Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 13 March 2019
URL: https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing
Access Date: August 25, 2019
Additional Reading General works
David M. Brownstone and Irene M. Franck, The Dictionary of Publishing (1982); and Jean Peters (ed.), The Bookman’s Glossary, 6th rev. and enlarged ed. (1983), explain terminology, the former emphasizing business aspects. Colin Clair, A History of Printing in Britain (1966), and A History of European Printing (1976), are useful for early periods. S.H. Steinberg, Five Hundred Years of Printing, 3rd ed. (1974), is comprehensive; it may be supplemented by Robin Myers and Michael Harris (eds.), A Millennium of the Book: Production, Design & Illustration in Manuscript & Print, 900–1900 (1994), which, despite its title, treats more than books. John W. Seybold, The World of Digital Typesetting (1984), charts the history of various printing techniques from the earliest days to the 1980s and emphasizes the importance of computers. Hugh Evison Look (ed.), Electronic Publishing: A Snapshot of the Early 1980s (1983), surveys the state of the art at the time. Philip Hills (ed.), The Future of the Printed Word: The Impact and the Implications of the New Communications Technology (1980), discusses the relationship of publishing and computer technology. Also useful are Martin Greenberger (ed.), Electronic Publishing Plus: Media for a Technological Future (1985); George E. Whitehouse, Understanding the New Technologies of the Mass Media (1986); and Oldrich Standera, The Electronic Era of Publishing: An Overview of Concepts, Technologies, and Methods (1987).
Legal aspects of the industry are explored in W.J. Leaper, Copyright and Performing Rights (1957), an early history of copyright in England and the implications of the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention; Allen Kent and Harold Lancour (eds.), Copyright: Current Viewpoints on History, Laws, Legislation (1972), a collection of essays from professional sources; Richard Wincor and Irving Mandell, Copyright, Patents, and Trademarks: The Protection of Intellectual and Industrial Property (1980), a history of copyright in the United States; Denis De Freitas, The Copyright System: Practice and Problems in Developing Countries (1983), a survey of key principles and practices; Lee Boaz Hall, International Magazine and Book Licensing (1983); and two authoritative textbooks published by the Practising Law Institute: Richard Dannay and E. Gabriel Perle (eds.), Legal and Business Aspects of Book Publishing (1986); and Peter C. Gould and Stephen H. Gross (eds.), Legal and Business Aspects of the Magazine Industry (1984). Copyright Bulletin (quarterly), published by UNESCO, presents current information on worldwide copyright practices.
Allen Kent et al. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, 35 vol. (1968–83), continued with supplemental volumes, provides comprehensive information on many aspects of publishing. Another valuable reference source for current information is The Bowker Annual of Library & Book Trade Information. Vito J. Brenni, The Art and History of Book Printing: A Topical Bibliography (1984), Book Illustration and Decoration: A Guide to Research (1980), Book Printing in Britain and America: A Guide to the Literature and a Directory of Printers (1983), and Bookbinding, a Guide to the Literature (1982), are bibliographical guides for further study.
Book publishing
The literature on book publishing and the culture of print is reviewed in two essays in Robert Darnton, The Kiss of Lamourette: Reflections in Cultural History (1990): “What Is the History of Books?,” pp. 107–135, and “First Steps Toward a History of Reading,” pp. 154–187. The impact of literacy on Western modes of thought is discussed in Eric A. Havelock, Origins of Western Literacy (1976); and Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (1982, reissued 1991). General works on the history of the book, which examine technical and commercial developments and the impact of the book on European culture, include Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin, The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing, 1450–1800 (1976, reissued 1990; originally published in French, 1958); and Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, 2 vols. (1979). The last has been influential but also controversial; a penetrating critique is Anthony T. Grafton, “The Importance of Being Printed,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 11(2):265–286 (Autumn 1980). Major case studies of the history of the book include Richard D. Altick, The English Common Reader: A Social History of the Mass Reading Public, 1800–1900 (1957, reissued 1983); Roger Chartier, The Cultural Uses of Print in Early Modern France, trans. from French (1987); Robert Darnton, The Literary Underground of the Old Regime (1982), and The Forbidden Best-sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France (1995); Carla Hesse, Publishing and Cultural Politics in Revolutionary Paris, 1789–1810 (1991); and Alvin Kernan, Samuel Johnson & the Impact of Print (1989). The impact of electronic media on the book’s place in Western culture is hotly debated; these works provide an overview: Alvin Kernan, The Death of Literature (1990); Geoffrey Nunberg, “The Places of Books in the Age of Electronic Reproduction,” Representations, 42:13–37 (Spring 1993); and Geoffrey Nunberg (ed.), The Future of the Book (1996).
The history of the publishing industries of various individual countries is chronicled in John Feather, The Provincial Book Trade in Eighteenth-Century England (1985); John Feather, A History of British Publishing (1988); Gary Marker, Publishing, Printing, and the Origins of Intellectual Life in Russia, 1700–1800 (1985); K.S. Duggal, Book Publishing in India (1980); Vinod Kumar (ed.), Book Industry in India: Problems & Prospects (1980); Eduard Kimman, Indonesian Publishing: Economic Organizations in a Langganan Society (1981); S.I.A. Kotei, The Book Today in Africa (1981); George L. Parker, The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada (1985); Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt, The Book in America: A History of the Making and Selling of Books in the United States, 2nd rev. ed. (1951; originally published in German, 1937); John Tebbel, A History of Book Publishing in the United States, 4 vol. (1972–81); and Donald Franklin Joyce, Gatekeepers of Black Culture: Black-Owned Book Publishing in the United States, 1817–1981 (1983). Comprehensive information on the history and character of American book publishers is gathered in two reference sources, both prepared by Peter Dzwonkoski (ed.), American Literary Publishing Houses, 1638–1899, 2 vol. (1986), and American Literary Publishing Houses, 1900–1980: Trade and Paperback (1986).