504 College & Research Libraries September 2009

Cultures, a series from Greenwood Press. 
This relatively new series, started in 2003, 
is most notable for its clear and concise 
approach to multicultural literature. The 
series provides biographical sketches, 
essays that provide an overview of sig-
nificant literary contributions of regions 
in focus, and analysis of selections from 
authors covered.

This particular volume is dedicated 
to Caribbean literature and provides a 
brief historical overview of economic, 
political, and social development of the 
region since the discovery of the islands 
in 1492 and illustrates the impact of 
these events on Caribbean literature. 
Successive chapters introduce fifteen key 
authors: Michael Anthony, Alejo Car-
pentier, Michelle Cliff, Maryse Condé, 
Raphael Confiänt, Edwidge Danticat, 
Zee Edgell, Mangali García Ramis, Ja-
maica Kincaid, Mayra Montero, V.S. 
Naipaul, Patricia Powell, Jean Rhys, 
Simone Schwarz-Bart, and Derek Wal-
cott. Two of these authors won the Nobel 
Prize in Literature—Walcott (1992) and 
Naipaul (2001). Each chapter provides a 
brief biography, a critical assessment of 
the author’s literary contribution, and a 
careful analysis of one selected work. The 
volume concludes with a works cited and 
a detailed index.

The author, Dr. Paravisini-Gebert, is a 
Randolph Distinguished Professor and 
has been a faculty member in the De-
partment of Hispanic Studies at Vassar 
College, New York, since 1991. She is a 
prolific writer in this area; in addition to a 
collection of critical essays and a number 
of coedited titles, she is most notable for 
her critical editions of texts by Caribbean 
women, among them Phyllis Allfrey’s 
The Orchid House (1997) and It Falls into 
Place: the Short Stories of Phyllis Shand 
Allfrey (2004). Dr. Paravisini-Gebert also 
published numerous biographies and is 
currently working on two simultaneous 
titles: Glimpses of Hell, a study of the after-
math of the 1902 eruption of Mont Pelée 
in the Martinique, and a biography of the 
Cuban patriot José Martí. 

Though very well compiled, research-
ers interested in more in-depth treatment 
of Caribbean literature or authors might 
be a little disappointed with the brevity 
of the volume. For those researchers, I 
recommend further readings such as 
A History of Literature in the Caribbean 
(Arnold, 2001), which provides detailed 
charting of the region’s literary history, 
down to various genres such as drama 
and poetry. Similarly, The Routledge Reader 
in Caribbean Literature (Donnell, 1996) cov-
ers more diverse literary contributions 
from classic and contemporary Caribbean 
authors. Researchers would also find 
Fifty Caribbean Writers: a bio-bibliographical 
critical sourcebook (Dance, 1986) to be 
an excellent and more comprehensive 
resource for biographical information on 
authors and criticism. Nevertheless, Dr. 
Paravisini-Gebert’s book is an excellent 
option that combines all areas covered by 
the three aforementioned titles. Literature 
of the Caribbean is a highly organized 
volume designed with students in mind 
and would make a valuable teaching 
and research tool for undergraduate col-
lege and university students, or anyone 
who has general interest in Caribbean 
literature.—Ethan Pullman, Carnegie Mel-
lon University.

T.H. Howard-Hill. The British Book Trade, 
1475–1890: A Bibliography. London: 
The British Library; New Castle, Del.: 
Oak Knoll Press, in association with 
The Bibliographical Society and The 
Bibliographical Society of America, 
2009. 2 vols. (lxxi, 1,776p.) + CD-ROM 
index. $175 (ISBN 978-0-7123-5059-4 
[BL]; 978-1-58456-255-9 [OKP]. LC 
2009-004233.

The publication of The British Book Trade, 
1475–1890: A Bibliography at a time when 
library users and many librarians increas-
ingly expect instant access to all kinds 
of information reminds us that patience 
and hard work can result in a product 
of enduring value. The culmination of 
some fifty years of effort, this thoughtfully 
crafted reference tool will make a lasting 



Book Reviews 505

contribution to knowledge of British book 
publishing during its first 400 years of 
development.

Intended as a conspectus of its subject 
up to the time when coverage of the Index 
to British Literary Bibliography begins, this 
work is broad in scope but provides in-
depth coverage of its many related topics. 
Entries pertain to such areas as author-
ship, bibliography, book collecting, book 
illustration, bookselling, libraries, literacy, 
papermaking, printing, publishing, tex-
tual criticism, and typography. According 
to the author, the bibliography documents 
three “persistent” issues—copyright, 
freedom of the press, and a surplus of 
apprentices in the printing industry. In-
cluded are entries for 9,346 books, 1,043 
chapters in books, and 14,228 items in 
such periodicals as Gentleman’s Magazine. 
Utilizing the holdings of more than 300 
libraries in the United Kingdom and the 
United States, the author examined cop-
ies of most of the titles represented in 
the bibliography and painstakingly read 
many issues of the periodicals.

The author devoted considerable 
thought to the format of individual refer-
ences and to the organization of the entire 
bibliography. The heavily abbreviated and 
lightly annotated entries are assigned a 
unique number and usually contain the 
shelf-mark of the copy examined by the 
author as well as that of the British Library 
(this work is not, however, a census of ex-
isting copies). Many of the entries combine 
references to a series of periodical articles 
pertaining to the same or similar subjects, 
a space-saving technique that provides an 
accessible overview of the development 
of these writings. The bibliography is 
divided into four main sections: Bibliog-
raphy and Textual Criticism; General and 
Period Bibliography; Book Production 
and Distribution; and Forms, Genres, and 

Subjects. Entries are arranged chrono-
logically within their classified subjects. 
Thus, in the second section, the user finds 
entries organized by time period and, 
within those, by the names of the authors 
to whom the works pertain (Shakespeare 
is by far the most heavily represented 
writer). In the largest section, Book Pro-
duction and Distribution, the subjects are 
arranged to reflect the historical develop-
ment of the production and distribution 
of books rather than alphabetically. The 
table of contents aids the user in quickly 
locating sections pertaining to such sub-
jects as individual printers, papermaking 
in Lancashire, libraries in Oxfordshire, 
and religious works—“Catholic and anti-
Catholic books,” for example. Because 
many of the works could have been 
included in multiple sections, the two 
indexes greatly enhance the usefulness 
of the bibliography. The author index (308 
pages) and the subject index (791 pages) 
are contained on a CD-ROM slipped into 
a pocket in the first volume. 

That this important historical bibliog-
raphy, which supersedes relevant sections 
of such works as Bigmore and Wyman (A 
Bibliography of Printing), will be useful to 
rare-book curators, reference librarians, 
and scholars in varied fields is not sur-
prising. T.H. Howard-Hill, who earned 
doctorates from both Victoria University 
and Oxford, began his career as a librar-
ian. He taught in the Department of 
English Language and Literature at the 
University of South Carolina from 1972 
until his retirement in 1999. Among his 
publications are many concordances to 
Shakespeare’s plays and eight volumes of 
the Index of British Literary Biography. His 
training, experience, and patience contrib-
uted to the quality of this authoritative 
work of scholarship.—Maurice York, East 
Carolina University.