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and Retrospective Miscellany, Shaksperiana, &c.; Atkinson, of Glasgow, possessed, perhaps, as great an acquaintance with Medical Bibliography as any person of his times, as his curious and unique work on that subject proves. One of the leading medical journals of Europe characterised it as "one of the most remarkable books ever seen-uniting the German research of a Plouquet with the ravings of a Rabelais, the humour of Sterne with the satire of Democritus, the learning of Burton with the wit of Pindar." It is to be regretted the ingenious author did not live to complete the whole design.

Ainsworth, the popular historical novelist, was originally a bookseller with John Ebers, of Bond Street, to whom he afterwards became related by marriage.

Godwin (author of Caleb Williams, St. Leon, &c.,) was once a bookseller in Skinner Street; Rodd, who kept an extensive establishment for the sale of old books, translated the Spanish Ballads. His shop was the resort of confirmed bibliomaniacs.

Nor should the name of John Murray the friend and publisher of Byron-be omitted in this place. It is not our province to remark on the distinguished eminence of this gentleman as a publisher, although in this respect he may unquestionably be entitled to take the highest rank; but his well-known literary abilities and severe critical taste, equally render him conspicuous, as evinced in the immense collection of valuable works which have issued from his establishment. The excellent series of Hand-Books are, in part, productions of his son, the present publisher of that name.

The name of Talboys, of Oxford, will be remembered by his admirable translation of Adelung's Historical Sketch of Sanscrit Literature, to which he appended copious bibliographical notices. He was, moreover, the translator of the very erudite volumes of Professor Heeren, of which he is also the publisher; his Bibliotheca Classica and Theologica likewise deserve honourable mention for their completeness and excellent scientific arrangement.

Hansard, the printer, who wrote Typographia, and another

similar work, and who has been also a contributor to the Encyclopædia Britannica, also was of the fraternity; as well as West, the author of Fifty Years' Recollections of a Bookseller. Goodhugh, author of the Library Manual; Haas, who translated Dr. Krummacher's Elisha, and Zschökke's History of Switzerland.

John Russell Smith has rendered himself distinguished by his industry, as well as literary taste. His work on the Bibliography of Kent, Bibliotheca Cantiana, as well as his Bibliographical List of all Works which have been published towards illustrating the Provincial Dialects of England, evince both his untiring antiquarian research and literary zeal. We come next to a name that has become almost a synonym with antiquarian anecdote-William Hone, the sale of whose Every Day Book and Year Book (who has not read them ?), during the first year of their publication, produced 5007. He was originally a bookseller-his collected works would probably fill ten or twelve octavos. His political satires had a prodigious sale, upwards of 70,000 copies being disposed of in a short time. His infidel publications he lived to repudiate, and publicly to recant, in a work entitled his Early Life and Conversion. Henry G. Bohn deserves to be classed among our list; his catalogue, containing a critical description of 300,000 volumes, in all the languages dear to literature, may be ranked among the most remarkable productions of the press of any nation. It contains 2106 pages, and cost its compiler two thousand guineas and an almost incredible amount of labour. The Chambers, of Edinburgh, editors of the able and valuable works that bear their name, present another noble instance of genius rising superior to all opposing circumstances. They were originally, as intimated, of humble origin-now they are among the largest publishers of their age. Their essays are among the choicest of our periodical literature. There is still another name we cannot, in justice, omit to notice: we allude to that of Timperley, whose Encyclopædia of Literary Anecdote discovers curious labour and research. Here, then, we ought to pause in our enumeration of literary booksellers and

printers; although the catalogue might be extended to a much greater length. There are three other names, however, we must not omit, in conclusion.'

Charles Knight, the well-known editor of the Pictorial Shakspeare, of London Illustrated, and other excellent works; Thomas Miller, once the basket-maker, since poet, novelist, and essayist; and William Howitt, whose voluminous writings are too well known to require recital-form a triple coronal in bibliography; and the lustre they shed upon the brotherhood of booksellers to which they originally belonged, may well atone for the obliquities, discrepancies, and obtuseness, with which the tongue of scandal has sought to darken the fair escutcheon of its fame.

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The first book ever printed in the New World, was in the city of Mexico. It was printed in the Spanish language, in the year 1544, and was entitled Doctrina Christiana per eo los Indos. The first publications made in English, in America, were the Freeman's Oath, and an Almanac for 1639, nearly a hundred years after the work published in Mexico. In 1640 was published the first book, entitled, the Bay Psalm Book. It was reprinted in England, where it passed through no less than eighteen editions; the last being issued in 1754. It was no less popular in Scotland, twenty-two editions of it having been published there. Altogether, it is estimated it reached to seventy editions abroad.

We might mention, with no slight honour, the name of John Foster, a man of great literary attainments, a graduate at Harvard University, and himself an author. At a later date Matthew Carey, and his son and successor, Henry Carey, both of whom have recorded their names in the literary annals of their country, not to omit the name of an author-bookseller, Peter Parley (Goodrich), whose works are alike appreciated in both hemispheres.

Isaiah Thomas has written and published a History of Printing, a work of considerable reputation; Drake, the antiquarian bookseller of Boston, besides being a member of several learned societies, was author of the Book of the Indians.

The first printing-press set up in America was "worked " at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1639.

The Rev. Jesse Glover procured this press, by "contributions of friends of learning and religion," in Amsterdam and in England, but died on his passage to the New World.

Stephen Day was the first printer. In honour of his pioneer position, Government gave him a grant of three hundred acres of land. Among other of his early publications were the New Testament and Baxter's Call, translated into the Indian language, by Elliot, the great missionary, and printed at great cost. The title might be recommended, on account of its obscurity and high-sounding character, to some of the writers of books now-a-days. It Wusku-Wuttesthementum Yul-Lordumun Jesus Christ

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The whole Bible was printed in this language in 1663. The nation once speaking it is now extinct.

Pennsylvania was the second State to encourage printing. William Bradford went to Pennsylvania with William Penn, in 1682, and in 1686 established a printing-press in Philadelphia; its first issue was an Almanac for 1687; it was but a sheet. The first book printed by Bradford was a collection of essays by Francis Bacon. It appeared in 1688, and was called The Temple of Wisdom.

In 1692, Bradford was induced to establish a printing-press in New York. He received 40l. per annum, and “the privilege of printing on his own account." Previous to this time there had been no printing done in the province of New York.

* One long word suggests another-the title of a pamphlet (in the possession of the writer), published years ago in London. The title reads: "Chrononhotonthologos, the most tragical Tragedy that ever was tragedized by any company of tragedians." The two first lines of this effusion read

"Aldeborontiphoscophornio !

Where left you Chrononhotonthologos?"

We might name another singular title of a work published in 1661, by Robert Lovell, entitled, "Panzoologicomineralogia; a complete History of Animals and Minerals, contains the summe of all Authors, Galenical and Chymicall, with the Anatomie of Man, &c."

His first issue in New York was a proclamation, bearing date of 1692.

During the latter part of the seventeenth century, Boston contained about forty printers and publishers. The first fruits of the press were devoted to the rights of religion and liberty -fitting tribute of the pioneer pilgrims of a great nation for the altar of Freedom. The bookselling business of Boston, half a century ago, was conducted on a very limited scale compared with present times. The senior publishers of that city are Crocker and Brewster. They began business in 1811. Gould and Lincoln are next in the order of date. Ticknor, Francis, Greene, Little, and Brown, with others, form the succession. It is believed that the amount invested in the book business in Boston alone at the present day, cannot be less than three millions of dollars. Now there are nearly one hundred booksellers, and over fifty distinct publishers in the American "Athens."

In New York there are four hundred and forty-four booksellers and one hundred and thirty-three publishers, and in Pennsylvania, four hundred and two of the first and seventytwo of the last. Most of the publishing, and the largest number of the booksellers, centre in the three great cities of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, which are the leading publishing cities of the country. New York has the most capital invested in the business.*

In Great Britain, the United States, France, and Germany,

* Stanford and Swords is the oldest existing publishing-house of New York. Harper & Brothers (numerically the largest publishers, from whose establishment the best editions of the Classics have emanated); Appletons; Putnam (publisher of Washington Irving's works); Barnes & Co.; Scribner; Redfield; Ivison & Phinney; Derby; De Witt & Davenport; Carters; Collins, Woods, Wiley, Sheldon, Lamport & Co., are the publishers of New York. In addition, there are several large establishments connected with religious societies, including the Methodist Book Concern. The booksellers and publishers of Cincinnati, Buffalo, Auburn, and other cities of the West, are rapidly competing with their brothers of the Atlantic cities in the magnitude of their operations. In Philadelphia, the more prominent publishers are Lindsay & Blakiston, Blanchard & Lea, Lippincott & Co., E. H. Butler, Cowperthwaite & Co.

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