Sixty Years a Bookman, With Other Recollections and Reflections

"Sixty Years a Bookman, With Other Recollections and Reflections" by Joseph Shaylor is a reflective memoir chronicling the author's life immersed in the world of bookselling. From his Gloucestershire childhood, filled with early education and exploration of nature, to his apprenticeship and subsequent navigation of the bookselling trade, the book offers a window into both Shaylor's personal development and the historical shifts within the British literary scene of his era. He recounts formative childhood experiences and the strong parental influences that shaped his values, later intertwining these personal narratives with the evolving landscape of bookselling and publishing to deliver a unique glimpse into his life and the broader literary culture of the time. The book details the hardships during his apprenticeship and the triumphs of coming into his own, both personally and professionally.