STRIDES OF UNIVERSITY PRESS

There appeared recently in the Alumni Bulletin the following article by Robert Bacon '80, Chairman of the Board of Syndies, summarizing the accomplishments of the University Press. It will be seen that although the Press has been established only for a short time, it has made great strides; and in devoting its energies "exclusively to the distribution of scholarly work produced in a scholarly manner" it is adding great distinction to the name of the University.

Mr. Bacon's Appreciation.

The publication of the first catalogue of the Harvard University Press calls forcible attention to the service which such an institution can render to scholarship as well as the University. This list of more than 230 books, dealing with many subjects all intimately connected with the teaching and research carried on at the University, indicates more clearly than could any direct statement the healthy growth of productive scholarship at Harvard. The distribution of this list is but one of the many ways in which the Harvard Press is making this scholarship known throughout the world.

The function of a university press has often been misunderstood and has sometimes been interpreted in widely different ways. The need for such a press lies in the fact that some of the most creditable work of the foremost scholars of the world is not sufficiently profitable commercially to tempt the regular publisher. A subsidized institution, however, specially organized to deal with books of this character, can do much to advance scholarship by making possible the prompt publication and wide dissemination of the results of scientific research. Such a press can also advance the prestige of the University by issuing over its imprint learned works that may not need special subsides. These books would be accepted, without doubt, by commercial publishers, but they might fail to be connected in the public mind with the institution at which they were produced, did they not bear its imprint.

Though the undertaking is still new, many of the publications issued by the Press have had a gratifyingly large sale, the total business for the first year of its existence being nearly $50,000. A few instances of books that have justified their publication by the University may be mentioned. A technical treatise for lumbermen, declined by every commercial publisher to whom it was submitted, has made a handsome profit, but more important for the University has been the fact that it has won the warm commendation of woodsmen in all parts of the country (some 2500 having secured it) and that it has contributed not a little to the reputation of the School of Forestry. A fairly expensive volume of lectures sold at the rate of 100 a week for a period of more than twelve weeks; a study in economics has been widely distributed not only among libraries and professors but also among manufactures in the United States, England, Germany, and Japan: a medical textbook has been adopted for use in several of the largest medical schools in the country.

The Press is utilizing all the regular channels of distribution, selling direct by mail and through the retail book sellers. As a guarantee of the scholarly character of its books the Press announces that no manuscript will be accepted to publication that does not receive the endorsement of its board of Syndies