Along with Watson & Ferguson, and Gordon and Gotch, Angus & Robertson was a publisher for Brisbane where scholarly works would be available to the community. The history of the city has been a struggle to import and print high-quality works of broad and deep learning. However, in recent decades Queensland historians have uncovered a much more significant reading history than what traditionally presumed.

Impact on Brisbane Society

The Company began as a partnership between David Angus and George Robertson in 1886, in Sydney. The trade with Queensland goes back to the days before a Brisbane branch existed, as large numbers of postal orders came from the state, in the absence of significant book printers (at the time Watson & Ferguson was emerging in Brisbane and the only reliable publisher among a host of minor ‘in-house’ publishers). The significance for the local book trade only took hold when Angus & Robertson led as Australia’s first nationwide chain of bookstores in the 1950s.

Citations

Further research is underway.

Image Citations

VANCE PALMER “Legend for Sanderson,” by Vance Palmer. Published by Angus and Robertson, Sydney. The Telegraph, Saturday 21 August 1937, p. 15. NLA Trove