This volume assembles documents that illustrate the changing structure of the British publishing industry in the nineteenth century. It charts the increasing separation of the functions of printing, publishing and retailing in the production and distribution of books, and the emergence of new economic models of publishing. For most of the period the book trade operated on a shortage of capital, depending upon fragile networks of credit and debt which could lead, as in the financial crisis of 1825-6, to the collapse of many businesses. The volume documents how the structures of the industry impacted upon the pricing structure of books and periodicals and charts the slow emergence of a mass-market for print. Major points of contention such as the ‘taxes on knowledge’ and the battle over legal deposit are traced, along with recurring debates over discounting and underselling. The volume focuses on key moments such as the controversy over free trade in the 1840s and 1850s and the debates over price protection which led to the formation of the Net Book Agreement in 1900.

This volume documents how the nineteenth-century British publishing industry responded to and helped shape changes in readership and reading markets in the period. Focusing on broad social, economic and cultural changes, it traces the impact of improvements in transport and communication networks, which dramatically affected the production, distribution and retail of books and periodicals, and the implementation of the Education Acts of 1870 and 1871 which forced publishers to direct their attention to new markets and adopt cheaper publishing formats. The growth of circulating libraries, the revolution in serial and part publication, and the spread of railway bookstalls are among the many topics addressed in this volume which concludes with a section that documents the new pressures of censorship that arose as educational reforms provoked anxieties over the spread of cheap ‘pernicious’ literature.

This volume assembles documents that illustrate the changing relations between authors and publishers in the nineteenth century, and the impact of copyright reform on publishing practices. The enormous expansion in the scale and variety of the marketplace for print after 1815 provided new opportunities for authors and prompted debates over intellectual property and the working relations between authors and publishers. The volume documents the impact of these changes on the publishing industry and its markets, focusing on key moments such as the emergence of the professional literary agent in the late 1870s and the formation of the Incorporated Society of Authors in 1883. It also includes key contemporary material related to copyright and intellectual property, which were major battle grounds affecting nineteenth-century textual circulation, author/publisher relations, financial sustainability, competitiveness in international markets, and industrial relations. The British publishing industry’s attempts to control piracy and unrestricted circulation of their titles in the US and elsewhere found expression in a number of pressure campaigns, formal government commissions, legal acts, and contributions to public debate through journal articles, pamphlets, speeches, and newspaper accounts, of which a representative selection are featured in this volume.

"During the course of the nineteenth century, the British publishing industry was transformed as the related commercial, technological and legal structures changed rapidly. This four-volume collection brings together contemporary source material that charts these changes, and explores some of the key contexts and debates of the period"--

* Sources that have not previously been published or brought together, and which are difficult to access outside of special collections or copyright libraries, has been included alongside other core material.

During the course of the nineteenth century, the British publishing industry was transformed as the related commercial, technological and legal structures changed rapidly. This four-volume collection brings together contemporary source material that charts these changes, and explores some of the key contexts and debates of the period.

Specially designed for publishing and book history courses, this fully revised, restructured and updated edition of a classic text is the only one to provide an overall history of publishing in Britain and of the areas affecting and affected by it.

"During the course of the nineteenth century, the British publishing industry was transformed as the related commercial, technological and legal structures changed rapidly. This four-volume collection brings together contemporary source material that charts these changes, and explores some of the key contexts and debates of the period"--

"During the course of the nineteenth century, the British publishing industry was transformed as the related commercial, technological and legal structures changed rapidly. This four-volume collection brings together contemporary source material that charts these changes, and explores some of the key contexts and debates of the period"--

"During the course of the nineteenth century, the British publishing industry was transformed as the related commercial, technological and legal structures changed rapidly. This four-volume collection brings together contemporary source material that charts these changes, and explores some of the key contexts and debates of the period"--