A History of Booksellers, the Old and the NewCurwen, Henry
History
A History of Booksellers, the Old and the New
Curwen, Henry
Book industries and trade -- Great Britain -- History; Booksellers and bookselling -- Great Britain -- History
hardly be realized at much less a ‘plum.’”
In 1846, Mr. Registrar Hazlitt suggested the idea of a cheap uniform
library of world-known books to David Bogue, the bookseller, who
consequently commenced his European Library. In 1846-7, fifteen works
were published, edited for the most part by Mr. W. Hazlitt. Mr. Bohn,
however, discovered that in many of these works copyrights, of which
he was the owner, were infringed, notably in Roscoe’s “Lorenzo de’
Medici” and “Leo X.” An injunction was obtained against the further
issue of one of Bogue’s volumes, and in defence, if not retaliation,
Mr. Bohn determined to enter the field as a publisher of a similar
series. In 1846 he produced the first volume of his Standard Library,
which, running on for 150 volumes, was sold at the then astoundingly
small price--considering their size, their quality, and the care with
which they were edited and printed--of 3_s_. 6_d_. each. In 1847,
the Scientific Library was commenced, and was rapidly followed by
the Antiquarian Library, the Classical, Illustrated, and Historical
Libraries, the British Classics, &c. Bogue’s small venture stood a poor
chance against enterprise of this gargantuan scale, and in a short time
his fifteen volumes came into Mr. Bohn’s possession. Without counting
the Shilling Library, or the more expensive works which were from time
to time issued, Mr. Bohn continued the various libraries which are so
immediately associated with his name, until the total number of 602
volumes afforded the student a collection of such books as he might
otherwise have spent a lifetime and a fortune in acquiring. To few
publishers, if to any, is the cheapening of the highest and rarest
classes of English and foreign literature more deeply indebted than to
Mr. Bohn. Strangely enough, however, Mr. Bohn was the only member of
the trade who endeavoured in 1860 to exert his influence against the
abolition of the paper duty.
Among the best known of Mr. Bohn’s own productions are his editions
of Lowndes’ “Manual,” Addison’s works, his “Polyglot of French
Proverbs,” his translation of Schiller’s “Robbers,” and his “Guide to
the Knowledge of Pottery and Porcelain,” which, though published in
1849, is still the standard work on the subject. His position as an
antiquarian is widely acknowledged, and he is a Vice-President of the
Society of Arts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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