John Smith & Son is a United Kingdom academic bookseller, based in Ringwood.
Founded in 1751, it is the oldest bookselling company in the English-speaking world.[1][2] It was based for many years at 57–61 St. Vincent Street in Glasgow, which was also its principal retail outlet. A circulating library (established by Smith as Glasgow's first circulating library and Scotland's second overall) ultimately evolved into the academic bookselling arm of the business. From 1751 its chairmen have been three Smiths, three Knoxes and Robert Clow (1934-2022) who became the first chairman in 2000 of the continuing John Smith Group.[3][4]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f8/John-Smith-%26-Son-Receipt.png/220px-John-Smith-%26-Son-Receipt.png)
The St. Vincent Street shop, along with the general retail part of the business closed in 2000. However as part of the JS Group[5] it continues to trade as an academic bookseller, with campus outlets including Glasgow University, Strathclyde University and the University of London in the UK as well as overseas.
See also
[edit]- Book trade in the United Kingdom
- John Smith, Youngest (1784-1849), and the book trade of Glasgow . PhD thesis of Stephen Hall, 2017 [6]
References
[edit]- ^ "JS Group is a forward looking business that can trace its roots back to 1751 when the bookseller John Smith and Son was founded in Glasgow". JS Group. 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
- ^ "University of Glasgow - MyGlasgow - Archives & Special Collections - Discover our collections - Special Collections A-Z - Smith Collection".
- ^ "Robert George Menzies Clow".
- ^ "Robert Clow obituary".
- ^ Hetherington, Richard. "Home – JS Group". johnsmithgroup.com. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
- ^ https://theses.gla.ac.uk/8530/1/2017HallPhD.pdf [bare URL PDF]