Victorian Yellowbacks

BOOK REVIEWS Victorian Yellowbacks Chester W. Topp. Victorian Yellowbacks & Paperbacks, 1849-1905, Volume I: George Routledge. Denver: Hermitage Antiquarian Bookshop, 1993. xvi + 558 + 32 pp. of inserted color plates. First edition, limited to 750 copies. $135 THIS FIRST VOLUME of a series intended to bibliographically list yellowbacks and paperbacks, a somewhat neglected aspect of Victorian publishing, is devoted to such books published by George Routledge "as his was the greatest and one of the earliest outpourings of works in these cheap bindings." Subsequent volumes are to be devoted to publications by Ward & Lock, Chatto & Windus, Chapman & Hall and some twenty other publishers, all of whom, at one time or another, shared in the frenzy of Victorian popular culture and produced these inexpensive books in colorful format to be sold in railway bookstalls and designed to catch the eye of the hurrying traveler. Michael Sadleir, in his article "Collecting Yellowbacks" (included in New Paths in Book-Collecting, edited by John Carter, Constable, 1934), was the first to call the attention of collectors to this common, but more or less obscure and neglected, aspect of nineteenth-century book production . Generally these books were ignored by collectors, possibly due to their often fragile condition and the lack of bibliographic information regarding them. Most dealers consigned them to the sale shelves and bins in front of their stores and as a result they became comparatively scarce. Sadleir, however, practiced what he preached and actively collected yellowbacks, with the second volume of his catalogue, Nineteenth Century Fiction (London: Constable, 1938; Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1951), being devoted entirely to them. Another collector who followed his lead was Robert L. Wolff and many examples are included in his five-volume catalogue, Nineteenth-Century Fiction (New York and London: Garland, 1981-1986). Now a third major collector, Dr. Chester W. Topp, who during the past thirty years has gathered together 1,700 yellowbacks and 1,900 paperbacks, has undertaken to record these neglected books in what the publisher terms a "bibliographical study" intended to list hundreds of such books issued by more than twenty-five different publishers. This first volume records examples in the author's collection published by Routledge, as well as some from the Sadleir and Wolff catalogues, plus other unlocated titles known to exist from references in periodicals and catalogs. In his introduction, Dr. Topp says that it is his intention to give "a 385 ELT 37:3 1994 complete listing of yellowback and paperback issues of the nineteenthcentury Victorian era." Sadleir defines "yellowbacks" as: The nickname given to the particular type of cheap edition evolved about the middle of the last century for display and sale on railway bookstalls. It was usually (but not always) a cheap edition of fiction; it usually (but not always) cost two shillings; its basic colouring was usually (but not always) yellow. Topp further elucidates this particular type of book, describing them as being bound in straw boards covered with glazed colored paper___The front cover had an illustration pertaining to the text; the spine carried a design or picture; both were printed in two or more colors.... The early books were in the small format, that is, in foolscap octavo, approximately 65$ inches tall; the later books were in the large format, that is 12mo, approximately TVs inches tall. In his introductory remarks, Topp gives a cursory survey of yellowbacks, but barely mentions the paperbacks of his title, other than to say that the words "wrapper" or "sewed" in his descriptions indicate them, while the word "boards" signifies yellowbacks and other cheap issues. No such specific word is included in many of the descriptions, presumably of books not seen. A brief explanation is provided of the method of presentation of entries, which are listed in chronological order. Virtually no details are given about the physical aspects of each title, but previous publications are generally noted, and subsequent printings are given by year in cross references at the end of each listing. The publisher's announcement boldly asserts that "until now there has never been a systematic bibliographic study of Victorian Yellowbacks and Paperbacks." The claim is also made that this work is "a major new bibliographic tool in...