Crouse Library for Publishing Arts
The Crouse Library for Publishing Arts contains a comprehensive collection of books, periodicals, reports, and other materials on the bookselling and publishing industries. Scholars have called it "an important [collection] that aids our understanding of the book trade as a profession."
Prior to 1989, much of the collection was housed in the Graduate Library of the City University of New York. Currently, the collection is housed at the New York Center for Independent Publishing, which is, itself, a part of the venerable General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York.
The Library's holdings include approximately 3,000 volumes on all aspects of the industry. Contained in the collection are published works (many out-of-print) on such topics as bookselling; book design and production; trade, scholarly and children's book publishing; author/publisher relations; book collecting; censorship; and a wealth of biographies of luminaries of the book trade.
The Library was endowed by William H. Crouse, a successful technical writer, whose writing career began in 1932, when he joined General Motors, for which he became director of field education in Anderson, Ind. There he developed programs and writing manuals for G.M. mechanics and technicians, and found time to write two books for McGraw-Hill, Automotive Electrical Equipment and Automotive Mechanics. In 1946, he joined McGraw-Hill as editor of technical-education books.
But Mr. Crouse resigned in 1951 to move to Charlottesville, Va. Over the years he wrote books on automobile engines, auto-engine design, car chassis, brakes, suspension systems, fuel systems and diesel engines, and two science books for young people.