Books II

Good day class. Today's lecture is on the impact of the industrial revolution on the publishing industry in the mid nineteenth century. Hello.... still there? Class.... anyone?

Actually the topic of this blog is about as dry as it sounds and I fear only the most steadfast readers will proceed. Some of you may have read my recent blog entry (Books 1) about reading and the future of electronic books in the digital age.  This topic started me thinking about the past and how different the world of publishing is today.

My favorite author without a doubt is Charles Dickens and I can't help think that were he alive today he would be 100% in favour of this new technology. After all, he popularized the reading of fiction among the general population in a time when many couldn't even afford to buy a book due to the high cost of publishing. He cleverly wrote his books in weekly and monthly installments which were sold for a few pennies or serialized in newspapers making them affordable to the working class.

In the mid 1800s books and newspapers were published using the typesetting method which meant that each letter of each word was manually set in a hand held frame and then inserted into a printing press where it was inked and printed. I mention this only to illustrate the incredible strides that have been made in the publishing world since that time. It was also an era when great improvements were being made in transportation making it possible for books to be distributed and sold virtually worldwide.

Recently I was inspecting some microfilm of an early New Brunswick newspaper from 1847 and was thrilled to find a serialized chapter of "Dombey and Son" by Charles Dickens which was written earlier that same year. Imagine how that came about! Starting with a hand written manuscript, a copy would be sent by ship from England to New Brunswick where it would have been manually typeset, printed and sold on the streets to eager readers awaiting the next installment. The amount of work and effort involved is almost impossible to imagine. Unfortunately Charles Dickens did not make much money from this process as international copyrights did not exist at the time.

In contrast to the labour intensive and time consuming process described above, I just downloaded a free copy of "Dombey and Son" - the entire book including illustrations was complete in under two seconds. As amazing as this is, the thought of typesetters assembling each letter of each word (upside down and backwards, no less!) of every printed page is equally astounding to me.

This concludes our lesson for the day and those of you who are still awake are to be commended for your tenacity, stamina and patience. I was going to assign a 5000 word essay but your undivided attention has proven that you are scholars as well as true seekers of knowledge. A passing grade is assigned to all - class is dismissed.