Abstract

Polish publishing goes to market

This article presents information on the concentration of bookstores in Warsaw. It is informed that in downtown Warsaw, there are roughly twenty five establishments selling books. On Nowy Swait and Krakowskie Przedmiescie, seven of such establishments are bona fide bookstores. It is informed that in the late 1940s and 1950s the Polish regime brought all the book-production equipment and machinery under its control. It created a state-run monopoly copyright agency to control publishers' access to outside information and manuscripts, erected a monopoly distribution agency and a monitored postal system to control the dissemination of all printed materials and established a state monopoly import-export company for selling books to, and buying books from, foreign countries. However, of late this system is crumbling and the Polish publishing industry is feeling the euphoria of liberation.