How Books Came to America

The Rise of the American Book Trade

John Hruschka

• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780271072272
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Publishing
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Anyone who pays attention to the popular press knows that the new media will soon make books obsolete. But predicting the imminent demise of the book is nothing new. At the beginning of the twentieth century, for example, some critics predicted that the electro-mechanical phonograph would soon make books obsolete. Still, despite the challenges of a century and a half of new media, books remain popular, with Americans purchasing more than eight million books each day. In How Books Came to America, John Hruschka traces the development of the American book trade from the moment of European contact with the Americas, through the growth of regional book trades in the early English colonial cities, to the more or less unified national book trade that emerged after the American Civil War and flourished in the twentieth century. He examines the variety of technological, historical, cultural, political, and personal forces that shaped the American book trade, paying particular attention to the contributions of the German bookseller Frederick Leypoldt and his journal, Publishers Weekly.

Unlike many studies of the book business, How Books Came to America is more concerned with business than it is with books. Its focus is on how books are manufactured and sold, rather than how they are written and read. It is, nevertheless, the story of the people who created and influenced the book business in the colonies and the United States. Famous names in the American book trade—Benjamin Franklin, Robert Hoe, the Harpers, Henry Holt, and Melvil Dewey—are joined by more obscure names like Joseph Glover, Conrad Beissel, and the aforementioned Frederick Leypoldt. Together, they made the American book trade the unique commercial institution it is today.

Table of contents

• COVER Front
• CIP Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Notes to Preface
• Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: Creating New Worlds
• Notes to Chapter 1
• Chapter 2: Inventing America in the English Book Trade
• Notes to Chapter 2
• Chapter 3: Creating Book Trades in English America
• Notes to Chapter 3
• Chapter 4: Creating German Books in the New World
• Notes to Chapter 4
• Chapter 5: Re-creating the London Book Trade in the United States
• Notes to Chapter 5
• Chapter 6: Revolutions in American Book Production Technology
• Notes to Chapter 6
• Chapter 7: Transplanting the German Book Trade to the United States
• Notes to Chapter 7
• Chapter 8: The Evolution of the American Book Business
• Notes to Chapter 8
• Chapter 9: Becoming a German Bookseller in the United States
• Notes to Chapter 9
• Chapter 10: Creating a German Bookstore in Philadelphia
• Notes to Chapter 10
• Chapter 11: The Evolution of an American Publisher
• Notes to Chapter 11
• Chapter 12: Creating an Independent American Publisher
• Notes to Chapter 12
• Chapter 13: Imposing Order on the American Book Trade
• Notes to Chapter 13
• Chapter 14: Creating the Office of Publishers’ Weekly
• Notes to Chapter 14
• Chapter 15: Celebrating the Book Trade in the New World
• Notes to Chapter 15
• Chapter 16: The End of the Beginning
• Notes to Chapter 16
• Chapter 17: Inventing the Future American Book Trade
• Notes to Chapter 17
• Notes
• Index
• COVER Back