Publishing and Bookselling. Part One : From the Earliest Times to 1870. Part Two: 1870-1970

Jonathan Cape, London, fifth edition, 1974. Cloth, 8vo, 24 cm,. 685 pp. From the blurb: "Frank Mumby's famous history first appeared in 1930, when it was praised by Arthur Waugh as being 'as deft, comprehensive and entertaining a piece of workmanship as ever invited the gratitude of all sorts and conditions of bookmen'.. For this new edition, Ian Norrie, who has been a practising bookseller, publisher, novelist and journalist for twenty-five years, has completely rewritten the second half, to provide the first detailed history of the trade from 1870 to 1970. Ian Norrie has devoted more than half of the new text to the vital issues which confronted the book trade during the last hundred years of modernization. He records the history of nearly 400 publishers during this period, and of 350 booksellers doing business in approximately 150 cities and towns in the British Isles. Moving on to the present day, he focuses on the growing tendcncy towards takeovers and mergers, especially among publishers, and on the crucial problems raised by the obscenity laws, international copyright and restrictive practices. His objective eye and lively interest in the subject have combined to produce a book which more than deserves the praise accorded to the original. Roderick Cave's copy, signed and dated in pencil on the front free endpaper. Good in used dustwrapper.