To-day the activities of the Press in or near Amen Corner, London, E.C. 4, are multifarious. From his bound stocks Mr. Milford is ready at short notice to supply to the booksellers or booksellers’ agents any Clarendon Press book, any Bible or Prayer Book, any of the books published by himself as publisher to the University, such as Oxford Poets, World’s Classics, Oxford Elementary Books, or by himself and Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton—the Oxford Medical Publications—or for the numerous learned bodies and American Universities for whom he is agent whether in the United Kingdom or universally.
In the premises at Amen Corner alone it is estimated that upwards of three quarters of a million books are at any one time in stock. Packing and distribution is carried on in the basement and also at Falcon Square, where the large export department operates. Mr. Milford also maintains at Old Street a ‘quire’ department from which books in sheets are given out to his own or other binderies, and in Aldersgate Street a bindery from which many of the finest Bibles and other leather books are turned out.
The offices at Amen Corner are the centre of the selling activities of the Press; from them is directed the policy of the branches of the business at home and abroad. An institution so far-flung naturally causes some confusion in the public mind. Inquiries from India have sometimes been addressed to New York, and Mr. Horace Hart treasured an envelope addressed to The Controller of the Universe. In general, however, it is now widely understood that inquiries for books should be addressed (by booksellers, or by the public, if the usual trade channels fail) to Oxford University Press in London or at the nearest Branch (New York, Toronto, Melbourne, Cape Town, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Shanghai, Copenhagen); questions about printing to Controller, Clarendon Press, Oxford, and proposals for publication either to the nearest Branch or direct to the Secretary, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
§ 5. The Administration of the Press
All the activities of the Press may be described as a function of the corporation known as the Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University of Oxford, acting through the Delegates of the Press. The constitution of this Delegacy is in some respects peculiar. So long ago as 1757 the statute promoted by Sir William Blackstone for the better management of the Press established the principles of continuity and of expert knowledge by the constitution of Perpetual Delegates; and these principles have been maintained.
The Delegacy is now composed of the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors for the time being ex officio, and (normally) of ten others, of whom five are Perpetual. Delegates are appointed for a term of years by the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors, by whom they may be re-elected; but when a vacancy occurs among the perpetual Delegates, the Delegates as a whole are enjoined by statute to ‘subrogate’ one of the junior Delegates to be perpetual, ad supplendum perpetuo numerum quinque Perpetuorum Delegatorum.
The roll of the Delegates contains the names of many famous scholars. Among those of recent times may be mentioned William Stubbs, Ingram Bywater, Frederick York Powell. Within the last few years the Press has sustained very heavy losses in the death of some of the most experienced of its Delegates. William Sanday, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, took an active part in the many works of profound learning upon New Testament criticism, by which Oxford has maintained its fame for the prosecution of Biblical learning. Henry Tresawna Gerrans, Fellow of Worcester College, was active in financial administration and in the organization of educational publications. David Henry Nagel, Fellow of Trinity College, gave invaluable advice on scientific books and on technical processes of manufacture. He was chiefly responsible for the plan of the new Bindery, recently completed, which bears his name. The services of Sir William Osler, Regius Professor of Medicine, and of Charles Cannan, of Trinity College, for over twenty years Secretary to the Delegates, are noticed elsewhere in these pages.
The composition of the board on 1 December 1921 was as follows: