Historical and Miscellaneous Articles

Among other articles of interest to the manufacturer of books are the following: Book (Vol. 4, p. 214) by Alfred William Pollard, assistant keeper of books in the British Museum, gives a general historical description of books and in particular calls attention to the great change in book-prices in the last thirty years. “About 1894 the number of medium-priced books was greatly increased in England by the substitution of single-volume novels at 6s. each (subject to discount) for the three-volume editions at 31s. 6d.... The preposterous price of 10s. 6d. a volume had been adopted during the first popularity of the Waverley Novels and had continued in force for the greater part of the century.” To-day, well printed copies of these novels sell for 1s. in England and for 35 cents in the United States.

It may be added that one of the most striking lessons to be learned from the Britannica, in relation to the improvements and economies effected by the application of the most modern processes to the manufacture of books, is supplied by the consideration of the Britannica itself. The extent of the composition and machinery involved, the accuracy of the proof-reading, the novel employment—upon a large scale—of India paper and flexible bindings, the beauty of the illustrations, and, above all, the low price at which the product is sold, form a combination of the very latest perfections of every department of the industry.

Read too Book-collecting (Vol. 4, p. 221) also by A. W. Pollard; the article Book Plates (Vol. 4, p. 230) by Egerton Castle, illustrated with ten cuts of book plates (which are so well chosen that book plate collectors have not infrequently asked the publishers of the Encyclopaedia Britannica for extra copies so that they might include them in their collections); the article Bookcase (Vol. 4, p. 221) from which the reader may be surprised to learn that “the whole construction and arrangement of bookcases was learnedly discussed in the light of experience by W. E. Gladstone in the Nineteenth Century for March 1890;” and the article Bibliography and BibliOLOGY (Vol. 3, p. 908) by A. W. Pollard, supplemented by the article Incunabula (Vol. 14, p. 369).

The following alphabetical list of articles and sections of articles, although it does not profess to be complete, will give the student some idea of the large number of topics connected with the general subject of the manufacture of books:

CHAPTER XXII
FOR JOURNALISTS AND AUTHORS

The Development of Style

No writer can consider the use he will make of the tools of his trade—and the Britannica is certainly the chief among them—unless he has very definite views as to the particular kind of work he is trying to do. Where writing is regarded as a business, the art of writing is the art of being read, and the art of being read lies, nowadays, in convincing the reader that you have something fresh to say, rather than in arousing his admiration of your way of saying it. Writing is none the less one of the fine arts: the modern writer must form his style with the utmost care, and always guard himself against the temptation to relax his standards. But the juggling with words, the “rhythmical sequences of recurring consonants,” the musical prose in which sounds are adjusted as artfully as in verse, presuppose readers to whom these elaborations are delightful. Such readers are rare, to-day. Thirty or forty years ago it was a matter of course, in thousands of homes, for some one member of the household to read aloud to the others. The custom has almost disappeared, and there has been a change in public taste, due, perhaps, in great measure to a change in the pace at which people read. A book does not “last” as it did. Newspaper reading has trained the eye and the mind to swifter consumption. The modern professional writer adapts himself to the existing conditions. He knows that those who ride in automobiles do not peer under tufts of leaves to look for roadside violets. But he also knows that they want a straight, smooth road. He endeavors to write as concisely as possible, yet to write so clearly that every point he makes is made once for all; and he can work fully as hard, and apply talents fully as great, in forming a style that pleases by its simple directness—or, better, that pleases because the reader does not think of it as “style,”—as if he were aiming at the most elaborate ornament.

“Vitalized Observation”