Slike stranica
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Being the full titles, with descriptive notes, of all books recorded in the Publishers'

Weekly, 1886, with author, title, and subject index, publishers'
annual lists and directory of publishers

NEW YORK

OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY

1887

THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY

594297

ACTOR, LENOX AND
TILBEN FOUNDATIONS.

1913

COPYRIGHT,

1887.

By R. R. BOWKER.

PREFACE.

THE ANNUAL AMERICAN CATALOGUE, begun with the present volume for 1886, is intended to complete the system of trade bibliography of the office of the PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY, of which the AMERICAN CATALOGUE of 1876 and the successive volumes planned to succeed it at five-yearly intervals are the crown, and the weekly record and monthly indexes of that periodical the original material. The connecting link of an ANNUAL CATALOGUE has been much asked for, in place of the make-shift of two half-years hitherto given in the PUBLISHERS' TRADE LIST ANNUAL, but, despite its practical usefulness in the book-store and the library, there was much doubt as to whether the demand, translated into dollars and cents, would justify the cost of its supply. The advance subscriptions for the present volume were enough to justify the experiment of its issue; whether the ANNUAL CATALOGUE shall continue will depend upon the further demand the sale of the present publication shall show.

The body of this catalogue is a reproduction in alphabetical order of the full titles with descriptive notes given in the weekly record of the PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY during the year 1886, numbering above 4500 entries. The cost of re-setting these would have been prohibitive, but the new and cheap photographic processes have come to our aid. This catalogue was made by carefully pasting upon cardboard pages the actual slips cut from the record, and re-arranged alphabetically, by author or (in the case of anonyms) by title. Both the planning and practical execution of this part of the work are to be put to the credit of Mr. A. Growoll, of the PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY. The process used is that of the Lithographoid Engraving and Printing Co., New York, in which the cost of metal is altogether saved by printing direct from the hardened gelatine plate. The record of titles, with the descriptive notes, is chiefly the work of Miss M. M. Monachesi.

The index, covering about 10,000 entries, is the short-title record of the same books by author, title, and subject, containing in the author-entry the date of the weekly record in which it first appeared, which is approximately a key to the date of publication. This was re-compiled from the twelve monthly indexes, and the considerable cost of re-setting could not in the present instance be avoided. This index, it will be noted, answers almost every question that can be asked in searching for a book, by author, title, general or special subject, or date.

Some books really issued in 1885 are necessarily included in these lists, and per contra some books really issued in 1886 were not reported and recorded until past the turn of the year. So far as these latter were traced up in connection with the Annual Summary Number of the PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY, though they could not be given in the main catalogue, they are included in a supplementary index, entered in short title by author, title, and subject, and more full particulars will generally be found in the annual lists of leading publishers appended as a further useful feature of this volume.

The list of publishers preceding the main catalogue, numbering 517, forms a practical directory to the American publishers really issuing books. If from this number is

« PrethodnaNastavi »