§ 7 The Press in the United States
The sale of Oxford books in the United States began long before the foundation of the American Branch. It is recorded that ‘the growth of the business was hindered by the Civil War, but after the restoration of peace it grew rapidly’; and that a landmark in its progress was the publication of editions of the American Book of Common Prayer.
The foundation of the Oxford University Press American Branch, an institution which has made the name of Oxford familiar throughout the Union, was due to the foresight and enterprise of Mr. Henry Frowde. Acting on his advice the Delegates of the Press authorized the formation of a Corporation in the State of New York, and the Branch in 1896 opened premises at 91 Fifth Avenue, under the management of the late Mr. John Armstrong. In the following year Mr. Armstrong added to the Bibles and other books, previously sold by Messrs. Nelson, the Clarendon Press publications, previously sold by the Macmillan Company. The business grew rapidly in Mr. Armstrong’s hands, and in 1908 moved ‘up town’ to the premises it now occupies at 35 West 32nd Street. Mr. Armstrong died in 1915, and was succeeded by Mr. W. W. McIntosh, one of the original members of the staff.
The main function of the Branch has always been that of keeping the American public acquainted with Oxford books, both sacred and secular, and of supplying the books without avoidable delay. To this end it has been necessary to hold large stocks in New York, and to maintain an expert staff which is in touch with the book-stores and with the universities, the schools, and the book-buying public at large. The Branch has its own catalogues and its own advertisements, and it has been able to make Oxford Bibles and Clarendon Press books known and valued throughout the United States. The Branch, however, is not merely an importer; it has long recognized that many Oxford products are capable of useful adaptation to special American requirements, and that such adaptation is consistent with the preservation of what Americans have themselves called ‘the Oxford stamp’. This aspect of the activities of the Press in America is shown by the large number of Bibles which are manufactured (‘made’ is the American idiom) in the United States—among these the now famous Scofield Reference Bible is conspicuous—and also by books written—or at least rewritten—for American requirements. The Branch, in co-operation with American scholars, has produced valuable series of text-books for schools and universities—the Oxford English Series, the Oxford French Series, and the Oxford German Series. Even more important, perhaps, are adaptations of Oxford books of tried merit. Thus the Oxford Loose-Leaf Surgery derives from a (British) Oxford original (one of the Oxford Medical Publications), but has important differences in substance as well as in its novel form. This very successful work is now being followed by the Oxford Loose-Leaf Medicine, edited by Dr. Henry Christian and Sir James Mackenzie with the help of leading physicians on both sides of the Atlantic. To promote co-operation of this kind in medical science was a great part of the life-work of William Osler, who, as Regius Professor at Oxford, and a leading promoter of the Oxford Medical Publications, may be described as the founder of the medical activities of the Oxford Press as they are now carried on in Oxford, in London, in New York, and in Toronto.
Another work of adaptation, now in progress, illustrates further the possibilities of Anglo-American co-operation. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of current English, adapted from the great Oxford Dictionary, has been and is very widely used throughout the British Empire and by students of English in foreign countries. But its spelling, and certain other features, were found to disqualify the book for general use in the United States; and a special American edition is now in preparation, the adapter of which is Mr. G. Van Santvoord, of Oriel College, Oxford, and Yale University.
The Press is publisher, on both sides of the Atlantic, to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, many of whose books have been printed at Oxford. Special mention may be made of the first volumes, printed at the Press and recently published, of the British Section of the great Economic and Social History of the World War undertaken by the Endowment. These volumes are by Professors Keith and Bowley and Mr. J. A. Salter.