Mumby's Publishing and Bookselling in the Twentieth Century

Bell & Hyman, London, sixth edition, 1982. Cloth, 8vo, 24 cm,. 253 pp. From the blurb: "Mumby's Publishing and Bookselling became a standard text on the history of the British book trade soon after its publication in 1930 and has remained so throughout its many subsequent editions. In 1974 it was revised and updated by Ian Norrie, who contributed a major section devoted specifically to the period 1870-1970. Since then much has happened and the present book, although based on Ian Norrie's part of the 1974 Mumby, has been substantially re-written and re-structured to include the most recent directions taken by the trade in response to changing national and international markets. Ian Norrie records, in his uniquely lively and lucid style, the up-to-date chronicles of publishing houses and booksellers in every part of the British Isles, drawing attention, by so doing, to the trends that underlie these individual histories. In addition he includes more general surveys of the major issues to affect the book business during the twentieth century - among them, international copyright and the strengthening of export markets, the Net Book Agreement, the advent of book clubs and of bookselling chains, the 'paperback revolution', the growing influence of the media and of new technology, and the stringencies of economic recession. Bookplate on front pastedown endpaper, Fine in Near Fine dustwrapper.