From Publishers' Weekly, Sept. 2, 1939. Copyright 1939 by R. R. Bowker Co.
Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
NOTE: In 1919 the Society of Calligraphers published a pamphlet: Extracts From An Investigation Into the Physical Properties of Books. In the summer of 1939, three of the people who reported in the investigation were visited again and their opinions solicited as to what had happened in the interval of twenty years to change the physical characteristics of books. Transcriptions of parts of the three interviews follow.
MR. MCG.
Q: Twenty years ago you were kind enough to discuss book-manufacturing with us.
—Twenty years. Remarkable memory!
—It meant a great deal to us—your help. It was in 1919. We were conducting an inquiry—perhaps you remember—into the physical qualities of books.
—Oh, yes! How you could improve them, and so on. Yes.
—Now we are back again—to see what you think now.
—Good. Interesting idea. Ask me questions.
—For instance ... Does it strike you that trade books have improved in the twenty years?—as physical objects,—packages?