The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain

Description

The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain is an authoritative series which surveys the history of publishing, bookselling, authorship and reading in Britain. This seventh and final volume surveys the twentieth and twenty-first centuries from a range of perspectives in order to create a comprehensive guide, from growing professionalisation at the beginning of the twentieth century, to the impact of digital technologies at the end. Its multi-authored focus on the material book and its manufacture broadens to a study of the book's authorship and readership, and its production and dissemination via publishing and bookselling. It examines in detail key market sectors over the course of the period, and concludes with a series of essays concentrating on aspects of book history: the book in wartime; class, democracy and value; books and other media; intellectual property and copyright; and imperialism and post-imperialism.

Andrew Nash is Reader in Book History and Deputy Director of the Institute of English Studies, University of London. In addition to books on Victorian and Scottish literature he has edited or co-edited The Culture of Collected Editions (2003), Literary Cultures and the Material Book (2007) and New Directions in the History of the Novel (2014). Claire Squires is Director of the Stirling Centre for International Publishing and Communication at the University of Stirling. Her publications include Marketing literature: the making of contemporary writing in Britain (2007) and, with Padmini Ray Murray, the article 'The Digital Publishing Communications Circuit'. I. R. Willison held several senior posts in the British Museum Library from 1955 until his retirement in 1987. As Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of English Studies he has played a leading part in the development of book history as a field in the English-speaking world. He edited volume 4 of the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (Cambridge, 1972) and has authored numerous essays on bibliography, book history, and librarianship in Britain and in a global context. He was awarded a CBE for services to the History of the Book in 2005.

'Inevitably in a volume of this kind there are elements, aspects and topics one would have liked to have seen covered, but that are not. Equally, topics are covered that one did not expect, or even know about. Regardless, the volume is a treasure trove of information. Like all previous volumes in the series, Volume Seven is extremely rich, detailed, carefully edited, and authoritative.' Wim Van Mierlo, Library and Information History 'A fitting conclusion to a splendid seven-volume series (the first volumes appeared in 2008), this wonderfully useful and engaging collection presents 31 essays on topics including print materials and technology, book formats, and the digital book; authorship, publishing, distribution, and ownership; particular publishing niches from government publications, university presses, journals, magazines ... This rich volume and indeed the whole series are essential for all who are interested in the history of the book.' D. L. Patey, Choice 'The volume not only serves as an important point of reference for those working in book, publishing, or indeed library, history at the moment but will also serve as the foundation for scholars in the future to pursue their own investigations. This volume makes a very significant contribution and it is one which will stand the test of time.' Peter Reid, Journal of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society 'What has been done in this volume is immensely valuable. It is a time capsule of a national book history and book history more generally. It belongs - with no excuses - in any library pretending to house the essentials of cultural research.' Robert L. Patten, The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America