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i
The History of
Oxford
University
Press
ii
iii
The History of
Oxford
University
Press
general editor
Simon Eliot
volume iv
1970–2004
Edited by
Keith Robbins
1
iv
1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Oxford University Press 2017
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
First Edition published in 2017
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics
rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013498633
ISBN 978–0–19–957479–7
Printed and bound by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
v
General Introduction
The History of Oxford University Press project offers a rare opportunity to trace the evo-
lution of a distinctive organization, engaged in one particular business, across the
centuries: the story of the Press spans almost the entire history of printing and pub-
lishing in Britain. Although previous works addressed parts of the story, there has
been no full scholarly history before. The project was conceived in a series of con-
versations between members of the Press and various academics; it was approved
by the Delegates in May 2004; and was launched in January 2006. Simon Eliot was
appointed General Editor; and Ian Gadd, Roger Louis, and Keith Robbins were subse-
quently invited to edit particular volumes. Throughout its development the History
has had the benefit of much good advice and guidance from an Executive Steering
Committee (Dr Ivon Asquith, Professor Sir Brian Harrison, Professor Joanna Innes,
Professor Paul Slack, Sir Keith Thomas); the editors wish to record their thanks for
all the support provided by the Committee. The project has been funded gener-
ously by the Press in order to ensure that its archive could be properly examined—
in many cases for the first time—not only in Oxford but in New York and other
offices around the world. However, this work is not an official history with all the
constraints that status might imply; the editors and contributors have been given
full academic freedom, and have been allowed untrammelled access to all the Press’s
archives and records up to the early years of this century.
The four volumes together cover more than 500 years of printing and publishing
at Oxford but, as the University Press’s size and significance increases, so the period
covered by each volume narrows. Volume I begins with the first book printed in
Oxford in 1478, only a few years after printing arrived in England, but concentrates
primarily on the period after the 1580s as a succession of printers appointed by the
University eventually gave way to an institutionally managed press. The year 1780
divides Volume I from Volume II, as that marks the point at which the Delegates
of the University Press ceased to rent out their privilege to print bibles to mem-
bers of the book trade, and instead became the major shareholder in a new Bible
Partnership. The late eighteenth century was also a significant time of change for
the book trade as a whole, for it saw the full impact of a legal decision in 1774 to
limit the term of copyright, and the emergence of what were recognizably modern
publishing houses. Volume II ends in 1896, the year in which the Press established
in New York its first overseas branch. Despite much economic uncertainty, the
1880s and 1890s saw new opportunities emerge as international copyright, inter-
continental telegraph systems, and steam ships made a global book trade feasible. v
vi
Ge n e r a l In t roduc t ion
Volume III ends in 1970, the year in which the Waldock committee, appointed by the
University to take stock of the Press’s position and recommend ways forward, pub-
lished its influential report. Volume IV begins in a decade of economic turmoil both
domestically and globally as publishers and universities adjusted to new pressures
and rapidly changing environments. These challenges persisted into the twenty-first
century. The Volume ends in 2004 with the publication of the Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography, which was issued in the September of that year both in traditional
printed form (in no fewer than sixty volumes) and as a website subject to frequent
and regular updating.
The enduring success of the University Press has to some considerable extent been
dependent, like a successful organism in the natural world, on its ability to adapt
to changing circumstances. These volumes follow these adaptations through the
centuries, but also identify certain continuities, most obviously in the Press’s com-
mitment to scholarly publishing. Nevertheless, mutability is bound to be a theme in
the history of any institution that has survived for so long. For this reason, the Press
described in one volume will be substantially different from the Press described
in any other volume. Even the name or names by which it has been known have
changed over time, and were not necessarily used with anything like consistency
until the twentieth century. In consequence Volume I tends to refer to a ‘university
printer’ up to about 1690, and to a ‘university press’ after that date. For similar rea-
sons Volume II has generally adopted the generic term ‘the Press’ to cover the print-
ing and publishing institution as a whole. Only in Volumes III and IV can ‘Oxford
University Press’ and ‘OUP’ at last be used with confidence.
Although each volume is bound to be different, each adopts a number of common
approaches. Each discusses the material nature of the Press: its machines and those
who worked them; the type and paper used; the costs of the materials and processes
employed; and, when such information was available, the prices at which its books
were sold. All volumes explore the political and intellectual context provided by the
University of which the Press was a part, and also the commercial and cultural envi-
ronment created by the book trade as a whole. There is frequent consideration of
the Press’s relationships with its counterpart in Cambridge, and with the book trade
in London. Each volume first provides a narrative of how the Press evolved during
the period covered, and how its various aspects related to each other. Chapters are
then devoted to the range of books produced by the Press, and the local, national,
and international markets and readerships they addressed. These surveys not only
indicate the many and various titles produced but also highlight particular publish-
ing achievements and their cultural resonances. The proportion of attention given
to specific types of book naturally varies across volumes according to changes in the
Press’s publishing activities, and in the evidence available.
Appendices provide a full list of the Delegates who served during the period,
and a chronology of some of the major events and publications covered by the vol-
ume. Additional appendices offer volume-specific information. The volumes do not
vi provide a bibliography: all the secondary material consulted can be found in the
vi
Ge n e r a l In t roduc t ion
footnotes. Neither do they include a list of all the Press’s publications. Instead an
Annual List of Titles, covering a period from the late fifteenth to the early twentieth
century, compiled for this History is available in electronic form through the OUP
Archives, along with additional material resulting from the project.
The History’s debt to earlier writers will be made clear in each volume, but spe-
cial mention should be made of the bibliographical work of Falconer Madan; the
researches of Horace Hart, R. W. Chapman, and John Johnson; the published and
unpublished work of Harry Carter (in particular A History of Oxford University Press
of which only the first volume was published); Nicolas Barker’s work on the Press
and the spread of learning; and Peter Sutcliffe’s Informal History. David McKitterick’s
three-volume A History of Cambridge University Press also provided many useful paral-
lels and some contrasts.
Thanks are due to the various external readers invited by both the Press and the
editors to comment on earlier versions of the text. We are also happy to acknow
ledge our considerable debt to Robert Faber, Jo Payne, Christopher Wheeler,
and the other editorial staff who have helped guide the project. We particularly
want to thank Christine Nicholls for her invaluable editorial work. The Archivist,
Martin Maw, and his team have helped us to navigate what is a very large and
sometimes challenging collection of archival materials. The University Archive
and its Archivist Simon Bailey proved to be a very useful resource, particularly
for parts of the earlier volumes where the OUP archives had little material. We are
also grateful to the Bodleian Library, not least in enabling access to the Printer’s
Library, formerly owned by the Press but now on deposit at the Bodleian. Thanks
too are due to the Institute of English Studies in the School of Advanced Study in
the University of London for providing a research centre which helped to support
and develop the project.
An enterprise of this size and scope must depend on a host of capable and
enthusiastic contributors. We were fortunate to be able to call on the talents of a
diverse range of authors: some scholars and some practitioners, a mix that gives
this history a particular distinctiveness and strength. Through the generosity of
the Press, the project was able to fund four postdoctoral fellows: Amy Flanders,
Atalanta Myerson, Dawn Nell, and Thorin Tritter. We thank them all for their
enthusiasm, hard work, and the many contributions they made to the preparation
of this history as researchers and authors. We were also fortunate to be able to
call on the efforts of Elizabeth Ackroyd, Mary Carr, Elaine Gilboy, Joanna Howe,
and Matthew Kilburn, as research assistants. Their dedication frequently went far
beyond the call of duty.
S.J.E.
vii
vi
ix
Preface
The previous three books in the history of Oxford University Press have traced a
long and complex evolution. This final volume shares many features with its precur-
sors. As a work of contemporary history, however, its special character and scope
merit initial comment. It is a wide-ranging history but is neither completely com-
prehensive nor definitive. The Press itself is properly its central focus but one, nec-
essarily on a limited scale, set within political, economic, educational, and cultural
developments, primarily in the United Kingdom, but also elsewhere.
The contributors have all lived through the period about which they write and
bring to bear different experiences and perspectives. Their diversity is deliberate.
Some have been employed by the Press for all or part of their careers and have direct
knowledge of matters about which they write. Some are authors who have published
with the Press, although not with it exclusively. Some know the University of Oxford
well, others only slightly. The editor, although an Oxford graduate, has had a career
as historian and Vice-Chancellor elsewhere in England, Scotland, and Wales. He has
published with OUP but also with other British and foreign publishers. The advan-
tage of this mixture is that over the course of writing both insiders and outsiders
have seen their preconceptions challenged. The chapters have often involved exten-
sive iteration and debate as fresh information has become available. Perspectives
and viewpoints have shifted through the long period of writing. Each chapter has a
particular focus but topics in as complex an operation as OUP cannot be rigidly self-
contained: some explanatory overlap and repetition is unavoidable.
This volume demonstrates both the advantages and drawbacks of contemporary
history. As a project, it rests fundamentally upon the archives of the Press. A note
from the archivist indicates how rich they are. The extensive correspondence between
leading figures, the minutes of key committees and many memoranda on important
topics make possible a substantial assessment of the challenges facing the Press as per-
ceived by those responsible for its management. In many instances, contributors have
been given full access to this documentation for the purposes of this volume and have
received much support in locating materials and information. In addition to the writ-
ten archives, however, contributors have benefited from a substantial programme of
interviews with many people who have worked at the Press. The recordings remain
at the Press (though, as explained in the Archival Overview, these are subject to the
archive’s general policies for unpublished materials). Reminiscences and recollections
add greatly to the depth of the project. Contributors, in writing their chapters, have
in many instances been able themselves to interview individuals or read interviews ix
x
Pr e face
Pr e face
of the University of Oxford. They bring out the consequential and constant need to
blend commercial astuteness and scholarly aspiration. Adrian Bullock, Dawn Nell,
and Angus Phillips consider respectively three central decisions taken during this
period which reshaped the structure of the Press: the concentration of publishing
operations in Oxford and the closing of the London Business; the creation of a new
distribution centre at Corby in Northamptonshire and likewise ending the previous
arrangements in London; and the decision to focus on publishing as the core business
by closing the Printing House in Oxford. Each of these steps entailed different kinds
of risk and adjustment. They were not without stress and pain for individuals but they
were essential to modernization. Counter-factually, it may be impossible to prove that
without these changes the Press would have struggled to survive, but those who took
these decisions thought so. Alongside them, and integral to success, as Simon Wratten
suggests, was a pervasive attention to sales and marketing. Adjustment was also made
necessary, as Paul Luna demonstrates, by technological changes which established,
sometimes by trial and error, new ways of doing old things. Luna’s second chapter
illustrates the ramifications of these same changes in the area of book design. Final
chapters, by Nick Wilson and William Whyte respectively, paint a picture—chiefly
viewed from Oxford—of the inner life of the Press as a publishing community and the
built environment in which it worked. It was one very different in 2004 from what it
had been in 1970 but where a collective ethos and aspiration was still evident.
Part II: Andrew Schuller’s account of Academic Books, appropriately, is the lon-
gest chapter. He deals with the scholarly core of the Press, primarily publications
from Oxford but also with significant attention to books published by the Press in
New York, with a glance at Europe and Japan. This formidable list, while it ranges
widely, cannot be comprehensive. The chapter gives meaning to the term ‘university
press’. Some academic publishing, however, is also considered in the chapters on
particular branches (in Part III). Angus Phillips’s chapter discusses OUP as a trade
publisher. It could not offer authors advances comparable to those offered by pure
trade publishers, but it could tempt some scholars looking for a wide readership.
It could generate successful titles, though latterly the Press seemed to be drawing
back from this field. Simon Catling considers UK schoolbook publishing in a chang-
ing educational market. The Press had to adapt to a world in which books directly
met teachers’ examination and teaching requirements. In dictionary and reference
publishing, Elizabeth Knowles argues in her chapter that the Press’s output came
for the first time to have coherence as a publishing area, aimed at a general as well
as educational audience. It was able to exploit the standing provided by the OED.
Martin Richardson’s contribution notes that in journals publishing OUP was slow
off the mark—they had no specific chapter in Volume III—but gradually made up
for lost ground. Simon Wright, in his discussion of OUP and music, emphasizes its
varied published output and its sedulous cultivation of rights. This chapter also con-
siders the fate of OUP’s bible and hymnal publication, once a cornerstone of its list,
which suffered a steady decline in relative importance. Roy Foster’s chapter explores
the Press’s decision to cease publishing contemporary poetry—and the ensuing xi
xi
Pr e face
academic furore: an episode which brought a fundamental question into the open,
about the boundaries of the Press’s cultural role. The chapters in this Part demon-
strate that the Press published almost but not quite everything that a university
could and should publish.
Part III: Dawn Nell’s chapter describes the Press’s enterprise as an ELT publisher.
It is the global impact of this enterprise which justifies its placement in this Part,
although the publications which undergirded it are just as much a part of the Press’s
overall output as those discussed in the previous Part. It was ELT publishing, as
Martin Richardson explains, which spawned the emergence of OUP España as a full-
scale branch. Thorin Tritter’s New York chapter is the longest, befitting the branch’s
importance and special position within the OUP world. That position, he acknow
ledges, was always difficult to define but highly significant. His chapter on Australia,
Canada, and New Zealand illustrates that the same outcomes did not necessarily fol-
low in countries which, at first sight, seemed similar. Atalanta Myerson’s chapter con-
siders the Press in East Asia, a large and diverse territory that forced OUP to wrestle
with linguistic, political, and organizational questions. Padmini Ray Murray and Ali
Raza respectively consider India and Pakistan and the complicated cultural, political,
and educational questions which surrounded OUP’s operations in these countries.
Such matters also feature prominently in Dawn Nell’s chapter dealing with the differ-
ent challenges and opportunities OUP faced in South, East, and West Africa.
This volume, in drawing these diverse threads together, has protractedly but
constructively engaged the minds and in some cases stirred the memories of
many people. It has been a work of exhaustive, and occasionally exhausting,
reflection and exchange, as draft has followed draft. My three fellow editors have
been pioneers and enabled me to benefit from their experience in editing the
earlier volumes. No editor, however, could have succeeded without the patience
and forbearance of the contributors when they have been presented, over a long
period, with further requests for clarification or subjected to revision. The steer-
ing committee—Dr Ivon Asquith, Professor Sir Brian Harrison, and Sir Keith
Thomas, initially chaired by Professor Paul Slack and followed by Professor Joanna
Innes—has been exemplary in blending encouragement and stringent correc-
tion and criticism. Observations and insights have been welcomed and absorbed
along the way from many quarters, both within and beyond the Press. Such con-
tributions have been too numerous to be identified individually here but they
have been invaluable. The staff of the Press, especially Robert Faber, Jo Payne, and
Martin Maw, have used their particular knowledge and skills to chart and guide
the enterprise to its conclusion. Dr Amy Flanders has given valued assistance in
the final stages. It has been a privilege, many decades after becoming an Oxford
graduate and an OUP author, to have been entrusted with this task. It could not
have been accomplished, as always, without Janet’s patient support.
K.G.R.
xii
xi
Contents
Con t e n ts
Part II Publications
11. Academic Publishing 269
Andrew Schuller
12. Trade Publishing 333
Angus Phillips
13. UK Schoolbook Publishing 353
Simon Catling
14. Dictionaries and Reference 383
Elizabeth Knowles
15. Journals 425
Martin Richardson
16. Music Publishing, Bibles, and Hymnals 449
Simon Wright
17. The Poetry Question 469
Roy Foster
xiv
╇xv
Con t e n ts
╇╇╇Conclusion 689
Keith Robbins
appendices
I. Chronology, 1970–╉2004 703
II. Delegates of the Press, 1970–╉2004 709
III. Officers of the University of Oxford, 1970–╉2004 713
xv
xvi
xvi
xvi
List of Figures
xvii
xvi
L ist of F igu r e s
L ist of F igu r e s
9.4 New editorial offices in what was formerly the Printing House, Walton
Street, Oxford 225
9.5 OUP embarked on a three-year sponsorship of the Museum of Modern
Art Oxford in October 1998 226
9.6 Roy Collins bowling for OUP during a quincentennial match
at Jordan Hill, 1978 227
9.7 Programme for the Moments in Time summer ball, 1990 236
9.8 OUP football team, Jordan Hill, c.1980 249
9.9 The 1985–6 guidebook of the Piscatorial Society, a long-r unning
OUP tradition 250
9.10 The Oxford University Press Choir performs in the Fairway,
Christmas, c.2004 251
10.1 The Press buildings on Walton Street, built around a collegiate quadrangle 254
10.2 George Richardson, Lord Blake, and Byron Hollinshead celebrate the
500th birthday of Oxford printing at the Pierpont Morgan Library in
New York in 1978 256
10.3 Colin Roberts opening the Roberts Building, Oxford, December 1976 260
10.4 Aerial view of the Press buildings in Jericho, Oxford, 1996 262
10.5 Mezzanine of the Fairway, Oxford, 1995 265
11.1 Oxford publications in English Literature 268
11.2 Dan Davin, 1972 271
11.3 Richard Charkin, 1979 279
11.4 Ivon Asquith, 1979 283
11.5 Sam Wanamaker and Mervyn Stockwood, Bishop of Southwark, with
C. Walter Hodges at the launch of Hodges’s book, Shakespeare’s
Second Globe, 1973 286
11.6 Oxford titles on Art and Art history 289
11.7 Academic series from the Clarendon Press: Oxford Classical Texts, Oxford
Readings in Philosophy, Clarendon Law Series 293
11.8 University textbooks from the Clarendon Press 300
11.9 Kim Walwyn, Keith Thomas, and Hugo Brunner (right) at a reception in
the Fairway, Oxford, 1996 310
11.10 Oxford publications in Economics 314
11.11 International Series of Monographs in Physics 320
12.1 Promotional display for The Oxford Book of Sea Stories, 1994 332
12.2 Promotional shelving and posters for retail sales of Oxford World’s Classics 335
12.3 Oxford anthologies of literature in English 338
12.4 Peter Salway, The Oxford Illustrated History of Roman Britain (1993) 341
12.5 A selection of titles from the Very Short Introduction series 347
12.6 Ron Heapy escorted Roma Gill to Buckingham Palace to receive her
OBE in 1995 348
13.1 Oxford Children’s Encyclopedia, the best-selling OXED title from 1991 to 1996 352
13.2 Ben Brady (far left) of OUP New York and Fiona Clarke, editorial director
of OXED, at a convention of the International Reading Association, 1998 358
13.3 Oxford Reading Tree 361
13.4 Stephen Pople and Michael Williams, Science to GCSE (1995) 362 xix
x
L ist of F igu r e s
L ist of F igu r e s
20.5 Promoting the OUP children’s list with a tea party at Kroch’s and
Brentano’s bookstore in Chicago, 1978 537
20.6 OUP New York softball team, 1979 543
20.7 Ed Barry and Keith Thomas at the opening of the new OUP offices in
Madison Avenue, New York, July 1995 544
20.8 American journals and reference titles 549
20.9 Sheldon Meyer 551
20.10 Delegates procession to new offices on Madison Avenue, New York, 1995 555
21.1 Publishing for local markets in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand 564
21.2 Frank Eyre, manager of OUP Australia, 1950–76 568
21.3 The Canadian warehouses during a Toronto winter 570
21.4 Packing department, Melbourne, 1977 576
21.5 Walton House, Wellington, New Zealand, 1970 577
21.6 Katherine Barber, Editor-in-Chief, Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 1998 582
21.7 Marek Palka, Managing Director, OUP Melbourne, 1992–2006 583
21.8 Joanna Gertler, Managing Director, OUP Toronto, 1999–2005 588
22.1 OUP offices on the fifth floor of the News Building, Hong Kong, 1970 590
22.2 Three managing directors of OUP East Asia: Raymond Brammah, Muthu
Sockalingam, John Nicholson, 1982 594
22.3 The OUP PFB office in Petaling Jaya, Kuala Lumpur, late 1970s 596
22.4 OUP Kuala Lumpur football team 599
22.5 Tatsuo Kawawaki, Managing Director, OUP Japan 602
22.6 Dictionary and reference titles from OUP China 606
22.7 Roger Boning and Muthu Sockalingam viewing the OUP PFB offices after
the fire, 1991 609
22.8 Edda de Silva, Managing Director, OUP East Asia, 1998–2005 611
22.9 The new OUP PFB building, Glenmarie Industrial Park, Shah Alam, Kuala
Lumpur, 1995 616
23.1 Charles Lewis of OUP India presenting Indira Gandhi with volume 10 of
Birds of India and Pakistan, 1974 620
23.2 Ravi Dayal and Robin Denniston with OUP author, B. R. Nanda, 1979 624
23.3 OUP celebrates sixty years of publishing in India at the World Book Fair,
New Delhi, 1972 625
23.4 OUP India published specialist series on Indian subjects for the local market 628
23.5 Brisk sales at the Calcutta Book Fair, 1979 630
23.6 M. K. Ganguli, J. K. Sen, and Pronoti Deb carry on working by candlelight
during a power failure in Calcutta, c.1980 631
24.1 OUP depot in Islamabad 636
24.2 Ziaur Rahman and Abdul Halim at work in OUP Dacca, 1970 639
24.3 Oxford in Asia Historical Reprints, Pakistan 641
24.4 Shanul Haq Haqqee, lexicographer and editor of The Oxford English–Urdu
Dictionary (OEUD) 642
24.5 Selling books by horseback in the mountains of Pakistan 643
24.6 Anthony Toyne attends the launch party of President Khan’s Friends Not
Masters with Begum Dehlavi and the High Commissioner of Pakistan, Ely
House, London, 1970 644 xxi
xxi
L ist of F igu r e s
24.7 Ameena Saiyid with Naheed Kader and other artists and visitors to the
Karachi Branch 647
24.8 Prime Minister John Major visiting the OUP display at the British Council
Library in Lahore, 1997 649
25.1 John Brown and Chief Solaru, Nigeria, 1972 652
25.2 President Julius Nyerere and John Brown, Dar es Salaam, 1973 655
25.3 Inside the new warehouse, Ibadan, 1970 656
25.4 Michael Akinleye, Trade Manager (later Branch Manager), and colleagues
in his office, Ibadan, 1970 657
25.5 Dispatching books from the new warehouse in Ibadan, OUP Nigeria, 1970 660
25.6 African English Courses from OUP 663
25.7 Ugandan examination papers printed by OUP 665
25.8 Tesfaye Daba escorts Emperor Haile Selassie through an exhibition
celebrating International Book Year, Addis Ababa, 1972 666
25.9 Roger Houghton of OUP Kenya looks on as President Jomo Kenyatta
presents the Kenyatta Prize for Literature, funded by the Kenya Publishers’
Association, Nairobi, 1976 667
25.10 Three managing directors of OUP Cape Town: Jon Stallworthy, Fred
Cannon, Neville Gracie, 1970 670
25.11 OUP South Africa, Cape Town, 1997 681
25.12 Children at a Cape Town school reading OUP South Africa’s Successful
Science series, 1996 685
Figure acknowledgements
© Nancy Amy 543
© UPPA/Avalon 40
© John Cogill 411
© Jeff Goldberg/Esto 522
© David Gentleman 114
London News Agency Photos Ltd. 118, 221
© Norman McBeath 29, 265, 310, 506, 507
© Alan Nahigian 551
© Adarsh Nayar 655
© Louise Gubb/Network 685
Courtesy of Oxford Fajar, Malaysia 211, 594, 596, 599, 609
© Oxford Mail & Times 260
OUP Archive, reprinted by permission of the Secretary to the Delegates of Oxford
University Press 2, 15, 19, 27, 32, 36, 42, 45, 52, 58, 65, 73, 75, 77, 81, 84, 91, 93, 97, 105, 107, 111,
117, 120, 127, 128, 130, 133, 135, 137, 138, 141, 143, 145, 149, 151, 153, 158, 162, 163, 166, 167, 171, 173,
178, 180, 184, 186, 193, 194, 204, 207, 218, 223, 225, 226, 227, 236, 249, 250, 251, 254, 256, 265,
268, 271, 279, 283, 286, 289, 293, 300, 314, 320, 332, 335, 338, 341, 347, 348, 352, 358, 361, 362,
xxii
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L ist of F igu r e s
371, 378, 390, 398, 401, 404, 413, 421, 424, 432, 436, 448, 451, 453, 456, 459, 461, 463, 465, 468,
470, 480, 482, 492, 496, 510, 529, 533, 535, 537, 544, 549, 555, 564, 568, 570, 576, 577, 582, 583,
588, 590, 602, 606, 611, 616, 620, 624, 625, 628, 630, 631, 636, 639, 641, 642, 643, 644, 647,
649, 652, 656, 657, 660, 663, 665, 666, 667, 670, 681
© Graham Piggott 418
© Polish Press Agency/Władysław Stasiak 484
Printing World 154
© Jean Shapiro 382
© 2002 TopFoto/PressNet 455
© 2004 TopFoto/UPP 60
Every effort has been made to secure permissions. Nonetheless we may not have
succeeded in tracing every copyright holder; we apologize for any apparent omission, and
if contacted will be pleased to add further acknowledgement at the earliest opportunity.
xxiii
xvi
List of Maps
xxiv
xv
Tables
5.1 Relative size and contribution to earnings of the separate businesses of
OUP, averaged over five years, 1964–1968 (%) [Based on Waldock Report, 79.] 119
5.2 Comparative performance of the UK publishing and printing operations (£) 139
15.1 Top 10 journals publishers in 2002 434
19.1 Curriculum reform in Spanish schools, 1992–2000 514
Graphs
15.1 Active refereed scholarly journal title growth from 1665 to 2001 426
15.2 Number of journals published by OUP, 1970–2004 433
15.3 OUP journals sales, 1970–2004 (£m) 438
19.1 OUP España sales growth, 1992–2004 (pesetas) 519
25.1 Primary school enrolment in Nigeria, 1970–1983 658
25.2 Sales by OUP Southern Africa of local and imported books (%) 687
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List of Abbreviations
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HOUP History of Oxford University Press I. Beginnings to 1780 ed. Ian Gadd
(2013): II. 1780–1896 ed. Simon Eliot (2013): III. 1896–1970 ed. Wm.
Roger Louis (2013)
ID International Division of Oxford University Press
IEU International Education Unit
IS (D) Information Systems division of Oxford University Press
JANET Joint Academic Network
JMC Joint Management Committee of Oxford University Press
MDM Marketing Development Manager
MkIS Marketing Information System
NGA National Graphical Association
NODE New Oxford Dictionary of English
NYB New York Business
OCE Oxford Children’s Encyclopedia
OCF Oxford Companion to Food
OCT Oxford Classical Texts
ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
ODQ Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
OED Oxford English Dictionary
OEP Oxford Electronic Publishing
OGP Oxford Geography Project
OIAHR Oxford in Asia Historical Reprints
OIE Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia
OPR Oxford Paperback Reference
OPUS Oxford Paperback University Series
ORO Oxford Reference Online
ORT Oxford Reading Tree
OSO Oxford Scholarship Online
OTS Oxford Text System
OU Open University
OUA Oxford University archives
OUP Oxford University Press
OUP, Inc. Oxford University Press New York
OUP NY Oxford University Press New York
OUP SA Oxford University Press South Africa
OUP USA Oxford University Press United States of America
OXED Education Division of Oxford University Press
PEP Project Electronic Publishing of Oxford University Press
PFB Penerbit Fajar Bakti (Malaysia)
POD print on demand
POD Pocket Oxford Dictionary
SAP Systems Applications Products
SMJ Science, Medicine, Journals division of Oxford University Press
SOGAT Society of Graphical and Allied Trades
STAR System to Automate Records
STM Scientific, Technical, Medical xxvii
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xxviii
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
pont.
Je me dirigeai vers Fleet street, dans l’intention de prendre un
fiacre et de rentrer chez moi. Quand mon premier sentiment
d’indignation se fut dissipé, tout le grotesque de l’aventure m’apparut
et je me mis à rire tout haut parmi les rues désertes, au scandale
d’un agent de police. Plus j’y réfléchissais, plus je riais de bon cœur,
mais une main, en se posant sur mon épaule, vint modérer ma
gaieté : je me retournai, et vis celui qui aurait dû être couché au
poste de la police fluviale. Il était trempé des pieds à la tête, son
chapeau de soie dégoulinant se tenait tout en arrière de son occiput,
et autour de son cou pendait une couverture rayée de jaune,
évidente propriété de l’État.
— Le crépitement d’un fagot sous une marmite, dit-il, solennel.
Petit gars, sais-tu bien que c’est un péché de rire sans motif ? Ma
conscience m’a fait craindre que tu n’arrives jamais chez toi, et je
suis venu pour te conduire un bout. Ils sont bien mal élevés, là-bas
près de l’eau. Ils n’ont pas voulu m’écouter lorsque je leur ai parlé de
tes œuvres, aussi je les ai lâchés. Jette sur toi cette couverture, petit
gars. Elle est belle et fraîche.
Je soupirai intérieurement. La Providence à coup sûr avait
décrété que je vadrouillerais pendant l’éternité avec l’infâme
connaissance de MacPhee.
— Allez-vous-en, lui dis-je, allez chez vous, ou sinon je vous fais
arrêter.
Il s’adossa contre un réverbère et se mit un doigt sur le nez… sur
son indécent pif sensuel.
— Maintenant je me rappelle que MacPhee m’avait prévenu que
tu étais plus orgueilleux qu’un paon, et le fait que tu m’as jeté à la
dérive dans un bateau prouve que tu étais saoul comme une grive.
Un nom illustre est comme un gâteau savoureux. Moi, je n’en ai pas.
Et il se lécha gaiement les babines.
— Je le sais, dis-je. Et alors ?
— Ouais, mais toi tu en as un. Je me rappelle maintenant que
MacPhee parlait de ta réputation dont tu étais si fier. Petit gars, si tu
me fais arrêter… je suis vieux assez pour être ton père… je bafoue
ta réputation jusqu’à extinction de voix : car je t’appellerai par ton
nom jusqu’à ce que les vaches rentrent à l’étable. Ce n’est pas de la
plaisanterie que d’être mon ami. Si tu repousses mon amitié, il te
faut du moins venir jusqu’à Vine street avec moi pour avoir volé le
youyou du Breslau.
Et il se mit à chanter à gorge déployée :
Au matin
Au matin avec le tombereau noir…
Nous remonterons à Vine street, au matin !
— C’est à Bow street que vous allez venir, vous, dit l’agent avec
aigreur.
— Cet homme est mourant. (Il geignait, étendu sur le pavé.)
Amenez l’ambulance, dis-je.
Il y a une ambulance derrière St. Clément Danes, ce en quoi je
suis mieux renseigné que beaucoup. L’agent, paraît-il, possédait les
clefs du kiosque où elle gîtait. Nous la sortîmes (c’était un engin à
trois roues, pourvu d’une capote) et nous jetâmes dessus le corps
de l’individu.
Placé dans une voiture d’ambulance, un corps a l’air aussi mort
que possible. A la vue des semelles de bottes roides, les agents se
radoucirent.
— Allons-y donc, firent-ils.
Je m’imaginai qu’ils parlaient toujours de Bow street.
— Laissez-moi voir Dempsey trois minutes, s’il est de service,
répliquai-je.
— Entendu. Il y est.
Je compris alors que tout irait bien, mais avant de nous mettre en
route, je passai la tête sous la capote de l’ambulance, pour voir si
l’individu était encore en vie. Mon oreille perçut un chuchotement
discret.
— Petit gars, tu devras me payer un nouveau chapeau. Ils m’ont
crevé le mien. Ne va pas me lâcher à cette heure, petit gars. Avec
mes cheveux gris je suis trop vieux pour aller en prison par ta faute.
Ne me lâche pas, petit gars.
— Vous aurez de la chance si vous vous en tirez à moins de sept
ans, dis-je à l’agent.
Mûs par une crainte très vive d’avoir outrepassé leur devoir, les
deux agents quittèrent leurs secteurs de surveillance, et le lugubre
convoi se déroula le long du Strand désert. Je savais qu’une fois
arrivé à l’ouest d’Adelphi je serais en pays ami. Les agents
également eurent sujet de le savoir, car tandis que je marchais
fièrement à quelques pas en avant du catafalque, un autre agent me
jeta au passage :
— Bonsoir, monsieur.
— Là, vous voyez, dis-je avec hauteur. Je ne voudrais pour rien
au monde être dans votre peau. Ma parole, j’ai bonne envie de vous
mener tous deux à la préfecture de police.
— Si ce monsieur est de vos amis, peut-être… dit l’agent qui
avait asséné le coup et songeait aux conséquences de son acte.
— Peut-être aimeriez-vous me voir partir sans rien dire de
l’aventure, complétai-je.
Alors apparut à nos yeux la silhouette du brigadier Dempsey, que
son imperméable rendait pour moi pareil à un ange de lumière. Je le
connaissais depuis des mois, il était de mes meilleurs amis, et il
nous arrivait de bavarder ensemble dans le petit matin. Les sots
cherchent à gagner les bonnes grâces des princes et des ministres,
et les cours et ministères les laissent périr misérablement. Le sage
se fait des alliés parmi la police et les cochers de fiacre, en sorte que
ses amis jaillissent du kiosque et de la file de voitures, et que ses
méfaits eux-mêmes se terminent en cortèges triomphaux.
— Dempsey, dis-je, y aurait-il eu une nouvelle grève dans la
police ? On a mis de faction à St. Clément Danes des êtres qui
veulent m’emmener à Bow street comme étrangleur.
— Mon Dieu, monsieur ! fit Dempsey, indigné.
— Dites-leur que je ne suis pas un étrangleur ni un voleur. Il est
tout bonnement honteux qu’un honnête homme ne puisse se
promener dans le Strand sans être malmené par ces rustres. L’un
d’eux a fait son possible pour tuer mon ami ici présent ; et j’emmène
le cadavre chez lui. Parlez en ma faveur, Dempsey.
Les agents dont je faisais ce triste portrait n’eurent pas le temps
de placer un mot. Dempsey les interpella en des termes bien faits
pour les effrayer. Ils voulurent se justifier, mais Dempsey entreprit
une énumération glorieuse de mes vertus, telles qu’elles lui étaient
apparues à la lumière du gaz dans les heures matinales.
— Et en outre, conclut-il avec véhémence, il écrit dans les
journaux. Hein, ça vous plairait, qu’il parle de vous dans les
journaux… et en vers, encore, selon son habitude. Laissez-le donc.
Voilà des mois que lui et moi nous sommes copains.
— Et le mort, qu’en fait-on ? dit l’agent qui n’avait pas asséné le
coup.
— Je vais vous le dire, répliquai-je, me radoucissant.
Et aux trois agents assemblés sous les lumières de Charing
Cross, je fis un récit fidèle et détaillé de mes aventures de la nuit, en
commençant par le Breslau et finissant à St. Clément Danes. Je leur
dépeignis le vieux gredin couché dans la voiture d’ambulance en des
termes qui firent se tortiller ce dernier, et depuis la création de la
police métropolitaine, jamais trois agents ne rirent comme ces trois-
là. Le Strand en retentit, et les louches oiseaux de nuit en restèrent
ébahis.
— Ah Dieu ! fit Dempsey en s’essuyant les yeux, j’aurais donné
gros pour voir ce vieux type galoper avec sa couverture mouillée et
le reste. Excusez-moi, monsieur, mais vous devriez vous faire
ramasser chaque nuit pour nous donner du bon temps.
Et il se répandit en nouveaux esclaffements.
Des pièces d’argent tintèrent, et les deux agents de St. Clément
Danes regagnèrent vivement leurs secteurs : ils riaient tout courants.
— Emmenez-le à Charing Cross, me dit Dempsey entre ses
éclats de rire. On renverra l’ambulance dans la matinée.
— Petit gars, tu m’as appelé de vilains noms, mais je suis trop
vieux pour aller à l’hôpital. Ne me lâche pas, petit gars. Emmène-moi
chez moi auprès de ma femme, dit la voix sortant de l’ambulance.
— Il n’est pas tellement malade. Sa femme lui flanquera un
fameux savon, dit Dempsey qui était marié.
— Où logez-vous ? demandai-je.
— A Brugglesmith, me fut-il répondu.
— Qu’est-ce que c’est que ça ? demandai-je à Dempsey, plus
versé que moi dans les mots composés de ce genre.
— Quartier de Brook Green, arrondissement d’Hammersmith,
traduisit aussitôt Dempsey.
— Évidemment, repris-je. Il ne pouvait pas loger ailleurs. Je
m’étonne seulement que ce ne soit pas à Kew [22] .
[22] Brook Green se trouve à l’extrême ouest de
Londres, à six kilomètres et demi de Charing Cross. Kew
est encore plus loin, dans la même direction.