To the Publishers. Gentlemen:

OME few days ago we sent out a letter to all publishers enclosing the booklet "Of Interest to Publishers" and an outline of the Association's Telegraphic Delivery plan. We are not in a position to acknowledge each reply but we wish to express our appreciation of the answers we received and the cooperation which has been promised.

With regard to the booklet we would like to quote from a reply from one publishing house.

"I might add that in connection with resolution 13 we have always discouraged the direct dealing of publishers with libraries and we do everything we possibly can to direct all this sort of business to the booksellers. On the other hand we have felt at times that our most serious books did not always receive from the booksellers that attention with respect to library use to which this type of book is entitled, and from the publisher's point of view he suffers very considerably from this lack of intelligent interest on the part of some booksellers. As Executive Secretary of the A. B. A. I should like to suggest to you that this question of library use of the more serious and intensive books be specially canvassed by those booksellers who seek library business."

There is a great deal in this paragraph for the booksellers and for other publish

Board of Trade Meeting

On Monday, June 22, the Board of Trade met in New York. Because of their able work in the past, Mr. Cedric Crowell of the Doubleday Page Bookshops was reelected Chairman and Mr. Theodore Schulte re-elected Recorder of the Board.

In addition to the members of the Board

the meeting was attended by the President and Executive Secretary of the Association.

President McKee outlined the problems confronting us and plans were made for the work of the coming year.

Committees were appointed to revise the Code of Ethics, work on the library discount problem, adopt a new emblem for the Association, and investigate methods for publicity and advertising.

"We will pay only regular postage rates on packages under $10.00 value sent to us.'

The above statement is being made by one of our members in a label which he is placing on orders. It has been made necessary by "publishers constantly overcharging for postage on small packages, and adding insurance, all of which, with the addition of two cents on each package, makes pick up orders cost 10% more than they should." Our correspondent further says that it seems unnecessary to insure small packages if they are properly addressed and bear the publisher's label, and that quite a number of the publishers do not make this charge.

We would like to call the attention of everyone, booksellers as well as publishers, to the fact that we add considerably to our cost of doing business if we overlook these

apparently minor and insignificant expenses. Booksellers should watch out for them and publishers help us to cut them down.

In going over the records of the convention as printed in the Publishers' Weekly,

we find that the name of Mr. Ernest Eisele, Brentano's, New York, was not included in the list of members elected to the Board of Trade.

*

The work on the Clearing House and Telegraphic Delivery plan is progressing. Many of the members have notified us that they will use the Center for their shipments from New York and that they will cooperate in working up the publicity that is so essential to the success of our first big national campaign. Orders are being re ceived daily for Telegraphic Delivery dodgers which are soon to be printed.

Several designs for our new emblem have been submitted and when the Executive Committee decides on one, we will start printing our advertising matter.

Those members of the bookselling profession, who, because they are not members of the A. B. A., do not receive our Bulletin, may get further information these plans by addressing our Executive

Secretary.

E. W. M.

on

Summer Is Reprint Time UMMER time is reprint time. It is interesting to watch fact being proved by the various shops thruout the country. Here is a whole window given over to them. Their colorful jackets and enticingly well-known titles and authors making an attractive window. Most of the titles in the windows are cannily chosen with an eye to their moving picture prominence, the bookseller ever on the alert to capture the millions of movie fans as book readers. Some booksellers have followed in the steps of the chain drug stores in keeping reprints prominently displayed all the time, for they have watched with interest the immense sale of popular copyrights by the chain stores. Most people now agree that it is better to have people reading something than nothing and it is easier to sell the idea of reading thru the

reprint book than thru any other, and more appropriate in summer time than at any other season of the year.

The Book Hunter

THE month of June's record of "Books

Wanted" in the Publishers' Weekly again gives Cabell first place in the list of authors advertised for most frequently. It is rather difficult to estimate from the monthly list the actual commercial value of the first editions of the authors, but it is helpful in indicating the general trend of American collecting. In many cases one bookseller will advertise for as many as ten books of an author and this will naturally send the author way up on the list. Likewise when a bookstore advertises every month for the same group of authors they nineteenth century American authors there will reach a place on the list. Among the appears to be a fairly general demand for Poe, Hawthorne, Twain and Whitman. The appearance of Edith Wharton's new novel might be accounted for by the fact that one individual wants many of her books. There has been a steady demand for Amy Lowell's "Keats" since the analysis of "Books Wanted" was instituted. Among the names advertised for, which altho they do not appear in the list yet seem significant, are books by Baron Corvo, Marianne Moore, winner of last year's Dial award, and Somerset Maugham. Separate Titles All Firsts Wanted II

J. B. Cabell... Edith

14

942

Wanted

44

45

T

HE Mishawaka Book Shop recently celebrated its fifth birthday by giving a birthday party which was quite successful, in that it gave us so much publicity that we have decided to make it an annual

event.

We have now brought the child thru its early infancy, by hard work, bulldog tenacity and service. I hardly know which was the greatest factor. Perhaps they should enjoy equal honors. However, as nothing can be accomplished without hard work, it may be taken for granted that I worked. As to the bulldog tenacity, perhaps I should have become discouraged and let the infant die, had I not been assured by well-meaning friends that I would never make a success of the enterprise. I do not know whether it was an expression of a lack of confidence in myself or whether our close proximity to South Bend made it seem hopeless. Be that as it may, I took a firm grip on myself and said: "This thing will I do nothing shall stop me."

I very soon realized that my greatest problem was to change the "South Bend habit" to the "Mishawaka habit"-in other words to make our shop so attractive that people would want to buy of us. As South

Bend merchants were far better able to carry more complete and better stocks-than we were, I saw that the only thing to do was to create the proper atmosphere in our shop and to show our willingness to serve. We spared no effort to obtain for a customer what he wanted. We never allowed a soiled greeting card to go out of the place, and never sold a defective article to a customer without calling his attention to it and making a reduction in the price. Thus we established a policy that we have always maintained.

Growth was not rapid, people seemed unresponsive and our struggles were many. Having always been a business woman, I never had time to become a bibliographer, and tho I am very fond of books, my knowledge of them was (and is) very limited. However, I kept the Publishers' Weekly always at hand, and the useful information I obtained therefrom has been of incaluclable value.

We have wonderful plans for the future of this child, who was born October 2, 1919, and who started out so inauspiciously. Having survived all the known ills of infancy, we feel that his chance for full growth is very good.

T

HE Oxford University Press may certainly take pride in emphasizing the fact that 1925 marks the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the appearance of its imprint on Bibles; an imprint known thruout the world and in every bookstore where books are sold. So closely connected is the word "Oxford" with Bibles that the United States Circuit

Court in 1900 prevented another firm from using the word "Oxford" on Bibles on account of its being obviously an intention to deceive.

THE SHELDONIAN THEATRE, OXFORD, FIRST HOME OF THE PRESS

The Oxford University Press is of much older date, of course, than 1675, and its first activities can be traced to the very earliest days of the printing press in the fifteenth century. After 1520, there was a gap in its activities until 1585 when the Earl of Leicester helped give the Press a new lease of life, and a year later the University lent £100 to an Oxford bookseller named Joseph Barnes to carry on the Press. Publishing enterprises, apparently, could be entered into with very moderate sums in those days, and the permission given was that he might have one press and one apprentice. In 1632, the rights were broadened to print all manner of books and to have three printers, two presses and two apprentices. These broad rights to print so alarmed the Stationers' Company, which then had complete monopoly of the Bible business, that it made an agreement with

the University by which for a consideration of £200 a year the Stationers' Company remained without competition in the Bible field.

publishing at Oxford got a new impetus With the coming of the Restoration, under Dr. John Fell, Bishop of Oxford. The agreement with the Stationers' Company was denounced, and in 1675 a quarto English Bible was printed, whose frontispiece and title-page are reproduced herewith, the Press being then housed in the Sheldonian Theatre, the famous building that was later vacated for the Clarendon Press Building. The Sheldonian Theatre is located next to the Bodleian Library, and its activities are now connected with that famous institution. Dr. Fell presented the Press with the famous types and type matrices, including the design for the beautiful font which was a quarter of a century ago revived for the "Oxford Book of English Verse."

The activities of the Press in the Bible field very steadily grew, and by the eighteenth century it had taken a predominant position. Some of the Oxford Bibles were famous for scholarship, some for fine. format and some for misprints, altho the proof-reading is so careful now that no plates are made without several complete readings, and there is a standing offer of reward to anyone who finds a mistake in an Oxford Bible. The "Vinegar Bible" of 1717 came from the Oxford University Press and is so called because of the error in the running title at Luke 20, which should read the "Parable of the Vineyard.' The "Murderers' Bible" of 1801 took its name from a misprint of the word "murmurers" in Jude 16. The "Ears to Ear Bible" of 1807 has a misprint in Matthew 13, 43. The "Wife-hater Bible" of 1810 has a misprint in Luke 14, 26, where the word "wife" is used for "life."

The famous paper mill of the Oxford University Press was likewise the result of Dr. Fell's interest, and its reputation for the finest product was early established.