新規更新October 14, 2019 at 06:55AM
【外部リンク】
History of the bookselling
Tajotep: Copied from https://ift.tt/2OUfpDl
[[File:Japanese bookseller from Jinrin kinmo zui.jpg|thumb|Japanese bookseller from the ''Jinrin kinmo zui'' (An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Humanity) from 1690]]
[[Image:Bookshop in Much Wenlock.jpg|thumb|220px|Bookshop in [[Much Wenlock]], UK.]]
The '''founding of [[libraries]]''' in 300 BC stimulated the energies of the [[Athenian]] '''[[booksellers]]'''. In [[Ancient Rome|Rome]], toward the end of the [[Roman Republic|republic]], it became the fashion to have a library, and Roman booksellers carried on a flourishing trade.
==Greek and Roman booksellers==
In the book of [[Jeremiah]] the prophet is represented as dictating to Baruch the scribe, who described the mode in which his book was written. These scribes were the earliest booksellers, and supplied copies as they were demanded. [[Aristotle]] possessed a somewhat extensive library, and [[Plato]] is recorded to have paid the large sum of one hundred [[mina (unit)|minae]] for three small treatises of [[Philolaus]] the [[Pythagoreanism|Pythagorean]]. When the [[Alexandrian library]] was founded about 300 BC, various expedients were used for the purpose of procuring books, and this appears to have stimulated the energies of the [[Athens|Athenian]] booksellers. In [[Rome]], toward the end of the republic, it became the fashion to have a library as part of the household furniture. Roman booksellers carried on a flourishing trade. Their shops (''taberna librarii'') were chiefly in the [[Argiletum]], and in the Vicus Sandalarius. On the door, or on the side posts, was a list of the books on sale; and [[Martial]], who mentions this also, says that a copy of his First Book of Epigrams might be purchased for five [[denarii]]. In the time of [[Augustus]] the great booksellers were the Sosii. According to [[Justinian]], a law was passed granting to the scribes the ownership of the material written; this may be the beginnings of the modern law of [[copyright]].<ref name=EB1911></ref>
==Islamic bookshops==
[[Abbasid Caliphate]] in the east and [[Caliphate of Córdoba]] in the west, encouraged the development of bookshops, copyists, and book dealers across the entire [[Muslim world]], in Islāmic cities such as [[Damascus]], [[Baghdad]], and [[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]]. According to ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'':
</ref>}}
There is a popular turn of phrase from the 1960s, "Books are written in [[Cairo]], published in [[Beirut]], and read in [[Baghdad]]".<ref></ref><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> One of the most famous and prestigious Arab publishers is Dar al-Asab.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>
==French booksellers==
The first wave of French booksellers came soon after [[Johannes Gutenberg]] introduced his new printing technologies in Europe. The oldest known bookstore still opened in France (and Europe) is the Librairie Nouvelle d'Orléans. Its owner in 1545 was Étienne Rouzeau,<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> it now belongs to publisher [[Albin Michel]]. In 1810 Napoleon created a system by which, a would-be bookseller had to apply for a license (brevet), and supply four references testifying to his morality, and four confirmations of his professional ability to perform the job. All references had to be certified by the local mayor. If the application was accepted, the bookseller would have to swear an oath of loyalty to the régime. The application process was conducted to ensure that the new bookstore was not a place that distributed rebellious publications. The brevet process continued until 1870.<ref></ref>
==Christianity==
The spread of [[Christianity]] naturally created a great demand for copies of the [[Gospel]]s, other sacred books, and later on for missals and other devotional volumes for both church and private use. Before the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] and the introduction of printing, scribes and stationers who sold books formed guilds. Some of these stationers had stations built against the walls of cathedrals.<ref name=EB1911/> Besides the sworn stationers there were many booksellers in [[Oxford]] who were not sworn; for one of the statutes, passed in 1373, expressly states that, in consequence of their presence,
}}
==Modern bookselling==
[[Image:Caen maisonchibourg flickr.jpg|thumb|right|Boostore in France]]
[[Image:El Ateneo Bookstore.jpg|thumb|right|[[El Ateneo Grand Splendid]] bookstore in [[Buenos Aires]], [[Argentina]]]]
[[File:Eglise des Dominicains 20190111 08.jpg|thumb|left|13th century Dominican church converted into a bookstore in [[Maastricht]], the Netherlands]]
[[File:Gare Metz décor 20.png|thumb|left|In many parts of the world, bookstores—like this one in the [[train station]] in [[Metz]], [[France]]—are often found in transport facilities.]]
The modern system of bookselling dates from soon after the introduction of [[printing]]. Through the new mechanized process for printing, books became more affordable.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> By the nineteenth century, the model of bookselling as we know it began to emerge. A professional group of booksellers in [[Leipzig]] decided to form their own association in 1824, and in 1825 the became the first group to publish outside of the printer's guilds, leading to more people joining the profession without needing to be attached to a guild.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2) The earliest printers were also [[editing |editors]] and booksellers; but being unable to sell every copy of the works they printed, they had agents at most of the seats of learning, such as [[Anton Koberger]], who introduced the art of printing into [[Nuremberg]] in 1470. The most common types of books printed in large quantities were able to be cheaply produced like [[catechisms]] and [[almanacs]] and often not bound at all.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>
The religious dissensions of the [[Reformation]] in 16th-century continental Europe and the [[English Reformation]] in [[England]] under [[Henry VIII of England |Henry VIII]] and [[Edward VI of England |Edward VI]] fostered a great demand for books; but in England governments of both the [[Tudor dynasty|Tudor]] and [[House of Stuart|Stuart]] dynasties feared a [[Freedom of the press|free press]] and made various efforts to control the distribution of printed materials.<ref name=EB1911/>
The first patent for the office of king's printer was granted to [[Thomas Berthelet]] by [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] in 1529, but only such books as were first licensed were to be printed. At that time even the purchase or possession of an unlicensed book was a punishable offense. In 1556 the [[Company of Stationers]] was incorporated,Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2) and very extensive powers were granted in order that obnoxious books might be repressed. In the following reigns the [[Star Chamber]] exercised a rather effectual censorship; but, in spite of all precautions, such was the demand for books of a [[polemic]]al nature, that entrepreneurs and subversives printed many abroad and surreptitiously introduced them into England.<ref name=EB1911/>
In the course of the 16th and 17th centuries the Low Countries for a time became the chief centre of the bookselling world, and many of the finest folios and quartos in our libraries bear the names of Jansen, Blauw or [[Plantin Press | Plantin]], with the imprint of [[Amsterdam]], [[Utrecht (city)|Utrecht]], [[Leiden]] or [[Antwerp]], while the [[House of Elzevir | Elzevirs]] produced - besides other works - their charming little pocket classics. The southern towns of [[Douai]] and [[Saint-Omer]] (both in present-day France) at the same time furnished polemical works in English.<ref name=EB1911/>
[[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth]] () interfered little with books except when they emanated from [[Roman Catholics]], or touched upon her royal prerogatives; and towards the end of her reign, and during that of her successor, [[James I of England|James]] (), bookselling flourished. So much had bookselling increased during [[the Protectorate]] of 1653–1659 that in 1658 [[William London]] published ''A Catalogue of the most Vendible Books in England''. A bad time immediately followed. Although there were provincial booksellers, the centre of the trade was [[St. Paul's Churchyard]]. When the [[Great Fire of London]] began in 1666 the booksellers put most of their stock in the vaults of the church, where it was destroyed. The [[English Restoration|Restoration]] of 1660 restored the office of Licenser of the Press, which continued until 1694.<ref name=EB1911/>
The first British copyright statute, the [[Statute of Anne]] (1709), which specially relates to booksellers, enacted that, if any person shall think the published price of a book unreasonably high, he may make a complaint to the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], and to certain other persons named, who shall examine his complaint, and if well founded reduce the price; and any bookseller charging more than the price so fixed shall be fined [[English pound|£]]5 for every copy sold. The complaint procedure prescribed in this statute was apparently never used.<ref name=EB1911/>
Modern book-selling has changed dramatically with the advent of the computer. With major websites such as [[Amazon.com|Amazon]], [[eBay]], and other [[List of book distributors |book distributors]] offering [[affiliate programs]], book sales can be facilitated through an [[affiliate program]].
==Selling and publishing==
[[Image:Borders bookshelf.jpg|thumb|Books on a table in a [[Borders Group|Borders]] store in [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], USA. Borders stores started closing in 2010.]]
For later times it is necessary to make a gradual distinction between ''booksellers'', whose trade consists in selling books, either by retail or wholesale, and ''[[publisher]]s'', whose business involves the production of the books from the author's [[manuscript]]s, and who are the intermediaries between author and bookseller, just as the booksellers (in the restricted sense) are intermediaries between the author and publisher and the public. The convenience of this distinction is not impaired by the fact either that a publisher is also a wholesale bookseller, or that a still more recent development in publishing started a reaction to some extent in the way of amalgamating the two functions. The scheme of ''The Times'' Book Club (started in 1905) was, again, a combination of a subscription library with the business of bookselling and it brought the organization of a [[newspaper]], with all its means of achieving publicity, into the work of promoting the sale of books, in a way which practically introduced a new factor into the bookselling business.<ref name=EB1911/>
[[James Lackington]] is credited as the person responsible for changing this profession. His bookshop, known as "The Temple of the Muses," was in Finsbury Square in north London. https://ift.tt/2fMSoOK
=== Specialty developments ===
<!-- title redirects here see also [[Antiquarian Booksellers Association]] -->
[[Image:Bookshop, Tokyo.JPG|thumb|300px|Books in a Tokyo bookstore]]
During the 19th century it remains the fact that the distinction between publisher and bookseller—literary promoter and shopkeeper—became fundamental. The booksellers, as such, were
engaged either in wholesale bookselling, or in the retail, the old or [[second-hand]] (now includes rare and very old books trade, called '''antiquarian books'''), and the [[periodical]]s publishing or retailing trades.<ref name=EB1911/>
Coming between the publisher and the retail bookseller is the important distributing agency of the ''wholesale bookseller''. It is to him that the retailer and libraries look for supplies, as it is impossible to stock all of the books published. [[Paternoster Row]], [[London]], was for over a hundred years the centre of this industry, where retail booksellers, busily engaged in obtaining the books ordered by the book-buying public. It is where the publisher calls first on showing or "subscribing" a new book, a critical process, for by the number thus ordered the fate of a book is sometimes determined.<ref name=EB1911/> In the United States, [[Baker & Taylor]] is a major distributor.
What may be termed the third partner in publishing is the ''retail bookseller''; and to protect their interests there was established in 1890 a London booksellers' society, which had for its object the restriction of discounts to 25%, and also to arrange prices generally and control all details connected with the trade. The society a few years afterwards widened its field of operations so as to include the whole of the [[United Kingdom]], and it became "The Associated Booksellers of Great Britain and Ireland."<ref name=EB1911/>
==Bookselling in the United States ==
[[File:Tattered-cover-16th-st.jpg|thumb|The [[Tattered Cover]] is a bookstore in Denver, Colorado, and one of the largest [[independent bookstore]]s in the United States.]]
The history of bookselling in the [[United States]] is of special interest.
The [[Spain|Spanish]] settlements drew away from the old country much of its enterprise and best talent, and the presses of [[Mexico]] and other cities teemed with publications mostly of a religious character, but many others, especially linguistic and historical, were also published. Bookselling in the United States was of a somewhat later growth, although printing and bookselling was introduced into [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], as early as 1640 by [[Hezekiah Usher]] and by Usher in 1652 in [[Boston]]. Bookselling was happening in [[Philadelphia]] in 1685, and [[New York City|New York]] in 1693. [[Ben Franklin|Franklin]] had served to make the trade illustrious, yet few persons were engaged in it at the commencement of the 19th century. Books chiefly for scholars and libraries were imported from [[Europe]]; but after the [[War of 1812]] printing-presses multiplied rapidly, and with the spread of newspapers and education there also arose a demand for books, and publishers set to work to secure the advantages offered by the wide field of English literature, the whole of which they had the liberty of reaping free of all cost beyond that of production. The works of [[Walter Scott]], [[Lord Byron]], [[Thomas Moore]], [[Robert Southey]], [[William Wordsworth]], and indeed of every author of note, were reprinted without the smallest payment to author or proprietor. Half the names of the authors in the so-called "American" catalogue of books printed between 1820 and 1852 are British. These titles were made available and affordable to the public. In consequence of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], the high price of labour, and the restrictive duties laid on in order to protect native industry, coupled with the frequent dealings with England, a great change took place, and American publishers and booksellers, while there was still no international copyright, made liberal offers for early sheets of new publications. Boston, New York and Philadelphia still retained their old supremacy as bookselling centres. Meanwhile, the distinct publishing business also grew, until gradually the conditions of business became assimilated to those of Europe.<ref name=EB1911/>
=== African-American Booksellers ===
Bookselling is a profession historically dominated by white Americans, but African Americans developed their own tradition of book selling, particularly in conjunction with radical political movements such as abolitionism, black nationalism, Black Power, and Marxism. The first documented [[African-American Bookstores|African American bookstore]] was owned and operated by the abolitionist [[David Ruggles]] in the 1830s in New York City. In the years of the civil rights and Black Power era of the 1950s and 1960s, [[Lewis Michaux|Lewis Michaux's]] National Memorial African Bookstore became arguably the most prominent Black-owned bookstore in the United States. In the 1980s and '90s, Clara Villarosa's Hue Man Books became the most prominent Black-owned bookstore in the nation, first in Denver and later in Harlem.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>
==References==
[[Category:Bookselling]]
[[Category:Bookstores]]
[[Image:Bookshop in Much Wenlock.jpg|thumb|220px|Bookshop in [[Much Wenlock]], UK.]]
The '''founding of [[libraries]]''' in 300 BC stimulated the energies of the [[Athenian]] '''[[booksellers]]'''. In [[Ancient Rome|Rome]], toward the end of the [[Roman Republic|republic]], it became the fashion to have a library, and Roman booksellers carried on a flourishing trade.
==Greek and Roman booksellers==
In the book of [[Jeremiah]] the prophet is represented as dictating to Baruch the scribe, who described the mode in which his book was written. These scribes were the earliest booksellers, and supplied copies as they were demanded. [[Aristotle]] possessed a somewhat extensive library, and [[Plato]] is recorded to have paid the large sum of one hundred [[mina (unit)|minae]] for three small treatises of [[Philolaus]] the [[Pythagoreanism|Pythagorean]]. When the [[Alexandrian library]] was founded about 300 BC, various expedients were used for the purpose of procuring books, and this appears to have stimulated the energies of the [[Athens|Athenian]] booksellers. In [[Rome]], toward the end of the republic, it became the fashion to have a library as part of the household furniture. Roman booksellers carried on a flourishing trade. Their shops (''taberna librarii'') were chiefly in the [[Argiletum]], and in the Vicus Sandalarius. On the door, or on the side posts, was a list of the books on sale; and [[Martial]], who mentions this also, says that a copy of his First Book of Epigrams might be purchased for five [[denarii]]. In the time of [[Augustus]] the great booksellers were the Sosii. According to [[Justinian]], a law was passed granting to the scribes the ownership of the material written; this may be the beginnings of the modern law of [[copyright]].<ref name=EB1911></ref>
==Islamic bookshops==
[[Abbasid Caliphate]] in the east and [[Caliphate of Córdoba]] in the west, encouraged the development of bookshops, copyists, and book dealers across the entire [[Muslim world]], in Islāmic cities such as [[Damascus]], [[Baghdad]], and [[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]]. According to ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'':
</ref>}}
There is a popular turn of phrase from the 1960s, "Books are written in [[Cairo]], published in [[Beirut]], and read in [[Baghdad]]".<ref></ref><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> One of the most famous and prestigious Arab publishers is Dar al-Asab.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>
==French booksellers==
The first wave of French booksellers came soon after [[Johannes Gutenberg]] introduced his new printing technologies in Europe. The oldest known bookstore still opened in France (and Europe) is the Librairie Nouvelle d'Orléans. Its owner in 1545 was Étienne Rouzeau,<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> it now belongs to publisher [[Albin Michel]]. In 1810 Napoleon created a system by which, a would-be bookseller had to apply for a license (brevet), and supply four references testifying to his morality, and four confirmations of his professional ability to perform the job. All references had to be certified by the local mayor. If the application was accepted, the bookseller would have to swear an oath of loyalty to the régime. The application process was conducted to ensure that the new bookstore was not a place that distributed rebellious publications. The brevet process continued until 1870.<ref></ref>
==Christianity==
The spread of [[Christianity]] naturally created a great demand for copies of the [[Gospel]]s, other sacred books, and later on for missals and other devotional volumes for both church and private use. Before the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] and the introduction of printing, scribes and stationers who sold books formed guilds. Some of these stationers had stations built against the walls of cathedrals.<ref name=EB1911/> Besides the sworn stationers there were many booksellers in [[Oxford]] who were not sworn; for one of the statutes, passed in 1373, expressly states that, in consequence of their presence,
}}
==Modern bookselling==
[[Image:Caen maisonchibourg flickr.jpg|thumb|right|Boostore in France]]
[[Image:El Ateneo Bookstore.jpg|thumb|right|[[El Ateneo Grand Splendid]] bookstore in [[Buenos Aires]], [[Argentina]]]]
[[File:Eglise des Dominicains 20190111 08.jpg|thumb|left|13th century Dominican church converted into a bookstore in [[Maastricht]], the Netherlands]]
[[File:Gare Metz décor 20.png|thumb|left|In many parts of the world, bookstores—like this one in the [[train station]] in [[Metz]], [[France]]—are often found in transport facilities.]]
The modern system of bookselling dates from soon after the introduction of [[printing]]. Through the new mechanized process for printing, books became more affordable.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> By the nineteenth century, the model of bookselling as we know it began to emerge. A professional group of booksellers in [[Leipzig]] decided to form their own association in 1824, and in 1825 the became the first group to publish outside of the printer's guilds, leading to more people joining the profession without needing to be attached to a guild.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2) The earliest printers were also [[editing |editors]] and booksellers; but being unable to sell every copy of the works they printed, they had agents at most of the seats of learning, such as [[Anton Koberger]], who introduced the art of printing into [[Nuremberg]] in 1470. The most common types of books printed in large quantities were able to be cheaply produced like [[catechisms]] and [[almanacs]] and often not bound at all.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>
The religious dissensions of the [[Reformation]] in 16th-century continental Europe and the [[English Reformation]] in [[England]] under [[Henry VIII of England |Henry VIII]] and [[Edward VI of England |Edward VI]] fostered a great demand for books; but in England governments of both the [[Tudor dynasty|Tudor]] and [[House of Stuart|Stuart]] dynasties feared a [[Freedom of the press|free press]] and made various efforts to control the distribution of printed materials.<ref name=EB1911/>
The first patent for the office of king's printer was granted to [[Thomas Berthelet]] by [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] in 1529, but only such books as were first licensed were to be printed. At that time even the purchase or possession of an unlicensed book was a punishable offense. In 1556 the [[Company of Stationers]] was incorporated,Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2) and very extensive powers were granted in order that obnoxious books might be repressed. In the following reigns the [[Star Chamber]] exercised a rather effectual censorship; but, in spite of all precautions, such was the demand for books of a [[polemic]]al nature, that entrepreneurs and subversives printed many abroad and surreptitiously introduced them into England.<ref name=EB1911/>
In the course of the 16th and 17th centuries the Low Countries for a time became the chief centre of the bookselling world, and many of the finest folios and quartos in our libraries bear the names of Jansen, Blauw or [[Plantin Press | Plantin]], with the imprint of [[Amsterdam]], [[Utrecht (city)|Utrecht]], [[Leiden]] or [[Antwerp]], while the [[House of Elzevir | Elzevirs]] produced - besides other works - their charming little pocket classics. The southern towns of [[Douai]] and [[Saint-Omer]] (both in present-day France) at the same time furnished polemical works in English.<ref name=EB1911/>
[[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth]] () interfered little with books except when they emanated from [[Roman Catholics]], or touched upon her royal prerogatives; and towards the end of her reign, and during that of her successor, [[James I of England|James]] (), bookselling flourished. So much had bookselling increased during [[the Protectorate]] of 1653–1659 that in 1658 [[William London]] published ''A Catalogue of the most Vendible Books in England''. A bad time immediately followed. Although there were provincial booksellers, the centre of the trade was [[St. Paul's Churchyard]]. When the [[Great Fire of London]] began in 1666 the booksellers put most of their stock in the vaults of the church, where it was destroyed. The [[English Restoration|Restoration]] of 1660 restored the office of Licenser of the Press, which continued until 1694.<ref name=EB1911/>
The first British copyright statute, the [[Statute of Anne]] (1709), which specially relates to booksellers, enacted that, if any person shall think the published price of a book unreasonably high, he may make a complaint to the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], and to certain other persons named, who shall examine his complaint, and if well founded reduce the price; and any bookseller charging more than the price so fixed shall be fined [[English pound|£]]5 for every copy sold. The complaint procedure prescribed in this statute was apparently never used.<ref name=EB1911/>
Modern book-selling has changed dramatically with the advent of the computer. With major websites such as [[Amazon.com|Amazon]], [[eBay]], and other [[List of book distributors |book distributors]] offering [[affiliate programs]], book sales can be facilitated through an [[affiliate program]].
==Selling and publishing==
[[Image:Borders bookshelf.jpg|thumb|Books on a table in a [[Borders Group|Borders]] store in [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], USA. Borders stores started closing in 2010.]]
For later times it is necessary to make a gradual distinction between ''booksellers'', whose trade consists in selling books, either by retail or wholesale, and ''[[publisher]]s'', whose business involves the production of the books from the author's [[manuscript]]s, and who are the intermediaries between author and bookseller, just as the booksellers (in the restricted sense) are intermediaries between the author and publisher and the public. The convenience of this distinction is not impaired by the fact either that a publisher is also a wholesale bookseller, or that a still more recent development in publishing started a reaction to some extent in the way of amalgamating the two functions. The scheme of ''The Times'' Book Club (started in 1905) was, again, a combination of a subscription library with the business of bookselling and it brought the organization of a [[newspaper]], with all its means of achieving publicity, into the work of promoting the sale of books, in a way which practically introduced a new factor into the bookselling business.<ref name=EB1911/>
[[James Lackington]] is credited as the person responsible for changing this profession. His bookshop, known as "The Temple of the Muses," was in Finsbury Square in north London. https://ift.tt/2fMSoOK
=== Specialty developments ===
<!-- title redirects here see also [[Antiquarian Booksellers Association]] -->
[[Image:Bookshop, Tokyo.JPG|thumb|300px|Books in a Tokyo bookstore]]
During the 19th century it remains the fact that the distinction between publisher and bookseller—literary promoter and shopkeeper—became fundamental. The booksellers, as such, were
engaged either in wholesale bookselling, or in the retail, the old or [[second-hand]] (now includes rare and very old books trade, called '''antiquarian books'''), and the [[periodical]]s publishing or retailing trades.<ref name=EB1911/>
Coming between the publisher and the retail bookseller is the important distributing agency of the ''wholesale bookseller''. It is to him that the retailer and libraries look for supplies, as it is impossible to stock all of the books published. [[Paternoster Row]], [[London]], was for over a hundred years the centre of this industry, where retail booksellers, busily engaged in obtaining the books ordered by the book-buying public. It is where the publisher calls first on showing or "subscribing" a new book, a critical process, for by the number thus ordered the fate of a book is sometimes determined.<ref name=EB1911/> In the United States, [[Baker & Taylor]] is a major distributor.
What may be termed the third partner in publishing is the ''retail bookseller''; and to protect their interests there was established in 1890 a London booksellers' society, which had for its object the restriction of discounts to 25%, and also to arrange prices generally and control all details connected with the trade. The society a few years afterwards widened its field of operations so as to include the whole of the [[United Kingdom]], and it became "The Associated Booksellers of Great Britain and Ireland."<ref name=EB1911/>
==Bookselling in the United States ==
[[File:Tattered-cover-16th-st.jpg|thumb|The [[Tattered Cover]] is a bookstore in Denver, Colorado, and one of the largest [[independent bookstore]]s in the United States.]]
The history of bookselling in the [[United States]] is of special interest.
The [[Spain|Spanish]] settlements drew away from the old country much of its enterprise and best talent, and the presses of [[Mexico]] and other cities teemed with publications mostly of a religious character, but many others, especially linguistic and historical, were also published. Bookselling in the United States was of a somewhat later growth, although printing and bookselling was introduced into [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], as early as 1640 by [[Hezekiah Usher]] and by Usher in 1652 in [[Boston]]. Bookselling was happening in [[Philadelphia]] in 1685, and [[New York City|New York]] in 1693. [[Ben Franklin|Franklin]] had served to make the trade illustrious, yet few persons were engaged in it at the commencement of the 19th century. Books chiefly for scholars and libraries were imported from [[Europe]]; but after the [[War of 1812]] printing-presses multiplied rapidly, and with the spread of newspapers and education there also arose a demand for books, and publishers set to work to secure the advantages offered by the wide field of English literature, the whole of which they had the liberty of reaping free of all cost beyond that of production. The works of [[Walter Scott]], [[Lord Byron]], [[Thomas Moore]], [[Robert Southey]], [[William Wordsworth]], and indeed of every author of note, were reprinted without the smallest payment to author or proprietor. Half the names of the authors in the so-called "American" catalogue of books printed between 1820 and 1852 are British. These titles were made available and affordable to the public. In consequence of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], the high price of labour, and the restrictive duties laid on in order to protect native industry, coupled with the frequent dealings with England, a great change took place, and American publishers and booksellers, while there was still no international copyright, made liberal offers for early sheets of new publications. Boston, New York and Philadelphia still retained their old supremacy as bookselling centres. Meanwhile, the distinct publishing business also grew, until gradually the conditions of business became assimilated to those of Europe.<ref name=EB1911/>
=== African-American Booksellers ===
Bookselling is a profession historically dominated by white Americans, but African Americans developed their own tradition of book selling, particularly in conjunction with radical political movements such as abolitionism, black nationalism, Black Power, and Marxism. The first documented [[African-American Bookstores|African American bookstore]] was owned and operated by the abolitionist [[David Ruggles]] in the 1830s in New York City. In the years of the civil rights and Black Power era of the 1950s and 1960s, [[Lewis Michaux|Lewis Michaux's]] National Memorial African Bookstore became arguably the most prominent Black-owned bookstore in the United States. In the 1980s and '90s, Clara Villarosa's Hue Man Books became the most prominent Black-owned bookstore in the nation, first in Denver and later in Harlem.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>
==References==
[[Category:Bookselling]]
[[Category:Bookstores]]
https://ift.tt/2pepXlU
