Life
1823-99; of Eason & Son; b. Yeovil, son of Geo. Eason, glover; apprenticed to printer in Colchester; in charge of WH Smith’s bookstall at Victoria Station, Manchester; Smith became involved in Irish paper trade in 1850 by acquiring J. K. Johnston & Co., then in bankruptcy; rapid transformation of distribution with railways; abolition of Stamp Duty in 1855; Eason transferred to Dublin, 1857; sold to Eason when W. H. Smith was made Irish Chief Sec., in 1886, during Home Rule troubles; controlled most of the
bookstall and newspaper trade in Ireland by 1900; circulating library in 129 (Torch Library, later joined by Lens Library), flourishing in the 1930s and 1940s with 150 branches; libraries shut in 1968; and continued to do so. SUTH
Criticism
Louis M. Cullen, Eason & Son: A History (Dublin: Eason 1989), xii, 426pp. [noticed by Wesley McCann in Linen Hall Review (summer
1990), p.36.
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