A Plumless Pudding 
John Sutherland reflects on the sale of the John Murray archive
Publishers keep good records because those that don’t go out of business. Backlists and post-mortem copyright dispose them to be historically minded about their dealings. It was only relatively recently, however, that libraries and other storehouses of scholarship first became aware of the cultural, literary, historical and scientific value of the intact publisher’s archive, stretching back, as it might, over centuries and across many fields of intellectual endeavour.
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John Sutherland’s Life of Stephen Spender was published in May 2004. Formerly of University College London, he teaches at Caltech in Pasadena.
Other articles by this contributor:
Long live the codex · the future of books
The Browse Function · web business
The Fight for Eyeballs · John Sutherland reports on the Drudge Report
Who owns John Sutherland? · intellectual property in the digital age
Sad Professor · John Sutherland listens to REM
A Dangerously Liquid World · Alcoholics Anonymous
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