§ 8 Catalogues and Advertisement
Until recent years the Press has relied on its trade catalogues and special lists, and on the skilled assistance of the bookseller, to make known to the public the great number and variety of its issues of the Bible, the New Testament, Prayer Books, Hymn Books, and kindred works, as well as of its general publications—reprints, medical books, elementary books and so on; while the Clarendon Press Catalogue of learned and educational books was a relatively modest affair of under 200 pages. The need of a single general catalogue for the information of librarians and book-lovers had long been felt, but pressure of business delayed its preparation until the late Mr. Charles Cannan addressed himself to the task, and with the devoted co-operation of his daughters (who had replaced the members of the office staff gone forth to war) and the advice of many scholars, produced in 1916 the first edition of the General Catalogue, comprising over 500 pages of close print and including under one comprehensive classification all the secular books sold by the Press, wheresoever printed, and whether published by the University on its own account or on behalf of other University Presses or learned bodies; together with a representative list of Bibles, &c. (useful to the inquirer though not intended as any substitute for the elaborate trade catalogues or for the indispensable guidance of the expert bookseller), and a very full alphabetical index.
The General Catalogue has in the second edition been brought up to January 1920, and a third edition is in preparation. Supplements are also from time to time issued comprehending the books published since the current edition of the Catalogue. The Supplement now current comprises all books published in 1920.
For the convenience of specialists the Catalogue is also issued in sections—History, Literature, the Classics, Natural Science, Cheap Reprints—and special lists have recently been made of books on such subjects as the British Empire, International Law and Politics, India, Modern Philosophy. Schoolmasters and University teachers are asked to apply for the Select Educational Catalogue issued at frequent intervals, which by omission of the larger and more elaborate books allows of illustrative information for which there is no room in the general catalogue.
The General Catalogue has been computed to contain over 8,000 distinct books or editions of books. These vary from such works as the New English Dictionary and the Dictionary of National Biography, with their 15,000 and 30,000 pages, to the smallest and cheapest pamphlets and school-books. The total may be guessed to comprise something like two and a half millions of printed pages of which no two are identical.
The issue of the Catalogue has secured a wide and increasing recognition of the comprehensive character of Oxford publications. ‘There are publishers and publishers, but there is only one Oxford University Press’, exclaims a writer in the Athenaeum; and many reviewers have noted with sympathetic admiration the value of the Catalogue, not as a mere price list but as a work of reference and as a book to read. Though it necessarily requires revision as new publications accrue, it is hoped that the Catalogue will not be treated as ‘throw-away literature’. It is a well-printed and solidly bound book, and the cost of supplying free copies to book-buyers all over the world is not inconsiderable.
The Press produces two periodicals descriptive of its publications: the official Bulletin distributed to booksellers, librarians, and other professional buyers, and the unofficial Periodical addressed to amateurs. Number 1 of the Bulletin (4 April 1912) consisted of a single page; but the desire for more information was widely expressed, and a recent number contains in eight pages a classified list of books published during four weeks, with bibliographical and other particulars, a statement of the various catalogues obtainable on application, extracts from reviews, and a list of books which have gone out of print since the current issue of the catalogue. This list is designed to protect booksellers and the public against the assumption, too frequently made, that any and every book is ‘out of print’ which cannot be produced at a moment’s notice. The public are asked not to believe too easily that books are unobtainable. A provincial bookseller (in a University town) recently declared himself ‘unable to trace’ an Oxford book, published in 1920, reviewed at length by the leading literary papers, and advertised nearly every other week in the Times Literary Supplement. Many books no doubt (though not many Oxford books) have been and still are out of print; and in the absence of an up-to-date index of current books, the difficulties of the bookseller have been great. Now, however, when the 1920 edition of the trade Reference Catalogue is available, with its single alphabetical index (of 1,075 pages in double column), the ascertainment of the facts is not difficult except in so far as the catalogues indexed have themselves become obsolete. All information about Oxford books that is not in the 1920 Reference Catalogue may be found in the Supplement of Books published in 1920, or in the cumulative list of Price Changes, or in the Bulletin; all of which every bookseller has, or may have for the asking.
With the Bulletin is issued from time to time a supplement calling the attention of librarians and others to Oxford books in some special field. The circulation of the Bulletin is about 2,000.
The Periodical is a ‘house magazine’, perhaps the first of its kind. It was first published in December 1896, and now appears five times a year. Its contents include extracts, of sufficient length to be readable, from new Oxford books, specimen illustrations, quotations from reviews and other newspaper comment on the productions of the Press, obituaries and other honorific notices of authors (on appointment, decoration, or the like), and a certain amount of quasi-literary gossip; for even authors have their foibles. The original editor, who has compiled every number for a quarter of a century, is still at his post, and the popularity of the little paper increases. The demand comes from all over the world—the United States takes nearly half the total and the number of copies distributed gratis of each issue now exceeds ten thousand.
Oxford Bibles and Prayer Books can be inspected in mass at many booksellers’, as well as in the Depository at 116 High Street, Oxford, and in the showrooms at Amen Corner, in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and in the Branches overseas. Lack of space has everywhere made it impossible to exhibit the far greater number of Clarendon Press and other secular books on the same scale, but the books may be seen on application at any of the Press offices, and the popular series, gift books, &c., are always displayed. It is hoped before long to increase the space available for this purpose in the Oxford Depository, and to exhibit there all Clarendon Press books, arranged by subjects as in the Catalogue, so that members of the University and visitors may be able to inspect at one time and place all the books offered in any subject that may concern them. It is hoped to find room for separate exhibits of school-books, maps, and ‘juvenile’ books, so that the busy schoolmaster, with half an hour to spare in Oxford, may make a rapid survey of the contents of the Educational catalogue.