The Old Wifes' Tale

Christian Bernhard Tauchnitz was just 20 years old in 1837 when he founded in Leipzig the publishing firm that bore his name. He had earlier been apprenticed to his uncle Karl Tauchnitz, an eminent printer-publisher who had introduced stereotyping to Germany. He appears to have decided early to specialise in publishing editions in foreign languages, and particularly English. The first volume in the ‘Tauchnitz Collection of British Authors’ appeared in 1842 and over the next 100 years the series went on to comprise some 5370 volumes. Although it included the works of many American, as well as British authors, from as early as volume 15 in the series, it was not until 1914 that the name of the series was extended to include British and American Authors. This title, in two volumes, in n. 4102 and 4103 of the series. Enoch Arnold Bennett (1867 – 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist. He was a prolific writer: between the start of his career in 1898 and his death he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaboration with other writers), and a daily journal totalling more than a million words. He wrote articles and stories for more than 100 different newspapers and periodicals, worked in and briefly ran the Ministry of Information in the First World War, and wrote for the cinema in the 1920s. The sales of his books were substantial, and he was the most financially successful British author of his day.…