Timeline

BOOKS TIMELINE

Ca. 800-900 Chinese use carved wooden blocks to publish books.

1440 Johann Gutenberg develops a printing press that uses movable type.

1455 Gutenberg prints first book, a Latin version of the Bible.

1475 First book printed in English: The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye.

1500s Henry the VIIIth and Pope Paul IV both issue lists of banned books.

1640 First book printed in America: The Whole Book of Psalms.

1770's Books help promote American revolution.

1800 Library of Congress formed.

1845 Paperback books introduced.

1852 Uncle Tom's Cabin becomes bestseller and fuels anti-slavery attitudes.

1861-1865 Civil War promotes paperback reading.

1891 New copyright law hampers publication of paperbacks.

1926 Debut of Book of the Month Club.

1935 Gone with the Wind becomes international bestseller.

1939 Pocket Books founded. Beginning of new era of popularity for paperbacks.

1941-1945 World War II increases book sales.

1950-1960 Publishers begin to specialize in particular book topics.

1970s Book publishing industry shows trend toward concentration and consolidation as mergers increase.

1980 About 70 percent of the books sold in the U.S. are paperbacks.

1994 For first time in history, chain bookstores sell more books than independently owned bookstores. Book selling becomes dominated by "superstores."

http://www.barnesandnoble.com, http://www.borders.com

1995 Trend toward consolidation among publishers continues. Industry dominated by seven large conglomerates.

1995 Amazon.com debuts. Book sales over Internet become important part of retailing.

http://amazon.com/

1998 Books go digital as e-books make appearance.

http://cnn.com/TECH/computing/9812/17/t_t/e.books/index.html

2000 Stephen King publishes novella online.

http://www.stephenking.com/index.html