William James Linton (1812 1897) was a wood-engraver, poet, prose writer and political activist, who first worked in London but emigrated to the United States in 1866. He began his wood-engraving apprenticeship at the age of sixteen under the well-known London engraver G. W. Bonner. Linton's mature work, championing the use of 'white lining' and favouring the use of horizontal engraved lines and creating tone by differing line thickness, continued in the tradition of Thomas Bewick (1753 1828), the founding figure of wood-engraving. The publication of this book in 1884 marked the culmination...

A comprehensive practical guide to the many lithographic techniques current in the nineteenth century.

The son of a Liverpool-based printer, John Southward (1840 1902) was a prolific writer and editor of books on the subject. He edited the Printers' Register from 1886 to 1890, and his Modern Printing: A Handbook remained a standard work for apprentice printers and compositors well into the twentieth century. This dictionary of terms employed in printing offices was one of his earlier works, initially issued as a monthly serial within the Printers' Register. The resulting high demand led to the publication of a second edition in book format in 1875. Painstakingly compiled, it covers the history...

Matthias Koops, a pioneering inventor of new processes for making paper, published this book in 1800.

William Tinsley (1830 1900) was a noted Victorian publisher whose catalogue included works by such celebrated novelists as Thomas Hardy and Wilkie Collins. This two-volume autobiography, first published in 1900, traces his life from his rural childhood to the establishment and rise of the Tinsley Brothers company in 1858, and its later collapse. Each chapter contains a series of brief sketches of authors and other contemporaries. Volume 1 spans Tinsley's early days and travels to London, along with his first encounters with the publishing world. It includes detailed portraits of Mary...

First published in 1897, this is one of many books written by the technical journalist John Southward (1840 1902), one of the most prolific writers on printing in the nineteenth century. As the title indicates, Southward is primarily concerned with the development and progress of printing. Here he takes a thoroughly practical approach, surveying the different methods of printing and considering the improvements made in printing advertisements, books and newspapers, as well as to the different stages of the printing process itself. Southward's prose is clear and precise, and his style changes...

In this famous book, first published in 1832, Charles Babbage (1791 1871), the mathematician, philosopher, engineer and inventor who originated the concept of a programmable computer, surveys manufacturing practices and discusses the political, moral and economic factors affecting them. The book met with hostility from the publishing industry on account of Babbage's analysis of the manufacture and sale of books. Babbage describes the many different printing processes of the time, analyses the costs of book production and explains the publication process, before discussing the 'too large'...

This lively account of the history of paper-making from its beginnings to the Victorian period appeared in 1855.

This history of libraries is particularly important as a pioneering work on all aspects of public library management and organisation.

This history of libraries is particularly important as a pioneering work on all aspects of public library management and organisation.