Main entry:

Gaskell, Philip, author.

Title & Author:

A new introduction to bibliography / Philip Gaskell.

Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 1972.
©1972

Description:

438 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 392-413) and index.
Introduction -- BOOK PRODUCTION: the hand-press period 1500-1800. The hand-printed book -- Printing type -- Composition -- Paper -- Imposition -- Presswork -- The warehouse -- Binding -- Decoration and illustration -- Patterns of production -- The English Book Trade to 1800 -- BOOK PRODUCTION: the machine-press period 1800-1950. Introduction -- Survival and change -- Plates -- Type 1800-1875 -- Paper in the machine-press period -- Edition binding -- Printing machines -- Processes of reproduction -- Mechanical composition, and type 1875-1950 -- Printing practice in the machine-press period -- The book trade in Britain and America since 1800 -- BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPLICATIONS. Identification -- Bibliographical description -- Textual bibliography -- Appendixes -- Reference bibliography. General -- Periodicals -- Book production: the hand-press period -- Book production: the machine-press period -- Bibliographical applications.

Summary:

"By his choice of title Dr. Gaskell relates the present work to R.B. McKerrow's Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students published in its final form 45 years ago. McKerrow's primary concern was to show how far the transmission of literary texts might be affected by the processes of printing and to provide students of literature with the basic technique necessary for the tackling of bibliographical problems. Pre-eminent as an editor of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literary texts, bibliographer, printer, and publisher, his interests were wide-ranging and he was all the more successful as a teacher of others in that he never ceased to learn himself. His scientific definition of methods, the way in which he laid his foundations brick by brick, his honesty and cautious appraisal of results, his precision and lucidity combined with shrewdness and ingenuity and an extraordinary flair for detection, resulted in an unique achievement which was to prove an indispensable tool for generations of literary students. The New Introduction is neither a revision of McKerrow nor McKerrow brought up to date. It is a new and different book, going a long way beyond its predecessor in point of time since it includes a general survey of the machine-press period up to 1950, whereas McKerrow had stopped at 1800. Although Dr. Gaskell agrees with McKerrow when he declares that 'bibliography's over-riding responsibility must be to determine a text in its most accurate form', a good deal of what he gives us is concerned with printing and book-trade history and related only indirectly to the establishment of the text. A masterly consolidation of the results of authoritative bibliographical research during the past half century, the New Introduction is an invaluable work of reference which no library concerned with literary studies, printing history, or librarianship can afford to do without. It is not a teaching, do-it-yourself book like McKerrow; it asks few questions and its range of literary reference is comparatively restricted, although what there is apt and illuminating. To suggest that there may still be room for a book on the lines of McKerrow is not intended as a criticism of a work which would have delighted him. Although described by the author as a 'manual', it is a most readable, fascinating book, in which a large amount of technical information has been digested and presented with superlative skill. For lucidity and precision Dr. Gaskell cannot be faulted; he writes vividly and with zest, and his descriptions of the production routines of the printing house have an actuality which derives from his own practical knowledge and expertise as a printer."--JSTOR (The Review of English Studies Vol. 24, No. 96 (Nov., 1973), pp. 526-529)

ISBN:

0198181507
9780198181507

Subject:

Printing History.
Book industries and trade History.
Bibliography Methodology.
Books Bibliography.
Bibliography, Critical.
Book Industry history
Printing history
Bibliographie.
Imprimerie Histoire.
Livres Industrie Histoire.
Bibliographie Méthodologie.
Livres Bibliographie.
Bibliographie critique.
bibliographies.
Book industries and trade.
Books.
Printing.
Analytische bibliografie.

Form/genre:

Bibliography
bibliographies.
Bibliographies.
History.
Annotations.

Holdings:

Location: Library study room 80968
Call No.: PO7722 Z116.A2 REF; ID:86-B15512
Status: Available