Writing developed between the 600 BCE and the 300 BCE, first as complicated mnemonic symbols carved or painted on stones which developed into a system of ideograms or pictographs through a process of simplification. Later, to make transportation of written information portable, wood became the medium of choice—wooden tablets were found on Easter Island, and later Chinese used bamboo. Still Later, syllabic and alphabetic or segmental writing emerged to fill a pragmatic need for simplicity, efficiency, and portability. Then the Chinese moved ahead to use silk, writing with brushes. Other materials used included: bone, bronze, pottery, shell, in India, dried palm tree leaves, clay tablets, papyrus (about 2,400 BCE) and in Mesoamerica, the Amate plant and animal hides. Papyrus was used for the first recognizable books in the form of a scroll of several sheets pasted together, for a total length of 10 yards to over 40 yards long, often rolled into a cylindrical scroll.
Romans used wax-coated wooden tablets upon which they could write and erase by using a stylus. Parchment progressively replaced papyrus throughout the Roman Empire during the 3rd century BCE. The invention of parchment is attributed to the king of Pergamon, from which comes the name “pergamineum,” which linguistically evolved to the present day word, “parchment”. Parchment was made from the skins of animals–sheep, cattle, donkey, antelope, etc. Parchment proved easier to conserve over time; it was more solid, and allowed one to erase text. It was, and still is, a very expensive medium because of the relative paucity of material and the time required to produce a document. Vellum is the finest quality of parchment.
True paper was invented in China around the 1st century ACE. The inventive Chinese produced texts which could be reproduced by woodblock printing to enable diffusion of Buddhist texts on a large-scale production level. Chinese scrolls became scrolls folded concertina-style, scrolls bound at one edge—so-called “butterfly books”. The first printing of books started during the Tang Dynasty about 618–907 ACE. The oldest existing printed book is a Tang Dynasty Diamond Sutra which dates to 868 ACE.
By the end of antiquity– 2nd-4th centuries, ACE–the codex had replaced the scroll. Books ceased to be a cumbersome continuous roll, but developed instead into a collection of sheets attached at the back. It became possible to access a precise point in the text directly. The codex is easy to rest on a table, which permits the reader to take notes while he or she is reading. The codex form improved with the separation of words, capital letters, and punctuation, which permitted silent reading. Tables of contents and indices facilitated direct access to information. This form was so effective that it is still the standard book form, over 1500 years after its appearance.
The Maya had a writing system capable of conveying any concept that can be conveyed via speech, and other Mesoamerican cultures had ideographic writing—some of which were attached to form books—during the 3rd-8th centuries ACE.
Early on and until fairly recently, book culture resulted in financial rewards largely for copiers, scribes, printers, and sellers. The authors of antiquity had no rights related to their published works, nor did publishers. Anyone could have a text copied, recopied, or even altered with impunity. Scribes and copiers earned money and glory; and authors only sometimes earned glory. In a few instances, a patron provided money; and from time to time a book made its author famous. It was not considered inappropriate to copy another author’s style, nor was an author’s work usually regarded as a personal accomplishment.
Books were censored very early on, usually for religious or political reasons. For example, the works of Protagoras were burned because he argued for agnosticism and reasoned that a person could not know whether or not the gods existed. Frequently, cultural and political conflicts or simple ignorance led to important periods of book destruction: in 303, the emperor Diocletian ordered the burning of Christian texts. Some Christians (usually, proto-Christians) later burned whole libraries, and especially heretical or non-canonical Christian texts. The Visigoths destroyed the library of Ephesus because they did not know what books were. The great Library of Alexander was destroyed in 47 ACE. These practices are found throughout human history and a few despotic, hyperreligious, or politically backward nations even today still greatly censor or burn books.
Another effective form of censorship existed as books in some historic nations were reserved for the elite; such books were not originally a medium for expressive liberty. It may serve to confirm the values of a political system, as during the reign of the emperor Augustus, who skillfully surrounded himself with great authors. Roman books were printed in Latin which effectively limited the readership to Romans and those educated in the Roman tradition (which came from the Greeks). There has always been private and religious censorship which is probably more important than that imposed by political despots. Parents and religious groups exert great influence on the books individuals choose to read in private, to destroy, to throw away, to prohibit selling, and what to pass along to their children, a characteristic that gets passed on down generations. Political differences of opinion divide families, and populations even more definitively and intensely than religious bias. Private censorship is significant and thrives throughout a great many cultures in the world to this day.
Although books were reasonably available in early America, they were large, expensive, and cumbersome. The United States and only 500 bookstores limited to the twelve largest cities. A hardcover book cost $2.50, the equivalent of $40 in today’s value. In 1938, Robert Fair de Graff came up with a revolutionary new idea for books. He hypothesized that Americans would read more, and authors and publishers would thrive if books were made much smaller. This would enable ordinary people to have good books of fiction and nonfiction. Simon & Schuster launched De Graff’s idea as Pocket Books in 1939, offering books that were 4×6 inches and cost only a quarter. That produced an American revolution in reading. Books were then sold in almost any conceivable location; so, anyone could find, buy, and enjoy his/her own library. Soon, the entrepreneurial nature of Americans flooded the many markets with books of high literary value and low, books of special interest like westerns, science fiction, mysteries, thrillers, historical fiction, thinly disguised smut (such as Lolita or Fifty Shades of Grey), and frank pornography—a little something for the whole family.
As is commonly the case, the success of pocket books begat further capitalistic enterprise until prices increased, fast selling junk like 101 Uses for a Dead Cat became common. And the junk became more expensive and more popular than the paperbacks that had some redeeming value. The costs began to rival that of hardbacks. Again, the American entrepreneurial capitalistic spirit rose to the occasion: enter Iphones, kindles, Ipads, recorded books, and e-readers. There is only one book chain left in the United States. Perhaps readers of physical books will go the way of anthologies of poetry. I love my own books, but have had to give in to see most of them sold electronically. In truth, I have to admit with a tinge of shame, that most of my reading is from electronic sources. Heavy sigh.