Search

A chapter of the book "We, the "Other Victorians": Considering the Heritage of 19th-Century Thought," edited by Silvia Caporale-Bizzini is presented. It looks at the rise of the newspaper and publishing industry at the end of 19th century in Victorian England. It states the rapid developments in printing and paper technology and its impact on output. The article also mentions the relationship between periodical trade and book trade.

The article focuses on the process of publishing in the nineteenth century. The revolutionary changes in production brought about by machine-produced paper, powered book presses, stereotyping and publishers' cloth bindings inevitably had dramatic effects on publishing activity. Publishers were experimenting with review periodicals which catered for a middle-class audience which was larger but less leisured than its eighteenth century equivalent. Under the pressure of high production costs, low volume sales and punitive taxation, both educated and uneducated audiences had been trained into a relationship with text that depended to a significant extent on borrowing, hiring or segmenting into parts. The only texts generally available whole and cheaply were non-copyright materials, mostly classics of one kind or another, few of which had a wide enough appeal to be profitably mass-produced. The most important development in middle-class publishing was the speed and cheapness with which fiction was reprinted. By 1870 the common publishing pattern for a novel was serialization in a magazine or newspaper followed immediately by a 31s is 6d three-decker.

The article recounts the author's experience of visiting Cuba to interview writers. At the Casa de las Americas, he faced a panel which described the activities of the multifunctional arts. He found that the biggest problem of the book industry in the country is the shortage of paper, since it must be imported. He was able to interview poet Nancy Moréjon during his trip.

The article lists several books published by Taggard & Thompson which include "My Uncle Toby's Library," by Francis Forrester, "The Martin and Nellie Stories," by Josephine Franklin and "The Glen Morris Stories," Francis Forrester.