Indexing in the Early Days: Part II

How different my life would have been if I had taken the job of “gatherer,” the other opening for people with my experience (none) and skills (none) at The Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company in the summer of 1970.   The reason I didn’t was because I didn’t know what a gatherer was.  But then I didn’t know what an editorial clerk or an indexer was either.

In 1970, the factory at my company was in the same building as the offices. The business of making books was a laborious and painstaking process that took enormous numbers of people. The factory in this video looks a lot like the one in our building.  It includes people with jobs like linotype operators, pressmen, and even gatherers.

VIDEO: How Books Were Made

See also:

Indexing in the Early Days: Part I

Indexing in the Early Days: Part III