NSW Bookstall Company


NSW Bookstall Company was a Sydney company which operated a chain of newsagencies throughout New South Wales. It was notable as a publisher of inexpensive paperback books which were written, illustrated, published and printed in Australia, and sold to commuters at bookstalls in railway stations and elsewhere in New South Wales.

History

The company was founded as the Sydney Bookstall Company by Henry Lloyd of "Linden Hall", Annandale, New South Wales around 1880 as a newsagent. Its first foray into publishing may have been racebooks for the Hawkesbury Race Club around 1886.
A. C. Rowlandson joined as a tram ticket seller in 1883 and built a strong interest in the business, which he bought from Henry Lloyd's widow. The greatest part of the company's business consisted of retailing local, interstate and overseas periodicals, postcards and stationery from its eight city shops and fifty-odd railway stall outlets, but was important as one of Australia's most successful book publishers and retailers of locally produced paperback books.
Considerable effort was put into the artwork of the paperbacks, both on their brightly colored covers and the illustrations within. Artists who contributed included J. Muir Auld, Percy Benison, L. H. Booth, Norman Carter, H. W. Cotton, John P. Davis, Ambrose Dyson, Will Dyson, Tom Ferry, A. J. Fisher, Harry Garlick, C. H. Hunt, Ben Jordan, Harry Julius, George W. Lambert, Fred Leist, Norman Lindsay, Lionel Lindsay Percy Lindsay, Ruby Lindsay, Vernon Lorimer, David Low, Hugh Maclean, Frank P. Mahony, Claude Marquet, R. H. Moppett, Charles Nuttall, G. C. Pearce, James Postlethwaite, L. L. Roush, James F. Scott, Sydney Ure Smith, D. H. Souter, Percy Spence, Martin Stainforth, Alf Vincent and Harry J. Weston.
On Rowlandson's death, Reg. Wynn took over as managing director, and W. A. Crew was circulation manager. The company erected a large building at the corner of Market Street and Castlereagh Street.
Reg. Wynn was succeeded by Paul Dowling.
With the onset of World War II, imports of comic books was severely restricted, which opened the market, previously swamped by the U.S. and British houses, to anyone who could provide a quality product, and NSW Bookstall was ideally placed to publish and distribute such work. Tony Rafty, Will Donald, Tom Hubble, Noel Cook and Terry Powis were among the more successful artists, and the partnership of Brodie Mack and writer Peter Amos produced some excellent work for NSW Bookstall. By 1949, the opportunity provided by wartime shortages no longer applied, and Australia was once again flooded with excess overseas production.

Titles

This list is representative of the range of Bookstall titles but not exhaustive.