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LOGOS

The Literature of the : Retail

Ian Norrie (Editorial Note: We could not find a single authority on retail bookselling in Britain and the United States. Ian Norrie’s list consists of originating in Britain and Gary Ink’s of books originating in the United States.)

Compared with publishers [Ian Norrie writes], booksellers have committed little to print which Manager and owner of High Hill Bookshops, records their working lives and company history. Ltd, Hampstead from 1956 to 1988, Ian Norrie One obvious reason for this is that publishers often has had a distinguished career both as bookseller indulge their vanity, expecting to make a financial and writer. He is co-author of the revised, loss excusable on the grounds that the book can extended of F A Mumby’s and also be seen as good publicity for the imprint. Bookselling (Jonathan Cape, 1974), and sole author of Mumby’s Publishing and Bookselling Booksellers, similarly motivated, rarely produce in the Twentieth Century (Bell & Hyman, anything more imposing than a stapled brochure. 1982). He has also published four novels and General histories of bookselling are rare. several travelogues and is currently working on a Updating them is costly and even futile in the face of short lives of leading figures in the of constant change. When, for the 1974 revision British book trade in the 20th century, who of Mumby (Jonathan Cape), I attempted to record were personally known to him. something of the breadth of 19th- and 20th- century bookselling outside and the prin- Gary Ink cipal university cities, I could do no more than skim the surface. It wasn’t practical to visit every town and city centre: many booksellers to whom I wrote failed to reply. Even when I contributed a series to The Bookseller in the early ’90s, I took trips to slightly fewer than one hundred places. Hundreds more went unrecorded. Research Librarian of Reed Business I have in my archive many long, helpful Information, New York, since 1996, Gary Ink letters from booksellers and also lots of notes on has served the world of reference publishing for no more than half a page, but very few books. So thirty-five years. In 1969 he joined H W my list below is short and I make no apologies for Wilson Company where he became Editor of the including my own account of bookselling in Cumulative Book Index. In the R R Bowker Hampstead. I would not have done so had there Company, which he joined in 1978, he rose to been more choice; if I have overlooked something the position of Editor-in-Chief, Reference Books of the same nature which is better, I apologize. before becoming Librarian of Publishers Weekly Excluded from the list are two books which in 1990. He holds a Masters degree in and Information Science from Long Island were significant in their time, but are now University. outdated. One is the collection by Gerald Bartlett Email: [email protected] entitled Better Bookselling (Hutchinson, 1965 and

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The Literature of the Book: Retail bookselling

1968) which brings together in book form nine Seventy-two-page, illustrated account of previously published pamphlets, on university running one medium-sized shop in a neighbour- bookselling, mail order, stock control, library hood where a magazine was not thought of as a supply, economics, accounting, careers, staffing book. and bookshop design. The other title which is worthy of historical mention only is Thomas Joy’s NORRINGTON, A L P Blackwell’s 1879-1979, The Bookselling Business (Pitman, 1974), a surpris- Blackwell, 1983 ingly concise (probably edited) handbook by one The pick of the bunch. Well researched, who was well trained and forward-looking about immaculately produced, learned account of the his chosen profession. incomparable “Gaffer”, his forbears and successors; of the most formidable of independents which in British list 2004 is still a family-owned nationwide chain plus two now merged publishing imprints. ELLIOTT, David A Trade of Charms, Bellew Publishing, 1992 THIN, Ainslie: James Thin: 150 Years of Bookselling A delightfully written, personal account of one 1848-1998, Mercat Press, 1998. A modest account man’s experience as a bookseller at Foyles, and with of a great Scottish enterprise which, perhaps, went the Claude Gill and Words & Music chains. Ranges a bridge too far. over the entire London book trade scene with nicely observed pen portraits of some of those prominent in WILSON, Charles First With the News: The History it. The author later became a publisher. of W H Smith, 1792-1972, Cape, 1985 Primarily concerned with the wholesaling and GRANT, Joy Harold Monro & The Poetry Book- retailing of newspapers, magazines, stationery, etc, shop, Routledge, 1967 it is also about the establishment and subsequent A record of the years 1912-32 when Monro vicissitudes of the first bookselling and bookstall proudly maintained an outlet for verse and a chain to cover the country. And it ain’t dead yet. meeting place for poets on the fringes of Blooms- bury. US list

HALLIDAY, Nigel Vaux More than a Bookshop: WHOULEY, Kate Manual on Bookselling: Practical Zwemmer’s and Art in the 20th Century, Philip Advice for the Bookstore Professional, American Wilson, 1991 Booksellers Association, 1996 As the title implies, much of the text is Long established as the standard for concerned with Zwemmer’s as publishers. A hand- setting up and operating a successful bookstore. somely illustrated case-bound record of how one Contributors include prominent bookstore owners man and his sons imposed an appreciation of art and managers who provide practical guidance on a public fiercely more philistine than today’s. based on their personal experience.

MOUNTAIN, Penny with FOYLE, Christopher ANDERSON, Charles B Bookselling in America FOYLES: A Celebration, Foyles Books, 2003 and the World: Some Observations & Recollections; An amusingly illustrated record of the first 100 In Celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Amer- years, marred by its designer’s assumption that no ican Booksellers Association, Quadrangle/The New attention span is longer than ten seconds. Does the York Times Book Company, 1975 professionally observed, commissioned narrative Prepared to commemorate the 75th anniver- hidden within it result from total freedom of access sary of the ABA, this collection provides some to ’s chaotic archive? Perhaps not. insightful articles in which legendary booksellers recount the stories of their success in the book NORRIE, Ian A Hampstead Memoir: High Hill business. The book also describes the important Bookshop, 1957-88, High Hill Press, 1989 role the American Booksellers Association has

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