Start Date(s)

• 1837 (journal itself)

End Date(s)

• 1959 (Zakreski)

Editor(s)

• Low, Sampson
• Marston, Edward
• Marston, Robert Bright

City

• London, England (journal itself)

Circulation Count

• 3,750 in 1839 (journal itself)

Type of Content

• Contains "information on printing and printers" (Bigmore and Wyman vol. 2, p. 187)
• Contains "advertisements connected with Literature and the Fine Arts with a Classed Index" (Growell p. 167)
• Also contains antiquities, fine arts, atlases, history, juvenile, law, magazines, medicine, musical, natural history, novels, poetry, politics, science, theology, voyages, lists, tables, advertisements, shipping schedules, foreign/domestic news, fiscal information, serials and periodicals being published (Waterloo Online)
• List of books published every fortnight; index of authors and titles; regular columns on trade-related matters such as businesses for sale and job vacancies, obituaries and American books; book trade news (1841); advertisements (priced at 8d a line, £2 a column, £4 a page, quickly lowered to 3 guineas a page and 6d a line; ads increased in price after 1891); book reviews (Zakreski p. 516)
• Journal for publishers, booksellers, librarians and others connected with the book trade. "Books of the week" list gives in one alphabet under author, subject and title, the size, price, date of publication and publisher of new books, editions, reprints, etc., issued in UK (Mitchell's 1905, p. 78)
• By the 1840s, it had 2-3 pages of general trade information and then lots of price lists, book lists, and advertising (King 2020, p. 587)

Notes

• While early issues of The Publishers' Circular are devoted exclusively to lists of publications, suggesting that this periodical is more a press trade journal than a print trade journal, later issues begin to include articles of interest to members of the print trade generally (and not just publishers/buyers/sellers of books). These include articles about printing firms, publishers, changes in schools and education that impact the print trade, notices of awards and bankruptcies, obituaries of members of the print trade, copyright law and taxes, trade conferences, etc. This is the argument for inclusion in this database
• One of the book trade's three most important titles (King 2020, p. 585)--begun when fourteen big publishers in London challenged Bent's monopoly on book trade advertising; not an official trade organ, primarily an advertising sheet (p. 587)
• "The Publishers’ Circular is a trade journal for the publishing industry" ("Publishers' Circular," NCSE)
• "Until 1837 Bent's Literary Advertiser was the only trade journal connected with bookselling; at this period the publishers became dissatisfied with the manner in which it was conducted, and established a periodical of their own called The Publishers' Circular, appointing Low as editor. The first number appeared on 2 October 1837. Low gradually introduced many changes and improvements, and in 1867 the Circular became his sole property. The periodical, which was published fortnightly, supplied a list of new books, and from these lists an annual catalogue was made up, the first appearing in 1839" (Boas)
• “For many years this useful publication was edited by Mr. Samson Low, head of the firm which owns it. The notes which form the preliminary part of each number occasionally contain information on printing and printers” (Bigmore and Wyman vol. 2, p. 187)
• "Similar in character to Bent's Literary Advertiser, this publication conveys an account of works in the press, works newly published, and of book auctions. In the same way as its contemporary, its circulation is among the members of the book trade, who find here a careful registry of all new books. To assistants requiring employment, either in the book trade or printing, the Circular forms an excellent Advertising medium" (Mitchell's 1846, p. 118)
• Beavan, quoting Eliot and Sutherland, asserts that "the Circular rapidly established itself as a 'central clearing house of information, aimed primarily at the retail trade and bulk buyers (rather than manufacturers) of books'" (Beavan p. 127)
• "This attempt, the Proprietors are happy to say, has been eminently successful. It is, they have no hesitation in saying, the first and only CATALOGUE OF THE WORKS PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITIAN approaching completeness" ("Address," 1839, pp. iii-iv, but included in preface to first bound volume)
• "Containing a complete list of all New Works published in Great Britain and of every Work of Interest published in abroad (Growell p. 67)
• "[T]he Publishers' Circular did not begin clearly numbering its entries until 1843" (Eliot and Sutherland p. 26)
• "In 1851 an 'Annual Illustrated Christmas Number' was introduced and continued for 70 years and provides a record of changing styles and techniques of book illustration and periodical graphics (Zakreski pp. 516-17)
• "One of the most important supplements to the journal was the English (or British) catalogue (1842ff) an annual digest derived from the fortnightly issues" (Zakreski pp. 516-17)
• Becomes Publishers' Circular and Booksellers' Record of British and Foreign Literature in 1891, then British Books from 1959 to 1966 (COPAC)
• Publisher's address in 1837: 57 Skinner St., Snowhill, London (journal itself)
• Publisher's address in 1895: St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane (BLT19 Database)

Subject Categories

• Advertising
• Book Trade & Bookselling
• Book Trade News
• Printing Trade
• Publishing

Sources that Discuss this Journal

• BLT19
• Beavan p. 127
• Bigmore and Wyman vol. 2, p. 187
• Boase and Loughlin-Chow
• Colby p. 2
• Eliot and Sutherland p. 26, 388
• Growoll pp. 165-67
• Hubbard 1882, p. 1659
• King, "Trade" pp. 585-88
• Mitchell’s 1895 p. 75
• "Publishers’ Circular," NSCE
• Shattock p. 85
• Stewart vol. 3, p. 629
• Sullivan vol. 3, p. 49

Works Cited

• Beavan, Iain. "Bookselling." The Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland, Volume 3: Ambition and Industry 1800–1880, edited by Bill Bell. Edinburgh UP, 2007, pp. 123-40. EBSCOhost.
• Bigmore, E. C., and C. W. H. Wyman. A Bibliography of Printing. 1880. Oak Knoll P and the British Library, 2001.
• BLT19 Trade and Professional Press Database 1900. Created by Andrew King, 2020.
• Boase, G. C., and M. Clare Loughlin-Chow. "Low, Sampson (1797–1886), publisher." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 23 Sept. 2004.
• Colby, Robert A. “Tale Bearing in the 1890s: The Author and Fiction Syndication.” Victorian Periodicals Review, vol. 18, no. 1, 1985, pp. 2–16. JSTOR.
• Eliot, Simon, and John Sutherland. The Publishers' Circular 1837-1900: Guide to the Microfiche Edition. Chadwyck-Healey, 1988.
• Growoll, Adolf. "Periodicals Published for the English Booktrade 1797-1903." Three Centuries of English Booktrade Bibliography, ed. Growoll and Wilberforce Eames. Holland P, 1903, pp. 163-73. Google Books.
• Hubbard, Harlan P. Hubbard's Newspaper and Bank Directory of the World. Hubbard, 1882-84. Google Books.
• King, Andrew. “The Trade and Professional Press.” The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, edited by David Finkelstein, Vol. 2: Expansion and Evolution, Edinburgh UP, 2020, pp. 558–95.
• Mitchell’s Newspaper Press Directory and Advertiser’s Guide. C. Mitchell, 1895.
• "Publishers’ Circular." NCSE: Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition. 20 May 2020.
• Shattock, Joanne. The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Vol. 4: 1800-1900. Edited by Frederick W. Bateson. 3rd ed. Cambridge UP. 1999.
• Stewart, James D., editor. British Union-Catalogue of Periodicals. 4 vols. Butterworths, 1968.
• Sullivan, Alvin. British Literary Magazines. 4 vols. Greenwood, 1983.
• Zakreski, Patricia. "Paper and Printing Trades Journal." Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland, edited by Marysa Demoor and Laurel Brake, Academia P, 2009, p. 479-80. Google Books.