THE BOOKSHOP

A sweeping view of the book business.

Award-winning Scottish historian Pettegree offers an abundantly detailed history of bookselling, spanning the past 600 years. As far back as Greek and Roman times, there was a market for handwritten texts, and, even before the invention of printing, doctors, lawyers, and clergymen collected relevant tomes. Gutenberg’s invention, though, fueled the start of a book industry that involved printers, typefounders, binders, publishers, and sellers. France, Germany, and Italy emerged as the most important book markets, with London, Cambridge, and Oxford the center of trade in England. Bookselling, in shops, at fairs, and by itinerant salesmen proved to be a viable business venture. In 18th-century England, 316 towns more than 20 miles from London had a bookshop, with some promoting books of local interest; in the early 19th century, printing offices and bookshops proliferated in rural America. Developments in print technology (machine printing, for one, adopted by British publishers only as late as the 1840s) and transportation allowed the industry to expand. Circulating libraries became popular with readers especially eager for novels. Pettegree considers the challenges facing booksellers from censorship “by religious opponents or the guardians of social orthodoxy.” Although these monitors of morality focused primarily on authors and publishers, printers and sellers also faced legal strictures. Among many facets of the book trade, Pettegree includes the growth of the antiquarian book market, the distribution of books for troops and prisoners of war, and the rise of specialized bookshops—serving, for example, Black, women’s, radical, Christian, and college communities. He notes with satisfaction the waning popularity of the e-reader and the easy access to books on Amazon. Bookselling, he proves convincingly, is “one of the most consequential of all industries.”

Prodigious research informs a lively history.