BLITZ BRINGS PUBLISHERS TOGETHER

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23360, 20 June 1941, Page 6

BLITZ BRINGS PUBLISHERS TOGETHER

my STANLEY UNWIN. Past-Presldent of Ihe Publishers' Association of [By STA^ Britaln and international Publishers’ Congress.]

LONDON. Indications reach me from Sweden. Switzerland and more distant parts of the world that my publisher and bookseller friends abroad are under the Is, astonishing S&.’SSp: through the bombing of binders’ warehouses. But the mea we have been bombed out of business is almost humorous. new books (nearly the output nf 1917) were published during 1940, many of us have never been busier. Naturally many men; usuaily employed in the book trade ate now serving m the Navy, Army, or . A “ our staffs are depleted. But, subject to this inevitable and serious handicap, business is functioning normally and all orders are executed with reasonable promptitude. Here are some facts which speak tor themselves. During the four years 1937-1940; the average annual sales or Everyman’s Library were 620,000, of which between a third and a hflf were exported. In January and February of this year the sales show an increase of just over 50 per cent, compared with the sales of the same period in 1940. To be precise, from the beginning of the present war to the end of February, 1941, Dents have sold 1.030.000 Everyman volumes, °f 196.000 were shipped to the United States. Unlike the last war not a single case has* been lost. Last montn a further shipment of 50 cases, containing 25,000 volumes, arrived safely In New York. One of the large University Presses reports that in relation to turnover, exports have steadily risen since the of war, this is borne out by the fact that the export trade in books last year amounted to no less than £4,000,000 despite the blitz the closing of many of our export markets in Europe. Hunger For Boobs That orders should pour' in from abroad is not surprising. Few persons outside Germany want to read Nazi books—the literature of automata—but ever increasing numbers throughout the, world are desperately anxious *to read the literature of a nation fighting for the freedom of the world, .the books of a people free to divulge their inmost thoughts and convictions, free to express eveity shade of opinion. There is, in fact, 'a positive hunger for British books in some foreign countries. Books in Frerich, olish,. Czech and Dutch are now being published in London arid securing a ready sale. It is unnecessary for me to tell my colleagues abroad that although Wren churches cannot easily be replaced, modern printing machinery can reproduce books faster than any Hitler or Goering can destroy them., Longmans, for instance, have reprinted one and a half million books since their stock was burnt. Within a fortnight all the firms whose premises were destroyed in the City Fire had established themselves elsewhere and Vere carrying on business. The rapidity# \yith which they did so is startling. Here is an actual instance. One of my fellow members of me council of the Publishers’ Association learnt at 9.30 one Saturday evening that his premises were on fire as the result of enemy action. He telephoned at once to inform his brother who, by chance, was spending the week-eißd with a book-trade colleague—the head of a famous firm. Nothing" could be done that night because the fire was not yet under control, but the brothers agreed to meet at daybreak. When their book-trade colleague, who insisted on accompanying them, saw the devastation the fire had caused, he said: “Come along at once, we must clear a floor in; my building, for you.” All day Sunday the three of them, together with some watchmen and others, worked steadily. On the Monday morning, when the publisher’s staff arrived to find their usual premises gutted by fire, they were sent ,on at once to the alternative accommodation which had been prepared for them and work continued without interruption. Hell-sent Opportunity

No one likes being bombed, butthere is one thing that can be said in its favour; it is a remarkable stimulus to mutual aid and co-operative activity. The complete destruction .of Simpkin

Marshalls provided a further excellent 1 y illustration of this. It happened one *' Sunday evening. By 9 a.m.»on the Mon- ’; day their competitors, W. H. Smith and ’ Son, were already busily helping them i to deal with their orders. Before 11 a.m. their managing-director was discussing future plans with me-on the telephone. Within a matter c{E hours thereafter the economic relations committee of the Publishers’ Association; , had. got busy, and three of Us undertaken to buy the goodwill wholesale and export side of the busU ness with a view to its becoming a cooperative organisation. How the brothers Pitman came to . our assistance and placed their ‘‘Book- ; Centre” at our disposal and the new firm of Simpkin Marshall (1941), Ltd., was created can be read in Mr Geof. frey Faber’s interesting article, “The New# Simpkins,” which has appeared : both in ‘'The,Author” and ‘‘The Bookseller.” v • One often hears the expression “a heaven-sent opportunity.” By what; some witty person has described; as, -. ‘‘a hell-sent opportunity,” we now have the beginnings of a clearing;' house system for which the British, book trade might otherwise have had; to wait for a century. But the' war has brpught us many; other new developments of a co-opera-* live nature. A good example is ‘‘guild; books.” Many publishers want from? time to time to publish sixpenny edi-'. • tions of individual books; but it is un-,: economic to issue isolated volumes at, that price. Accordingly,, a group of publishers planned a new kind of . undertaking. Books approved by an/ editorial board are produced (in an / agreed uniform style) by the actual; publisher concerned, but the marketing publicity and travelling are done, collectively. There is thus no longer any need for publishers to lease their: . sixpenny rights to a third party. It is pleasant to be able to record; that books are receiving more attention - and recognition in Great Britain than ever before. Special concessionshave been granted in connexion with paper- rationing, arid books have been exempted from the incidence of the purchase tax. An equally gratifying feature is the use made of the PUb-‘ : Ushers’ Association, who, for example, at the request of the Government have nominated publishers to advise the Board of Trade Import Licensing Department on book importations, the Censorship Department on the censorship of books,' and the Paper Controller on educational books. Censor and Opinions i In Great Britain, in contradiction do totalitarian countries, the censor i« concerned not with opinion but with the question of giving information to the enemy. Over here, let it be emphasised, opinions can still be freely expressed, and what one firm. has described as ‘‘discussion books,” covering all subjects and points of view, are being widely published. Even the political pamphlet has once again come . into its own, and series of them are now to be found in the lists of the Oxford University Press, Macmillans and other distinguished houses, My own firm has issued a “Prometheus Library” specifically designed to pro-, vide a forum for considered opinion on the war and the problems of'postwar reconstruction in the social, economic, and political spheres. Many points of view are already represented In it. i . . Turning again to the “blitz” with which I began, I do not think that anyone on t{ie spot would or could deny that the book , trade of Great Britain is standing up to its prolonged baptism of fire' with astonishing equanimity. Judging by a most interestirig.it graph which I have before me. shovMVv. ing the sales of W. H. Smith and SowrT'' with their hundreds of branches #1 over the country, the “blitz” seems i), to have stimulated the book, trade, cause just about the time it was be-.’i ginning-to break out t on London, their turnover started to increase, and from that it has never looked back. At the present moment their sales are almost exactly 15 per cent, more Ui'ftn they were for the corresponding period . of last year. P.S.—L have just observed that this article has been written on the writing block presented to me at the International Publishers’ Congress at Leipzig -in 1938. 'lt is appropriate that it shpuld be used to communicate with my book trade colleagues abroad.