Some Account of the Oxford University Press, 1468-1921 · Oxford University Press
THE PRESS ABROAD
Another field of enterprise is in vernacular education. Here the opportunities are vast, but the difficulties are great, for in most provinces many languages are spoken, and no one press is adequately equipped with the numerous founts of type required to deal with the vernaculars of India as a whole. The Branch was therefore fortunate in being, in 1916, invited by the Government of the Central Provinces to produce a series of Readers—in Hindi and Marathi—for use in schools throughout the province. At that time no paper could be imported from England, and the staff of the Branch was depleted by war. Nevertheless, within a year over half a million volumes had been written, printed, and illustrated, and were ready for distribution over a country nearly twice as large as England and Wales. The activities of the Branch in placing the issues of the War before Indian readers in a true light attracted in 1918 the attention of Government; and the Branch was engaged by the Central Publicity Bureau to produce an illustrated War Magazine and a mass of pamphlets in English and the vernacular tongues. In spite of these preoccupations the Branch has been able to emulate the activities of the Press at home by co-operating with learned bodies in India to produce books of scientific value. Notable among its publications in this kind are the historical treatises of Mr. Rawlinson, Mr. Kincaid, Mr. Mookerji, and other writers, and the economic studies published on behalf of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.
Mention may also be made here of the _Classics of Indian History_ which are being issued by the Press. In reviewing the latest volume of the series—Meadows Taylor’s _Story of My Life_—The Times Literary Supplement says: ‘It is one of those books from which history hereafter will be written. The great books—in one sense or other—like Colonel Mark Wilks’s _Historical Sketches of Southern India_, Grant Duff’s _History of the Mahrattas_, Tod’s _Rajasthan_, Broughton’s _Letters from a Mahratta Camp_, must be supplemented not only by the native records, which are more and more becoming accessible, but by the personal narratives of Englishmen who lived in out-of-the-way places and entered into the lives of the rural inhabitants of India. Beside Colonel Sleeman’s _Reminiscences_ must be put the autobiography of Meadows Taylor, a much superior book.’ Of the books mentioned by _The Times_, Sleeman’s and Tod’s have already been issued, uniform with Meadows Taylor’s, Dubois’s _Hindu Manners_, Bernier’s _Travels_, Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali’s _Mussulmanns_, and Cunningham’s _Sikhs_; editions of Grant Duff and Broughton are in preparation.
Mr. Rieu, when in 1919 reasons of health compelled him to retire, had in a few years proved himself a real pioneer. He had immensely increased the volume of business done by the Branch, and had opened up new and promising fields. His successor, Major G. F. J. Cumberlege, D.S.O., of Worcester College, who was accompanied by Mr. N. L. Carrington, of Christ Church, took over a successful and growing business. The original premises in Bombay had already been outgrown, and new offices opened in Elphinstone Circle. The increase of staff has made it possible to open a new branch in Calcutta—a sub-branch in Madras already existed—and it is confidently hoped that in the near future the business done in Oxford books, and adaptations of them, will be increased in volume, and that the service rendered by Oxford to the Indian Empire will be further enhanced by the activities of its Press. § 2. _The Press in Canada_ The Oxford University Press Canadian Branch was founded in 1904 at 25 Richmond Street West, Toronto. The manager was Mr. S. B. Gundy, who still presides at the same address; but the building was destroyed by fire in 1905 and completely reconstructed. Although Canada has still a relatively small population, scattered over an immense area, the volume of business done by the Branch is substantial, and it continues to grow. The sale of Oxford Bibles, Clarendon Press books, Medical and Elementary books is supplemented by the sale of books published in Canada and the United States, for which Mr. Gundy acts as agent. Thus the Branch sells all the publications of the great American house of Doubleday, Page and Company; and through this connexion it has recently become the sole publisher in Canada of the works of Mr. Rudyard Kipling.
Among the more notable Canadian enterprises of the Press are the Church of England Hymn Book (the _Book of Common Praise_), published in 1909, the large stocks of which caused Mr. Gundy ‘to overflow into a neighbouring barber shop’, and the new edition of the Presbyterian _Book of Praise_, produced in defiance of submarines and other obstacles in 1917. The editor, the Rev. Alexander Macmillan, carried the manuscript across the Atlantic in small packets sewn into his clothes. § 3. _The Press in Australasia_ This part of the business was first developed by visits regularly made from London by Mr. E. R. Bartholomew, who in 1908 became manager of the Branch then established at Cathedral Buildings, Melbourne. Australia is not only many thousands of miles from the great centres of book-production, but is itself a land of great distances, as yet but sparsely populated; and this creates difficulties for both publishers and booksellers. It is remarkable how far these obstacles have been overcome; and if regard is paid to the number and character of the population, Australia, and New Zealand no less, have a right to be proud of the quantity and quality of the books they buy. The Branch has paid attention to the special needs of Australian education, and in co-operation with the universities and schools has produced a number of successful text-books.
It acts as agent for some of the leading British publishers, including the houses of Murray, Heinemann, Black, Chapman and Hall, and Mowbray; and for the large publishing business of Messrs. Angus and Robertson of Sydney. [Illustration: MARKHAM’S BUILDINGS, CAPE TOWN in which the South African Branch is situated] § 4. _The Press in South Africa_ The South African Office of the Press is at Markham’s Buildings, Adderley Street, Cape Town. Mr. C. R. Mellor, the present Representative, was appointed to that post in March 1915. From his office at Cape Town Mr. Mellor visits the principal booksellers, not only in the Cape Province, but in the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and Natal. § 5. _The Press in China_ The Chinese Agency of the Press is at C 445 Honan Road, Shanghai, of which Mr. T. Leslie is the present Representative. The first agent in China for the Press was the Christian Literature Society of Shanghai, the agency being started in 1913. Mr. Leslie, who had been manager of that Society, took over the Press agency in 1917. Stocks of all Oxford books likely to be in demand in China are held in Shanghai. § 6. _The Press in Scandinavia_ For many years before the war a traveller from Amen Corner visited the Continent annually, but business in Scandinavia developed so rapidly after the Armistice that it was found desirable to open a Branch, and premises were accordingly secured in Copenhagen, Mr. H. Bohun Beet, the Continental traveller of the Press, being appointed manager. The Branch was opened in August 1920, at St. Kongensgade 40 H, close to the King’s Palace. The Branch represents also Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton and the Medici Society.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.