Nat Gould

Archives of publishers

Some of the archives of George Routledge and Sons are preserved at University College in London, but are in too fragile a condition for other than personal study. (Information of Douglas Gould.) Others are at Reading University.

But where are all those of other publishers? Much paper was salvaged during WWII when vast quantities must have been pulped.

Sadly, however, the fate of the archives of John Long and its parent Hutchinsons was far worse. By WWII London publishers and booksellers had congregated within the precincts of St Paul's Cathedral - Paternoster Row, Amen Court and all the other medieval churchy names. On the night of 29 December 1940 everything went up in a firestorm when German bombers attacked the cathedral. Miraculously St Paul's itself survived but everything around the cathedral was reduced to charred and waist-high rubble.