PUBLISHING POLICIES: THE
DIVERSITY OF PRINT
THE HISTORY OF the book in Scotland in the twentieth century would not be complete without acknowledgement of the non literary texts that were the mainstay of many Scottish publishers’ lists during this period. Scots expertise in cartography, law, medicine, theol ogy, science and education translated into immensely influential and profitable books and journals. Successful series begun in the late nine teenth and early twentieth centuries supported the profit lines of many eminent firms such as Nelson, Blackie, Collins, E. S. Livingstone and W. Green. The story of what happens to Scots dominance in these areas is outlined in this section. It is a story repeated elsewhere in this volume: the struggle to survive mid-century economic difficulties, the rise of multinational corporations; the integration of previously family owned enterprises into larger organisations; and the streamlining and reshaping of the Scottish book trade to fit new models of operation. Over the period, however, significant material was produced by Scots based individuals and organisations in a range of social arenas.
Key amongst these was works of theological and religious signifi cance. Great was the number of Scots who contributed to the develop ment of theological and international Bible scholarship in the twentieth century via work published in Scotland, as Henry Sefton points out in his contribution. Works were issued not just by theologically-focused and inclined publishers, but also by Scots-based churches; an example issued by the latter was the long-standing and influential house maga zine of the Church of Scotland, Life and Work, which began life in 1879, and was unusual in featuring Gaelic material and light fiction in its pages, including work by R. M. Ballantyne and Margaret Oliphant. Among the Scots who would make their mark in the field of theological textual production was William Robertson Smith, whose contributions