Slide 113 of 127
Notes:
This is a conservative business.
Firms in the book trade are still called "publishing houses", because for a long time most publishing offices were in houses. Little, Brown and Random House worked out of domestic buildings well into the 20th century.
European houses have a long history, of course. Long ago, glass windows were a rarity in Europe, where waxed paper windows were much less expensive. Paper windows remained common in publishing houses for a long time -- for more than a century after the
Why? We might suppose that publishers were attuned to paper, and so kept paper windows after other had switched to glass.
We'd be wrong. It turns out that publishers kept paper windows because, every fall, they threw a big party, called the Wayzegoose Feast, for all the employees. Everyone went to the party while workmen replaced the paper windows. The party was fun. Peo
This is a conservative business.
