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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2014
(In this commentary all titles mentioned may be assumed to be available in paperback unless explicitly stated otherwise.)
According to E. J. Hobsbawm in an article in the Times Literary Supplement in the spring of 1966, the number of history titles published in Britain in 1965 increased by 15 per cent over 1964, and in the United States by 24 per cent. Just where paperbacks figure in this rise, it is impossible to say, but for the United States the Bowker catalog, Paperbound Books in Print, for February 1965 lists 30,700 titles; the catalog for June 1966 lists 38,500 titles. The February 1966 issue of Paperbacks in Print … and on Sale in Great Britain, published by J. Whitaker & Sons, Ltd., incorporates 18,000 titles; the catalog for October 1966, 22,000 titles. Thus far have paperbacks come since July 30, 1935, the day of birth of Penguin Books, London, with ten titles.
American booksellers, generally speaking, are less articulate than English. It is not difficult to get an English dealer to talk about the boon of the paperback. And some talk lyrically. I. P. M. Chambers, director of the Bryce Bookshop, Museum Street, London W.C. 1, may be taken as representative. “Paperbacks have been a conveyor belt to prosperity,” were approximately his words, “for without them many a bookshop in this country would have closed after the war. The paperback has done more for education than any institution.
In assembling the data for this article many individuals, on both sides of the Atlantic, have been of great assistance to me. In the first place I wish to express my gratitude to Mrs. Ruth Erit, order librarian at the Frost Library, Amherst College, and to members of her staff for sharing with me their bibliographical knowledge as well as the resources of their office.
I have derived both pleasure and information from talking with various persons connected with book publishing and book selling. I have in mind in particular: Mr. Hugh Van Dusen of Harper & Row, Inc.; Mr. John Kitchin of Penguin Books Ltd.; Mr. Julian Shuckburgh of Methuen & Co. Ltd.; Sir Stanley Unwin and Mr. Rayner Unwin of George Allen & Unwin Ltd.; Mr. R. W. David and Mr. Ronald Mansbridge of the Cambridge University Press; Mr. Graham C. Greene of Jonathan Cape Ltd.; Mr. Peter du Sautoy of Faber & Faber Ltd.; Mr. Sutcliffe of the Clarendon Press; Mr. I. P. M. Chambers of the Bryce Bookshop, London; Mr. Peter Stockham of Dillon's University Bookshop, London.
I wish also to thank the following for sending me information concerning publications and sales: Mr. A. Comerford of the Economists' Bookshop, London; Mr. Christopher Dolley of Penguin Books Inc.; Mrs. Catherine C. Linnet of the Oxford University Press, Inc.; Mrs. Virginia H. Patterson of the Cambridge University Press; Mr. Stanley Duane of Thomas Y. Crowell Co.; Mr. L. Charie of George Harding's Bookshop Ltd., London; Mr. Pemberton of Bowes & Bowes Ltd., Booksellers, Cambridge; Miss Penelope Hewson of Pergamon Press, Inc.; Mr. J. M. Jourdier of Ernest Benn Ltd.; Mr. Bill Kolins of Fontana Books; Mr. Howard Sandum of Collier Books; Miss Denise Rathbun of Anchor Books; Miss Elane Feldman of Schocken Books Inc.; Miss June Stephenson of W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.; Miss Margaret Craig of Methuen & Co., Ltd.; Mr. Donald R. Bensen of Pyramid Publications, Inc.
I am grateful as well to various publishers, too numerous to mention, for sending me copies of paperback editions for my examination.
I might add, though it is fairly obvious, that my comments on the paperback industry are based on a random sampling of opinion and experience and make no pretense at being comprehensive. Since it is not a scholarly inquiry, I have not, for the most part, documented my statements.
The article was completed in early September 1966 and finally revised in early December 1966.
1. “Growth of an Audience,” T.L.S., LXV (1966), 283.Google Scholar
2. Schick, Frank L., The Paperbound Book in America (New York, 1958), p. 14.Google Scholar
3. For the various titles mentioned in this commentary, full bibliographical information, including place and date of publication, will not be provided for paperback editions. The name of the publisher of the paperback and the copyright date of the original edition are supplied in the lists following the commentary.
4. Tucker, P. E., “Sources of Books for Undergraduates: A Survey at Leeds University Library,” Journal of Documentation, XVII (1961), 90–91.Google Scholar
5. The Home University Library series has just been revived. The Oxford University Press is inaugurating a new paperback series, Opus (Oxford Paperback University Series), which “will gradually incorporate all the enduring books in that series, adding new titles regularly. The price of each volume will be 7/6.” The Bookseller, July 23, 1966.
6. Plumb, J. H., Men and Places (London, 1963), p. 246Google Scholar