American hooks are now executed with neatness and taste; their wood-cut embel lishments sometimes surpass those of London; and in point of size and price, they are. for the most part, well adapted for general circulation. On account of the prevalence of education, and also the aspiring habits of the people, book-buyers of a humble position in life are greatly more numerous than they are in the United Kingdom. Few books are purchased by the Irish emigrants, but the Germans are buyers, and many of the colored people are eager in their thirst for knowledge, and their children are all amply provided with schools. Looking on the American trade as, after all, yet hut partially developed, it may be expected, in the progress of events, to go on in a vastly accelerated ratio. Latterly, several English publishers have established branches of their business in New York; and there are now some extensive American commission-houses in London—from whichintercommunion happy results may be anticipated. Books are sold wholesale by written orders, trade sales, auctions, and otherwise. Country dealers are in the habit of visiting the great book depots of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. and there person ally making their selections. As previously stated, there is a largo export of American books to Canada and other British possessions, in which, as yet, native literature is on a poor scale, but where there is a large and increasing number of readers.
In doing up books in cloth boards, the American binders invariably cut off the outer folds of the sheets, so as to smooth the edges of the leaves, as in English leather bind ing; by which process, the first readers of new books are spared the trouble of cutting open the leaves. Many persons have wished to see this improvement, for such it is, introduced into England. There are still, however, prejudices to be overcome on the
subject. Strange as it may appear, numbers of purchasers like to cut up the leaves with a folder as they advance through a new book or periodical, from an idea that the repeated slight interruptions heighten the pleasure of perusal. In our expel ience, we have known gentlemen who would not sit down to read a cut-up new book. Besides, there is a notion among buyers in England, that books with smooth-cut leaves may be second-hand, and not worth the price of new. Undoubtedly, the Americans are ahead of Europeans gen erally in this particular.
Notice has been taken of the constant export from Europe to the United States of quantities of high-class hooks to stock the great public libraries that are everywhere springing into existence through the liberality of state legislatures, or the munificence of private individuals. There is, however, a traffic of a similar kind, more especially from England, in execution of orders for second-hand books from dealers who have establish ments in the principal cities in the union, and through whose agency persons of refined tastes are becoming acquainted with the aspect of our older literary treasures. One of these second-hand book-stores in Philadelphia, which we visited some years ago, was on as extensive a scale as anything of the kind in London or Edinburgh, while the choice which it presented would have come quite up to the delicate perceptions of the biblio maniac.
For a variety of particulars bearing on book-trade in general, we refer to the articles, BIBLIOGRAPHY, BOOK, BOOKBINDING, CENSORSHIP, CIRCULATING LIBRARY, COPYRIGHT, NEWSPAPERS, PAPER, PERIODICALS, PRESS, PRINTING, STATIONER, STEREOTYPING, AY! N a. W. C.