The BSANZ logo

The original artwork for the BSANZ logo seems to have been lost; certainly the last three editors have not received a copy of it. So, to reconstrust it, I took the following image from the cover of issue No.2 (March 1971) and cleaned it up a little. It was scanned at 2400dpi, so will look great even when printed at 1200dpi as line art (to give you an idea of what this means: the following images are 400 pixels wide, the scan is 3400 pixels wide). The different colours etc are just for fun. The $64,000 question is: who designed the logo?

Back issues of the BSANZ Bulletin

A long-standing member has offered up 15 issues of the BSANZ Bulletin (now Script and Print) from the period 1971 to 1985. If there are members out there who have been waiting twenty years to complete their run of the Bulletin, or if there are any new members curious to know what the early issues looked like, then let me know. The first to contact me can reserve any issues that takes their fancy.

Available are: issues: 2 (1971), 3 (1971), 5 (1972), 6 (1973), 8 (1975), 10 (1977), 12 (1978), 16 (1980), 17 (1980); v.5.1-4 (1981), v.7.4 (1983), v.9.2 (1985). Also available is Occasional Publication, No.2 (1981): K.I.D. Maslen, Victorian Typefaces in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Incidentally, if there are any other members who are keen to part with their back-issues, please let me know. My contact email address is:

Indexes for the BSANZ Bulletin

There are a number of indexes available online for the BSANZ Bulletin (now Script and Print). I thought it might be useful to bring together the links for these indexes.

On the BSANZ site there is an "Index of Authors" and an "Index of Book Reviews" under the link for the Bulletin. These indexes cover volumes 23 to 26 (1999 to 2002).

On the HoBo (aka the 'History of the Book @ Oxford') site there is an index of articles, organised by issue. See here. The index covers volumes 20 to 25 (1996 to 2001).

The Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, available in print (here) and by subscription on ProQuest Information and Learning (here), has indexed 112 articles. The index covers volumes 1 to 28 (1971 to 2004).

It is expected that a complete index to all issues of the BSANZ Bulletin, and the new issues of Script and Print, will be available online, free, within 12 months.

Library worker stole rare books

A library assistant who stole rare books valued at £175,000 to sell on the internet has been given 250 hours' community service.

Norman Buckley, 44, of Hulme, took more than 455 ancient books, posters and documents while working as an assistant at Manchester's Central Library. The books he stole included a 16th Century Chaucer edition worth £35,000. At the city's Crown Court Buckley was sentenced to 15 months in prison to be suspended for two years. The illegal haul also included a 1654 publication of 17th Century poet John Donne's Elegies valued at £1,800. Buckley sold 44 of the books on internet auction site eBay, but most of the books were recovered by police at his flat in Hulme. He was dismissed from his job in March this year.

Judge Clement Goldstone QC told Buckley his sentence was suspended because he had helped police find the books, which the judge described as part of the city's "literary heritage".

"Every time you offered a book for sale, you were breaking the trust that had been placed in you," he said. "The ultimate loss to the city and its heritage may have been measured, if it can be measured at all, in the thousands of pounds rather than the tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds. You have brought shame on yourself and your family by your behaviour."

Police said the theft was brought to light by an antiquarian books expert who spotted a copy of John Donne's poetry dating back to 1654 for sale on eBay. The expert contacted Manchester Central Library after spotting its seal on photographs of the book. Library staff checked the seller's details against their employment records, and notified police. Buckley was arrested at his home on 31 March 2006 on suspicion of theft from an employer and he later admitted in court to 10 charges, with 445 taken into consideration.

Other books found in his flat included a book of letters about the death of Louis XVI and a 1675 edition of English historian Willam Camden's The History of the Most Renowned and Victorious Princess Elizabeth. A volume of the political works of celebrated poets Samuel Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats was also discovered. Ch Insp Mark Lee, of Greater Manchester Police, said the thefts amounted to a significant breach of public trust. Manchester City Council said a thorough review of security at the library had been carried out to protect other valuable works.

Assistant Chief Executive Vicky Rosin said: "We are also working closely with the police and eBay to recover the items sold by Norman Buckley. As items were sold to buyers from across the world we have been working with law enforcement agencies in America and Europe to recover the items and remain confident that most of the items will be returned to Manchester Central Library."

BBC [Wednesday, 25 October 2006, 12:29 GMT 13:29 UK]

Danish paper wins Prophet cartoon libel case

Danish Muslim organisations have lost a libel case against a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, leading to protests in the Islamic world.

Seven organisations brought the case, saying the paper had libelled them with the images, which included one depicting the Prophet with a bomb in his turban, by implying Muslims were terrorists. The newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, which published the 12 drawings in September last year, hailed the ruling, saying any other outcome would have been a catastrophe for a free press. The cartoons were reprinted elsewhere and at least 50 people were killed as angry Muslims rioted in the Middle East and Asia. Three Danish embassies were attacked and many Muslims boycotted Danish goods. Many Muslims believe it is blasphemous to depict the Prophet.

"Of course it cannot be excluded that the drawings offended some Muslims," the Aarhus court said in its ruling. "But there is no sufficient reason to assume that the cartoons are or were intended to be insulting...or put forward ideas that could hurt the standing of Muslims in society."

The court ordered the seven organisations to pay the paper's court expenses. The plaintiffs have appealed to a higher court.

"Anything but a clear acquittal would have been a catastrophe for freedom of the press and the media's ability to fulfil its role in a democratic society," Jyllands-Posten editor Carsten Juste said on the paper's website.

"You can think what you want about the cartoons, but the newspaper's unassailable right to print them has been set by both the country's prosecutors and the court system."

The ruling said some of the cartoons did not depict the Prophet or have a religious subject, while others fell outside the scope of defamation laws. But the court did find that three of the cartoons fell within what the law could deem as insulting. In March, Danish prosecutors declined to press charges against the newspaper under Danish blasphemy and anti-racism laws.

Reuters [via ABC Friday, October 27, 2006. 0:38am (AEST)]

For the Jyllands-Posten's (or JP's) own post on this story, see here. For information on the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy see here.

About Patrick Spedding

The author of this blog, Dr Patrick Spedding, was—from 2007 to 2009—an ARC funded Research Fellow in the Department of English in the School of English, Communications and Performance Studies, and Associate Director of the Centre for the Book, at Monash University, Melbourne. He can be contacted via the following email address:

He maintains a separate, academic blog here; and a blog on behalf of APSECS (the Australasian and Pacific Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies) here.

Patrick received his B.A. (hons) from the University of Tasmania and his Ph.D. from Monash University. His doctoral project was a detailed descriptive bibliography of every edition of every work by Eliza Haywood (1693-1756), from the first edition of the first anonymous and undated publication of 1719 through to the latest on-line collection of texts. Before completing this study, Patrick was invited to act as a consulting editor on the "superbly edited" (Peter Sabor, 2002) six volume series, the Selected Works of Eliza Haywood (v.1-3: 2000; v.4-6: 2001).

Patrick's A Bibliography of Eliza Haywood was submitted in 2003 and published by Pickering & Chatto in 2004. Containing over 125,000 words of critical prose this pioneering study has received numerous commendations from eminent scholars, and was the winner of the 2004-5 Modern Language Association of America Prize for a Distinguished Bibliography (see here). Margaret Croskery (2002) described it as a "formidable source of Haywood scholarship"; James Raven (2004), as exhibiting "extraordinary precision", "exemplary clarity", "painstaking research", "an indispensable aide to the literary scholar and cultural historian"; Paula Backscheider (2004), as a "formidable" work, "essential for Haywood critics": "his scholarship would be more accurately described as 'mind-boggling'"; Kevin L. Cope (2005) writes: "few [bibliographers] inspire such confidence as Spedding", his Bibliography "may...be among the most accurate and comprehensive records of any author, let alone of [Haywood]", "Spedding thus brings a new and much-needed level of discipline to a field of study that has more often been animated by desire and ideology than by solid empirical scholarship", he shows "versatility as an interpreter as well as a bibliographer", "Such a volume is surely more than enough to constellate Spedding among the superstars of bibliography"; Norma Clarke (2005) describes Patrick's Bibliography as "without question, the most important development in Haywood scholarship of our time". The MLA citation of 2006 describes the Bibliography as an "astounding achievement in descriptive bibliography", while David Oakleaf quipped in The Scriblerian, that "were it not so heavy", this Bibliography "would be hard to put down"!

Patrick's other research interest, his primary focus at present, concerns the clandestine publication of erotica in eighteenth century London. He edited, with Alexander Pettit, two five-volume sets of Eighteenth Century British Erotica for Pickering & Chatto (2002, 2004). This "spectacular" set, "with excellent historical and textual introductions", has been very well received (Norbert Schurer, 2004). Patrick's volume in this series was singled out by Joseph Pappa in The Scriblerian (2004) as containing a "fine Introduction" and "the best [annotations] in the series". He also acted as a consulting editor on two four-volume sets of Whore Biographies, 1700-1825, for the same publisher (2006, 2007). Patrick compiled an extensive Checklist of Eighteenth Century British Erotica while selecting and editing texts for Eighteenth Century British Erotica; he has also been researching the publication history of those few works that provide information on how these erotic texts were written, printed, published, distributed, sold, read and (usually) destroyed. In 2006, this research was the subject of a (successful) ARC funding application.

Three of Patrick's articles will be found in the BSANZ Bulletin and two in Script & Print

'Eliza Haywood's last ('lost') work: The History of Miss Leonora Meadowson (1788)', BSANZ Bulletin, 23 (1999), pp. 131-47

'False Imprints: a note on the use of "N. Dobb"', BSANZ Bulletin, 24 (2000), pp. 267-72.

'A Note on the Ornament Usage of Henry Woodfall', BSANZ Bulletin, 27 (2003), pp.109-16.

'A Reading of Gay’s Fables', Script & Print, 30:3 (2006 [issued 2007]), pp.181-85.

'To (Not) Promote Breeding: Censoring Eliza Smith’s Compleat Housewife', Script & Print, 31:4 (2007 [issued 2008]), pp.233–42.

Blogger book craze

Bloggers are scoring rich paydays by turning their online diaries into books, but some publishers say the craze could fizzle out with a glut of new titles destined to yield disappointing sales. Penguin became the latest to jump on the bandwagon when it bought La Petite Anglaise, the memoirs of Catherine Sanderson, who was fired by her company because of her blog [see here], in one of the more hotly discussed acquisitions this week at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

"The blogs should be almost incidental to us as publishers," said Katy Follain, publisher at Penguin imprint Michael Joseph, which bought La Petite Anglaise. "We need to look at the writing itself. Her writing is so strong we signed her for two books."

The price paid to Sanderson was not disclosed, but trade publications put it at around mid-six figures, a rich advance usually reserved for bestselling authors. The book is slated for release in 2008. Pearson Plc owns Penguin.

"I'm not quite sure what a mid-six-figure sum is, but let's imagine 500,000 pounds ($A1.2 million) and let's assume that non-UK rights are about the same," MacMillan chief executive Richard Charkin wrote on his own blog. "It means that the book will have to sell around a million copies to earn back the advance."

Some blogs-turned-books have been hits with readers, but publishers could not recall any that had reached such a lofty sales tally.

Belle de Jour, the diary of a London call girl, and Julie and Julia, a New York woman's struggle to cook the recipes of celebrated chef Julia Child, both became bestsellers.

But others that arrived amid a wave of hype including Stephanie Klein's Straight Up and Dirty and Jeremy Blachman's Anonymous Lawyer have not fared as well. Also on tap is a fresh wave of blog-based books from a waiter, a New York taxi driver, a pair of quilters and a wine connoisseur, and a handful of titles with political themes.

"I just hope publishers with deep pockets don't squash the life out of blogs becoming books," said Clare Christian, publishing director of The Friday Project, a start-up firm dedicated to combing the Internet for book projects. "It's like the dot-com boom all over again," added Paul Carr, Friday Project's editor in chief. "In the same way that publishers knew they needed a website even if they didn't know what that was, they're just buying up blogs because they're hot."

The Friday Project's Blood Sweat & Tea, based on the blog of Tom Reynolds, a London Ambulance Service emergency medical worker, has sold 30,000 copies and is in its third printing. Mr Carr said they grabbed Reynolds just as he was about to sign with a larger publisher, claiming they won him over with their specialty focus after he was forced to explain what a blog was to several of the rival house's executives.

- Reuters

Access to banned books in Australia

Philip Ruddock says researchers may be able to access banned books.

Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says he is willing to consider allowing researchers limited access to books banned because of terrorism concerns. The University of Melbourne has removed three books from its library because of concerns it could be breaking the law. Two of the books were banned by the Classification Review Board earlier this year. The university's vice-chancellor, Glyn Davis, has written to Mr Ruddock seeking clarification on the issue.

"The effect of the law is to stop genuine scholars from accessing material in their area of expertise," he said. "I'm not sure that was the intention of the law."

Mr Ruddock has told ABC TV's Lateline program he is prepared to discuss limited access to banned books for specific research.

"There may be some way in which under appropriate supervision that can be pursued," he said.

Mr Ruddock says the issue would have to be considered in conjunction with state governments.

"Of course I am happy to look at those who would argue that for research purposes there might need to be limited access to particular publications," he said.

"I'm surprised in a sense that this hasn't happened before in relation to a wide range of material that is refused classification."

ABC (ABC TV): Tuesday, October 3, 2006. 5:26am (AEST)

Epstein's Books@Google

A review article by Jason Epstein, called Books@Google has recently been published in The New York Review of Books. The article (available here) discusses five recent books on Google and the Google Print project. The following offeres a taste of the article. Epstein describes the:

…expensive, and utterly heroic, if not quixotic, effort to digitize the public domain contents of the books and other holdings of major libraries. This new program would provide users wherever in the world Internet connections exist access to millions of titles while enabling libraries themselves to serve millions of users without adding a foot of shelf space or incurring a penny of delivery expense.

Spurred by Google's initiative and by the lower costs, higher profits, and immense reach of unmediated digital distribution, book publishers and other copyright holders must at last overcome their historic inertia and agree, like music publishers, to market their proprietary titles in digital form either to be read on line or, more likely, to be printed on demand at point of sale, in either case for a fee equal to the publishers' normal costs and profit and the authors' contractual royalty, thus for the first time in human history creating the theoretical possibility that every book ever printed in whatever language will be available to everyone on earth with access to the Internet.

Not everyone welcomes the revolution wrought by Google. Jean-Noël Jeanneney director of the Bibliothèque Nationale, worries in Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge that national libraries, including his own, will suffer under Google's worldwide dominance…

The New York Review of Books, Volume 53, Number 16 (October 19, 2006).

The editorial team behind Script and Print

A team of people from Monash University and the University of Melbourne have volunteered to help with the production of Script and Print. The team comprises myself, Patrick Spedding, Pam Pryde, Tracey Caulfield, Meredith Sherlock and Brian McMullin and Wallace Kirsop.

As explained here, the team will produce four issues of Script and Print annually. Each issue of the journal will be approximately 64 pages and will contain a combination of the following: an opinion piece, a number of articles, bibliographical notes and book and resource reviews (as well as the usual front and back matter). The appearance of the journal will change little. Though the title has changed from the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand Bulletin, the journal will continue to be edited in the Chicago style. Though submissions need not fully comply with the Chicago style upon first submission, they must be sent in electronic form.

Script and Print will focus on "physical bibliography: the history of printing, publishing, bookselling, type founding, papermaking, bookbinding; palaeography and codicology; textual bibliography" (the aims of the BSANZ, as formulated in 1970). The editor is also keenly interested in the developing interdisciplinary study of Book History and Print Cultures, and in the ongoing impact of technology on bibliography, printing and publishing. Script and Print will continue to encourage research by publishing outstanding BSANZ conference papers but such papers will be published as they become available, not in single-topic issues.

It is expected that the editorial team, working together to produce issues of fixed length and miscellaneous content, will be able to re-establish a regular publishing programme. It is further expected that the regular production of Script and Print will assist in the promotion of other activities of the BSANZ.

Start Here

As I explain here, blog entries are displayed in a reverse chronological order. To overcome some of the limitations of this chronological format I have created this short homepage and a rough topical index (see right), which I will periodically update.

For information about this blog, the BSANZ, and its publications, see here; for information about the editorial team behind Script and Print, see here; for information about the editor (Dr Patrick Spedding), see here. Anyone wishing to contact me should do so via the following email address:

[The image above is a detail taken from the frontispiece of v.3 of Eliza Haywood's La Belle Assemblee (London, 1724-34), a translation Madeleine Angelique Poisson de Gomez's Les Journees Amusantes (Paris, 1722-31)].