Whitakers and Book‐Trade Bibliography

A FEW YEARS AGO that small but many‐paged volume of facts called Whitaker's Almanack, published annually by J. Whitaker & Sons, celebrated its centenary. In 1974 the firm celebrated the longevity of another of its publications, British Books in Print, first published in 1874 as the Reference Catalogue of Current Literature. While many people know of the Almanack, it is mostly publishers, booksellers, and librarians who are aware of the other publications this firm has produced in the field of book‐trade bibliography in the last 116 years, publications of sufficient scope and quality to delay until quite recently the provision of a British national bibliography.