Life sentences
The closure of bookshops has been a frequent news item lately. It is interesting to reflect on the place of booksellers in Australian society over time. The Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB) contains 40 articles that focus on people who sold books as one of their major occupations.
The original owners of Angus and Robertson, one of the bookshops closing in Australia, both feature in the ADB. David Angus (1855-1901), born in Scotland, and George Robertson (1860-1933), born in England, began their partnership in 1866, 18 months after Angus had opened a bookselling business in Sydney. Robertson thought that booksellers were ‘as much engaged in educational work as headmasters and university professors and regarded bookshops as cultural centres’. Another George Robertson (1825-1898), no relation and Scottish-born, had set up in Melbourne in the 1850s. William Dymock (1861-1900), born in Melbourne, was Australia’s first native-born bookseller, opening his shop in Sydney in the 1880s.The stores of this name are still operating.