Seventh Annual Kenneth Karmiole Lecture on the History of the Book Trade!

Published: October 13, 2011

The Seventh Annual Kenneth Karmiole Lecture on the History of the Book Trade

English Books Around the World: India and the Globalization of the English Book Trade
given by Graham Shaw


at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

Saturday, November 19, 3:00 p.m

There has been much research in recent years about the globalization of the English book trade from the seventeenth century onwards, involving not least the United States. The place of India in that process has been neglected, and it tends to be thought of only as a nineteenth-century market for British educational books. But this lecture will show that book-trade links between Britain and India can be traced back to the early eighteenth century during the East India Company period. The relationship was two-way, encompassing the transplanting of a print culture from Britain to India to serve the needs of the expatriate community and the growth of publishing interest in Indian affairs back in Britain itself. It will trace the development of the tradition of English-language publishing in India and in particular the beginnings of creative writing in English in the sub-continent. It will explore the role print culture can play in shaping one nation’s view of another.

Graham Shaw retired as Head of the British Library’s Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections in December 2010. Apart from three years in the Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, from where he graduated in Hindi and Sanskrit in 1969, he spent his entire career in the British Library holding various senior curatorial and management positions. His field of research is the history of printing and publishing in South Asia from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. His Printing in Calcutta to 1800 was published by the Bibliographical Society of Great Britain in 1981 and his South Asia and Burma Retrospective Bibliography Stage 1: 1556–1800 by the British Library in 1987. Recently he has contributed chapters on “The British book in India” for the Cambridge History of the Book in Britain Vol. 5 1695–1830; “South Asia” for the Blackwell Companion to the History of the Book; and “India” for the Edinburgh University History of the Book in Scotland Vol. 3 1800–1880. In 2004, he delivered the Don McKenzie Memorial Lecture and Seminar at the University of Oxford.

Registration Deadline: November 10, 2011.

Admission is complimentary, but advance registration is required.

Please be aware that space at the Clark is limited and that registration closes when capacity is reached. Confirmation will be sent via email.

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