College and Research Libraries


Review Articles 
Books About Books 
English Books fcf Readers, 1475 to 1557. Be-

ing a study in history of the book trade from 
Caxton to the incorporation of the Sta-
tioners' Company. By H. S. Bennett. Cam-
bridge, The University Press, 1 9 5 2 . $ 7 . 0 0 . 

Samuel Richardson: Master Printer. By W i l -
liam M . Sale, J r . Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell 
University Press, 1 9 5 0 . $ 5 . 0 0 . 

Papermaking in Pioneer America. By D a r d 
Hunter. Philadelphia, The University of 
Pennsylvania Press, 1 9 5 2 . $ 6 . 5 0 . 

A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints, 1751-
1800. By Marie Tremaine. Toronto, Uni-
versity of Toronto Press, 1 9 5 2 . $ 1 0 . 0 0 . 

Books and Printing: A Treasury for Typo-
philes. By Paul A. Bennett. Cleveland & 
New York. The World Publishing Com-
pany, 1 9 5 1 . 4 1 7 P . , $ 7 . 5 0 . 
In some of the review articles which I have 

contributed from time to time to C&RL, 
continental books have been given a good deal 
of attention. This was a natural result of 
long years of interrupted communication 
caused by the second World W a r . It was 
important to trace the course of continental 
European bibliographical and book arts studies 
during and after the war and to reestablish 
the broken links of cultural intercourse. In 
these matters we have now returned to nearly 
normal conditions. 

No special effort was necessary to collect 
for the purpose of the present review a num-
ber of interesting publications dealing with the 
English and American tradition-in bookmaking. 
They formed a natural group in which one 
or two titles of not quite so recent vintage 
found their proper place. 

The Cambridge University Press has been 
especially active in the field, producing a num-
ber of publications which promise to become 
permanently valuable additions to the biblio-
graphical reference shelf of the scholarly 
library. 

H . S. Bennett's English Books & Readers 
is a work which contains an astonishing amount 
of information, most of it never before com-
bined into a coherent unit. The strength of 
this book lies in the newness of the author's 
approach, his inquisitiveness about the reasons 

why printed books came into being in England ; 
what caused them to be written in the first 
place; how they got selected for publication; 
what the role of the patron was in this proc-
ess; what the author got out of it; what social 
classes the readers of various types of printed 
books belonged to and what their education 
was; whether Church and State hindered or 
encouraged the booktrade and how and why; 
and many other related major and minor 
questions. 

The weakness of the book, it seems to me, 
is a result—and perhaps an inevitable one—of 
its strength. It stems from M r . Bennett's con-
centration upon the British scene. It is proba-
ble that the student of English literature and 
the bibliographer specializing in English books 
and printing will hardly miss references to the 
continental scene. But if one is interested in 
the whole aspect of Western book history, in 
the gradual unfolding of the powers of the 
press and in the changes which printing effected 
in Western culture, then one misses something 
in this book. There are many points in Eng-
lish Books & Readers which invite compari-
son with conditions in France and the Nether-
lands, with Germany and Italy. Only through 
comparison would it be possible to see clearly 
at which date and in terms of what issues the 
English book trade ceased to follow continental 
precedence and took the lead in its own char-
acteristic way. But one thing is certain: M r . 
Bennett's thorough work has furnished a 
solid basis for this kind of evaluation to be 
undertaken in the future. 

English Books & Readers makes excellent 
use of previously published studies, integrating 
the material in a fresh and convincing manner. 
The main new source of information are the 
Forewords, Introductions, Dedicatory Epistles 
and other "Front Matter," found in the early 
books themselves. These are studied, com-
mented upon and quoted in such a way as to 
bring into this work a sustaining element of 
authenticity and immediate contact with the 
lives and times of the early English writers, 
printers, publishers, patrons and readers. 
There are appendices of considerable extent 
and usefulness: a "Handlist of Publications by 
Wynkyn de Worde, 1 4 9 2 - 1 5 3 5 " ; a "Trial 
List of Translations into English printed 

JULY, 1953 339 



between 1 4 7 5 - 1 5 6 0 " ; a "Bibliography" and 
a "General Index." 

A t least passing reference should be made 
to two other Cambridge publications, each 
of them dealing with a more specialized aspect 
of book production in England: J . Basil Old-
ham's English Blind-Stamped Bindings, 1952 
($27.50), in which the librarian of Shrews-
bury School describes "many new groups of 
bindings that may be attributed to particular 
craftsmen or binderies" and for which he de-
vises his own method of ornament classification 
and description, a system that may well prove 
adaptable to other schools and other countries; 
and Arthur M . Hind's Engraving in England 
in the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries, 
1952, of which Part I, T h e T u d o r Period, 
has so f a r been issued. 

Perhaps the greatest importance of these 
two publications will be their contribution to 
the question, why England did not enjoy 
equality of rank in the graphic arts with other 
European countries from the 14th to the end 
of the 17th century. It is generally recognized 
that the eighteenth century restored the bal-
ance and saw once more leadership in certain 
branches. W e are well informed on the contri-
bution to English graphic art of such figures 
as Caslon, Baskerville and Bell, of Hogarth 
and Blake, and of the English university 
presses. But the contribution of the individual 
printer of books in this century has not been 
too clearly underlined by monographic treat-
ment. 

When we take up Professor William M . 
Shale's study of Samuel Richardson: Master 
Printer, we wonder why such rich material 
has had to lie unused and unobserved for so 
long. This does not mean that it was all on 
the surface and ready to be gathered in by 
anyone who happened to come along. A key 
was needed to open this treasure house of 
information. In the case of Richardson this 
key was in the hands of the Professor of 
English at Cornell. He knew Richardson the 
novelist, but was searching for Richardson 
the man. This was the quest that led to 
Richardson the printer. 

Professor Shale started with the knowledge 
of his fiction which "shows his extraordinary 
awareness of class differences, his sensitiveness 
to human problems that arise from the inter-
penetration of classes. . . . If we are ever to 
see more clearly the meaning that his fiction 
had for his own century and that it may have 

for ours, we must see more clearly how his 
fiction rendered the conflicts he saw in his own 
society. W e cannot gain this knowledge, how-
ever, by divorcing the man from those activities 
that were the major preoccupation of his life." 

Richardson's career as a printer is set forth 
in this book with thoroughness and precision. 
It is not a straight annotated biography, for-
tunately, but a systematic concentration of the 
facts around a number of focal points. Each 
of these illuminates a specific aspect of Rich-
ardson's position in the world and his relation-
ship to the society in which he lived: His ac-
tivities as a printer of periodicals, his govern-
ment contracts, his work for the king, relation-
ships with the trade, and with the people who 
worked for him over the years. 

A substantial portion of the nearly 400 pages 
of the book are taken up with lists and ap-
pendices. Chapter V I I I contains " A List of 
Books printed by Richardson," both in alpha-
betical and in chronological arrangement, a 
total of no less than 5 1 6 titles. Chapter X is 
" A List of Book-sellers Whom Richardson 
Printed." There is also a list of "Richardson's 
Apprentices," " A List of the L a w Patentees," 
" N o t e s " and "Index." 

Special attention is paid to the ornaments 
used by Richardson, because they proved the 
most reliable means of identifying the products 
of Richardson's printing office. The occur-
rence and condition of these ornaments is 
traced with the most meticulous care and the 
question of unauthorized recutting is carefully 
considered. N e w bibliographical territory is 
explored here and it is not an exaggeration to 
say that this book is an important pioneer 
work in the identification of 18th century im-
prints. 

During Richardson's lifetime American 
printing and bookmaking were advancing 
steadily on the road towards greater inde-
pendence and self-reliance. When Richardson 
printed his first book in London in 1 7 1 9 , most 
American printers still had to import their 
paper from England. Only in Pennsylvania 
was domestic paper obtainable. By the time 
the last books issued from Richardson's press 
in 1762, papermaking had started in New 
Jersey, Massachusetts, Maine and Virginia. 

Dard Hunter's Papermaking in Pioneer 
America is the source for this and every other 
kind of information about the beginnings of 
this important industry. T h e book is based 
on the lectures which Dard Hunter delivered 

340 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



as Rosenbach Fellow in Bibliography, which 
in turn were built from materials gathered 
by him for many years for a large folio vol-
ume on the subject. The present book will be 
welcomed by many as a compact, handsomely 
printed and illustrated (and reasonably priced) 
introduction to the subject of papermaking in 
America. 

During the lifetime of Samuel Richardson 
there occurred another significant step in the 
growth of the printing press in the North 
American colonies: the beginning of printing 
in Canada, marked by the establishment in 
1 7 5 1 of a small press in H a l i f a x by Bartholo-
mew Green of Boston. From that time until 
the end of the 18th century, sixteen printing 
offices were operating in Canada, and of these 
nine were still functioning1 by 1800. A few 
years less than twenty years ago M a r i e T r e -
maine started a study of Canadian life towards 
the end of the 18th century. T h e ultimate con-
sequence of these interests lies now before us 
in the form of the most impressive A Bibli-
ography of Canadian Imprints, 1751-1800. 
A brief, but skilfully written Introduction 
summarizes the nature of early Canadian 
printing; from which it becomes apparent "that 
the staple product of the earliest Canadian 
presses, as of colonial presses elsewhere, were 
newspapers, almanacs, law and legislative 
publications, handbills, printed forms, and 
those kinds of educational and religious publi-
cations for which there was a substantial 
market." 

T h e Bibliography is organized in two 
groups, one of them "imprints," which includes 
books, pamphlets and broadsides, arranged 
chronologically by years, and alphabetically 
within each year. There are no less than 1204 
items in this group, which includes not only 
publications now extant but also those which 
are recorded in some source as having been 
issued. The facts for their inclusion is always 
carefully explained. It will be inevitable that 
avid collectors of Canadiana will forever 
onward hope for the discovery and acquisition 
of some of these elusive items. 

T h e products of the periodical press, news-
papers primarily, form the second (and much 
smaller) group in the Bibliography of Cana-
dian Imprints. T h e items are described in 
great detail and with what appears to be 
admirable care. The bibliography of Ameri-
cana has undoubtedly received a very signifi-
cant addition through the publication of this 

important volume which was most certainly 
a labor of devoted love. 

In conclusion therefshould be a reference 
in this article to at least one publication deal-
ing with current matters. It is easy to be en-
thusiastic about Paul Bennett's Books and 
Printing: A Treasury for Typophiles, because 
this book, which appeared in 1 9 5 1 , has had 
time to prove its worth. It was reviewed at 
some length in the October 1952, issue of 
College and Research Libraries by Edward C. 
Lathem. In my own experience as a teacher 
of graphic arts I found it most useful in giving 
a lively, many-sided and colorful insight into 
the methods and processes not only, but also 
the thoughts and beliefs behind the procedures 
by which books are built today. T h e book is 
"simply" a collection of shorter articles or 
pamphlets, each of them by a different printer, 
designer, illustrator, commentator or historian 
or critic, whose piece attracted attention at 
the time of its first appearance and was judged 
fit to be reread by the editor. With very few 
exceptions his judgement was sound. Books 
and Printing, which looks very little like a 
textbook is, nevertheless, an excellent textbook 
in the good sense of the w o r d . — H e l l m u t 
Lehmann-Haupt, New York, N.Y. 

Militant Liberal 
R. R. Bowker: Militant Liberal. By E. M c -

Clung Fleming. Introduction by Allan 
Nevins. Norman, University of Oklahoma 
Press, 1952. xv, 395p. $5.00. 
When Richard Rogers Bowker died in 1933 

at the age of 85, the editor of the American 
Book Collector wrote that Bowker's life was 
"perhaps more closely interwoven with books 
than anyone else's now living." In 
R. R. Bowker: Militant Liberal, E. McClung 
Fleming, dean of the College at Park College, 
Parkville, Missouri, has vividly portrayed 
the life of this man perhaps unknown to most 
reading Americans but to whom they are 
much indebted. Bowker was for 50 years 
the director of Publishers' Weekly; he was a 
founder of the American Library Association 
and the Library Journal. His work in the 
cause of international copyright is notable 
and his contributions to American bibliog-
raphy of inestimable value. Librarians are 
much in Bowker's debt, and they particularly 
will find D r . Fleming's book of much interest. 

JULY, 1953 341