NEW BOOKS IN BRITAIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18943, 14 February 1925, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEW BOOKS IN BRITAIN

RECORD PUBLISHING YEAR. With a total of 12,706 books recorded by the Publishers' Circular as having been published during the 12 months, 1924 takes rank as "record year" in the history of British book production. This is an increase, of 432 over the total for 1923 and of 327 over the previous " record" year of 1913. The following totals for the last 12 years siiow the previous record year of 1913 and the subsequent fall and recovery during and since the wart — New New Books. Editions. Total. 19]:; .. .. 9,0il 2.33$ J 2.379 19H .. .. 8.863 2.117'1 11.537 191,1 . . . . 8,199 2.166 10,665 1916 . . . . 7,537 1.612 9.M0 1917 .. .. 6.606 1.525 $.131 1918 .. .. 0.750 980 7,716 1919 .. .. 7,327 1.295 P. 622 .I'PO 8,738 2.266 11,004 1921 .. ~ 8.757 2,26!) 11.026 192 : > 8,751 2,OPS 10,842 1923 ! . . . 9,246 3.028 12.274 1924 . . . . 9.513 3.193 12.706 The vear's increase of 432 is made up of 267 new books and 165 new editions. A rough indication of the preferences of the reading public may be gathered from the order in which the totals of the chief classes of literature appear:—Fiction, juvenile, religion, sociology, poetry, technology, science, biography, description, literature, history, medicine. A remarkable feature is the decrease in the totals for certain important classes of literature. The most important of these decreases are iri technology (103), science (93), history (47), medicine (45). and geography (38). Obviously the increases more than balance these, and the most important are in fiction (314). biography (111), description and travel (99), religion (87). poetry and drama (64). games (55), and sociology (55). The increase of 314 in works of fiction is chiefly under the heading of new editions.