Abstract
IN an attractively produced book entitled “Lewis's 1844-1944. A Brief Account of a Century's Work” (London: H. K. Lewis and Co., Ltd., 1945), Messrs. H. K. Lewis give not only an excellent example of their high standard of book production, but also a fascinating history of the foundation and development of a publishing house which has attained a unique position in the intellectual life of Great Britain and other countries. The qualities of Lewis's well-known Lending Library have already been noted in Nature (155, 710 ; 1945) ; but the history of that library and of the publishing and book-selling business which accompanies it are less well known. It deserved to be told; and this book, which also gives much information about the men who gradually created the services which so many medical and scientific men now enjoy, will be read with great interest. “It is hoped,” says H. L. J. in his preface, “that the effort to avoid mere advertisement has been successful.”. That sentence is conceived in the spirit which has inspired the directors and staff of Lewis's since Henry King Lewis, in 1843 or 1844, first infused it into the small book-selling and stationery business at 15 Gower Street, the starting point of the modern Lewis's. It is interesting to learn that, in those days, readers of the Lancet who did not wish to keep that journal paid rather more than half the subscription to the Lancet and, when they had read the journal, gave it to Lewis, who displayed an advertisement, “Second Reading of the Lancet to Let” ; in this way 'second readers' were obtained, who paid the balance of the subscription. This practice is worthy of consideration nowadays, when it is often difficult to obtain sufficient copies of important journals.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
H. K. Lewis & Co., Ltd. Nature 157, 799 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/157799b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/157799b0