding. Careless cutting of the leaves produces a ragged appearance which is not conducive to increased respect for the volume, after it gets out into circulation. Suitable paper cutters with smooth dull edges should be provided and nothing else used. Don’t trust the public to cut the leaves of new books or magazines. ”

“ It is a very serious business, this book-collecting. Whether we are contented now to let our library be slow of growth, or whether we are still imbued with the ardour of our early youth, we are none the less under the spell of books. Our paths may lie outside the pale of book-land for years, but the chance handling of a valuable or scarce volume will instantly awaken all our bibliophilic desires. ”

“ The amateur and book-collector, in commencing the foundation of a library, will do well to pause before they adopt a species of binding that will in after years create a feeling of annoyance, and perhaps lead to pecuniary sacrifice. ”

“ No one who has engaged in the work of library formation can afford to neglect the bibliographies and suggestions of other collectors, and he who is called upon to systematically build up a library of literature representative of all subjects, cannot stay and watch that delightfully haphazard assembling of choice treasures, which is the chief pleasure of the private collector or Burtonite. ”

“ The gilding of a library book is a simple matter compared with that of books bound for individuals. Such books are usually meant to be artistic and their covers bear elaborate designs in gold, generally limited only by the size of the owner's pocketbook or by his taste. [1] In library binding gilding is confined to the furnishing of necessary information. Tooling of all kinds, with the possible exception of that which divides the back into panels, is unnecessary. A description of finishing processes is unnecessary here since they add nothing to the strength of a book. ”

“ To deprive such a man as Cotton of the ocular and manual comforts of his library—to suppose that he could be happy in the most splendid drawing room in Europe, without his books—is to suppose what our experience of virtuous bibliomaniacs will not permit us to accede to. ”

“ A certain young man of the working class, on his way to work every day, used to pass a bookstall situated in a narrow alley. Every day he glanced at the books, and as custom was scanty he would notice what books were sold and with [9] what works the bookseller filled the empty places on the shelves. In this way all of the books which the young man had first noticed gradually disappeared, with one exception. This was a volume bound in calf, containing some rather curious poems, and no one seemed to want it. ”

“ Some collectors place all their fame on the view of a splendid library, where volumes, arrayed in all the pomp of lettering, silk linings, triple gold bands, and tinted leather, are locked up in wire cases, and secured from the vulgar hands of the mere reader, dazzling our eyes like eastern beauties peering through their jalousies! ”

“ But if I could prevail on someone—a bookseller—to print what I write, I hope you will consent to my doing so—not putting my name to the thing, of course?”
“And does my Fanny believe that ’tis all so easy to persuade a bookseller to pay her printer’s bill?” he said, pinching her ear. “Booksellers are shrewd men of business.”
“But even men of business have their weak moments,” said she. “And so if—if—you would not think it too bold of me to let James take my parcel to a bookseller? ”

“ Himself an indefatigable collector of books, the possessor of a library as valuable as it was interesting, a library containing volumes obtained only at the cost of great personal sacrifice, he was in the most active sympathy with the disease called bibliomania, and knew, as few comparatively poor men have known, the half-pathetic, half-humorous side of that incurable mental infirmity. ”

“ By the term 'early-printed books' the bookseller generally means fifteenth-century works, or incunabula as they are now called. You must needs be a rich man if this be your hobby, for every volume issued prior to the year 1500—however worthless as literature or useless from a bibliographical standpoint—is now worth at least a couple of pounds, provided it is complete and in good condition. ”

“ Classical books grow scarcer every day, and the love of literature, and of possessing rare and interesting works, increases in an equal ratio. Hungry bibliographers meet, at sales, with well-furnished purses, and are resolved upon sumptuous fare! Thus the hammer vibrates, after a bidding of forty pounds, where formerly it used regularly to fall at four! But we lose sight of Dr. Askew's rare editions, and large paper copies. The following, gentle reader, is but an imperfect specimen! ”

“ But there is something more important than persiflage and gossip—there is the new novel to choose from the circulating library. For in the country the bookstall man is also the librarian and adviser; he not only sells papers but he controls the reading of the neighbourhood. ”

“ Little did those barefooted priests know what an opponent to their Romish rites they were fostering into life; their [301] love of learning and passion for books, drove all fear away; and the splendor of the new power so dazzled their eyes that they could not clearly see the nature of the refulgent light just bursting through the gloom of ages.
After the invention of the printing art, bibliomania took some mighty strides; and many choice collectors, full of ardor in the pursuit, became renowned for the vast book stores they amassed together. ”

“ But we are sometimes compelled to buy books already dirty and dingy, foxed, or spotted with red, worn by greasy hands, stained with ink spots, or covered with MS. notes. The art of man has found a remedy for these defects. I have never myself tried to wash a book, and this care is best left to professional hands. But the French and English writers give various recipes for cleaning old books, which the amateur may try on any old rubbish out of the fourpenny box of a bookstall, till he finds that he can trust his own manipulations. ”