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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 403.: THE RULES OF THE BOOKSELLERS' ASSOCIATION [2] THE OPINIONS OF CERTAIN AUTHORS ON THE BOOKSELLING QUESTION (1852), P. 47 - The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXV - Newspaper Writings December 1847 - July 1873 Part IV

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Subject Area: Political Theory
Collection: The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill

403.: THE RULES OF THE BOOKSELLERS’ ASSOCIATION [2] THE OPINIONS OF CERTAIN AUTHORS ON THE BOOKSELLING QUESTION (1852), P. 47 - John Stuart Mill, The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXV - Newspaper Writings December 1847 - July 1873 Part IV [1847]

Edition used:

The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, XXV - Newspaper Writings December 1847 - July 1873 Part IV, ed. Ann P. Robson and John M. Robson, Introduction by Ann P. Robson and John M. Robson (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986).

Part of: Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, in 33 vols.

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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


403.

THE RULES OF THE BOOKSELLERS’ ASSOCIATION [2]

THE OPINIONS OF CERTAIN AUTHORS
ON THE BOOKSELLING QUESTION (1852), P. 47

On 30 Apr., 1852, John William Parker (1792-1870), Mill’s publisher from the time of his Logic, had circulated a letter “To Authors, and Others Connected with Literary Property,” which he also sent to The Times, in which, saying the publishers and booksellers had had their say, he put this question: “If a retail bookseller, of ascertained credit and respectability, applies to the publisher to purchase any book in which you may be directly or indirectly interested, on the terms at which those books are offered to the trade at large, but with the avowed intention of retailing his purchases at a smaller profit than that provided for between the wholesale rate and the selling price of single copies, do you consider the intention to sell at a low rate of profit a good and sufficient reason why the publisher should refuse to sell the books, which such retailer is ready to purchase and to keep in stock at his own risk?” He gathered the replies in The Opinions of Certain Authors on the Bookselling Question and Additional Letters on the Bookselling Question (both London: Parker, 1852). Mill’s reply (in the former) is dated “East India House, May 8th, 1852.” See No. 402 for the bibliographic entry describing this letter.

dear sir,

I think that there is no case in which a combination to keep up prices is more injurious than in the sale of books; and I wish success to the booksellers in their resistance to the trade regulations which restrict their liberty of selling books at a low price.

I am, yours, very truly,

J.S. Mill