w consuming two bad books in
the place of one good one."

Mr. Stevens now comes to the direct question: Who spoils our new English
books? He answers it by naming not less than ten parties concerned: (1)
the author, (2) the publisher, (3) the printer, (4) the reader, (5) the
compositor, (6) the pressman or machinist, (7) the papermaker, (8) the
ink maker, (9) the bookbinder, and (10), last but not least, the
consumer. There is no question of honesty or dishonesty, he says, but
there is a painful lack of harmony, the bungling work of one or the
clumsy manipulation of another often defeating the combined excellence
of all the rest. The cure he foresees in the establishment of a school
of typography, in which every disciple of these ten tribes shall study a
recognized grammar of book manufacture based on the authority of the
best examples.

He now returns to the charge and pays his respects to each member of the
"ten tribes" in turn. The author's offense is found to consist largely
of ignorant meddling. The publisher is too often ignorant, fussy,
unskilled, pedantic, shiftless, and money-seeking, willing to make books
unsightly if their cheapness will sell them. The printer is the
scapegoat, and many books are spoiled in spite of his efforts, while he
gets all the blame. But he is apt to have faults of his own, the worst
of which is a failure in the careful design of the books intrusted to
him. "It was not so," says Mr. Stevens, "with our good old friends
William Pickering and Charles Whittingham, publisher and printer,
working for many years harmoniously together. It was their custom, as
both used repeatedly to tell us, to each first sit upon every new book
and painfully hammer out in his own mind its ideal form and proportions.
Then two Sundays at least were required to compare notes in the little
summer house in Mr. Whittingham's garden at Chiswick, or in the
after-dinner sanctuary, to settle the shape and dress of their
forthcoming 'friend of man.' It was amusing as well as instructive to
see each of them, when they met, pull from his bulging side pocket
well-worn title-pages and sample leaves for discussion and
consideration. When they agreed, perfection was at hand, and the 'copy'
went forward to the compositors, but not till then. The results, to this
day, are seen in all the books bearing the imprint of William Pickering,
nearly all of which bear also evidence that they came from the 'Chiswick
Press.'"

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