NSW Bookstall Company was a Sydney company which operated a chain of newsagencies throughout New South Wales. It was notable as a publisher of inexpensive paperback books which were written, illustrated, published and printed in Australia, and sold to commuters at bookstalls in railway stations and elsewhere in New South Wales.
The company was founded as the Sydney Bookstall Company by Henry Lloyd (ca.1847 – 24 September 1897) of "Linden Hall", Annandale, New South Wales around 1880 as a newsagent. Its first foray into publishing may have been racebooks (form guides or programmes) for the Hawkesbury Race Club around 1886.
A. C. Rowlandson (15 June 1865 – 15 June 1922) joined as a tram ticket seller in 1883 and built a strong interest in the business, which he bought from Henry Lloyd's widow. The greatest part of the company's business consisted of retailing local, interstate and overseas periodicals, postcards (Neville Cayley produced a series) and stationery from its eight city shops and fifty-odd railway stall outlets, but was important as one of Australia's most successful book publishers and retailers of locally produced paperback books.
Considerable effort was put into the artwork of the paperbacks, both on their brightly colored covers and the illustrations within. Artists who contributed included J. Muir Auld, Percy Benison, L. H. Booth, Norman Carter, H. W. Cotton, John P. Davis, Ambrose Dyson, Will Dyson, Tom Ferry, A. J. Fisher, Harry Garlick, C. H. Hunt, Ben Jordan, Harry Julius, George W. Lambert, Fred Leist, Norman Lindsay, Lionel Lindsay Percy Lindsay, Ruby Lindsay, Vernon Lorimer, David Low, Hugh Maclean, Frank P. Mahony, Claude Marquet, R. H. Moppett, Charles Nuttall, G. C. Pearce, James Postlethwaite, L. L. Roush, James F. Scott, Sydney Ure Smith, D. H. Souter, Percy Spence, Martin Stainforth, Alf Vincent and Harry J. Weston.
On Rowlandson's death, Reg. Wynn (ca.1866 – 17 December 1925) took over as managing director, and W. A. Crew was circulation manager. The company erected a large building at the corner of Market Street and Castlereagh Street. Reg. Wynn was succeeded by Paul Dowling.
With the onset of World War II, imports of comic books was severely restricted, which opened the market, previously swamped by the US and British houses, to anyone who could provide a quality product, and NSW Bookstall was ideally placed to publish and distribute such work. Tony Rafty, Will Donald, Tom Hubble, Noel Cook and Terry Powis were among the more successful artists, and the partnership of Brodie Mack and writer Peter Amos (real name Archie E. Martin) produced some excellent work for NSW Bookstall. By 1949, the opportunity provided by wartime shortages no longer applied, and Australia was once again flooded with excess overseas production.
This list is representative of the range of Bookstall titles but not exhaustive.
J. H. M. Abbott: Ensign Calder;
Arthur H. Adams: Double-Bed Dialogues;
Malcolm Afford: Owl of Darkness
F. Agar: Eros! Eros Wins!
Bob Allen: The Mare with the Silver Hoof
Gerald R. Baldwin: In Racing Silk;
Vera Barker: Equality Road;
J. A. Barry: The Luck of the Native Born;
A. Bathgate: Sodger Sandy's Bairn
Louis Becke: The Adventures of Louis Bleke;
Randolph Bedford: Aladdin and the Boss Cockie;
George W. Bell: The Little Giants of the East
Francis E. Birtles (illus. by author): Lonely Lands
H. K. Bloxham: The Double Abduction;
Lancelot Booth: The Devil's Nightcap;
E. J. Brady: Tom Pagdin, Pirate
Hilda M. Bridges: The Squatters' Daughter;
Roy Bridges: The Barb of an Arrow;
John X. Cameron: The Spell of the Bush
R. J. Cassidy: Chandler of Corralinga
Charles Chauvel: Uncivilised
E. F. Christie: The Calling Voice
George Cockerill: The Convict Pugilist
Dale Collins: Stolen or Strayed;
Arthur Crocker: The Dingo Pup;
George Darrell: The Belle of the Bush
Aiden de Bruno: The Carson Loan Mystery
Don Delaney: The Captain of the Gang;
Will Donald: Heel Hitler
Con Drew: The Doings of Dave;
Edward Dyson: Benno and Some of the Push;
A. R. Falk: Puppets of Chance;
J. D. Fitzgerald: Children of the Sunlight
Mabel Forrest: A Bachelor's Wife
The Poems of Adam Lindsay Gordon
Beatrice Grimshaw: The Coral Queen;
Kate Harriott: Invalid and Convalescent Cookery
W. G. Henderson: The Bathers
Bert James: The Loser Pays;
A. E. Jobson: The Adventures of Russell Howard
Cecil Ross Johnston: The Trader
Robert Kaleski: Australian Barkers and Biters
A. R. Kent: A Chinese Vengeance
Norman Lindsay: A Curate in Bohemia;
Sumner Locke: Brownie Unlimited;
H. R. McDuffie: Rooks and Crooks
Claude McKay and Harry Julius Theatrical Caricatures
John D. Fitzgerald: Greater Sydney and Greater Newcastle
Jack McLaren: Feathers of Heaven;
A. Ian Macleod: Hack's Brat
A. E. Martin: The Romance of Nomenclature,' (1943) containing 1,250 Place Names in South Australia, West Australia and the Northern Territory
Clarence W. Martin: Ubique
Harold Mercer: Amazon Island
Edward Meryon: At Hollands' Tank;
William Monckton: Three Years with Thunderbolt
Jack North: The Black Opal;
Ernest O'Ferrall: Bolger and the Boarders
Ernest Osborne: The Copra Trader;
Harrison Owen: The Mount Marunga Mystery
Vance Palmer: The Boss of Killara;
Sydney Partrige: Rocky Section
Sydney Partrige and Cecil Raworth: The Mystery of Wall's Hill
S. W. Powell: The Closed Lagoon;
Ambrose Pratt: Dan Kelly – Outlaw;
Clement Pratt: Caloola
"Rata": The Coloured Conquest"
Broda Reynolds: Dawn Asper;
Charles Rodda: Cerise and Gold;
Ivan Archer Rosenblum: Marjorie of Blue Lake;
Steele Rudd: Back at Our Selection;
W. Sabelburg: The Key of the Mystery
John Sandes: Love and the Aeroplane
Charles E. Sayers: The Jumping Double
H. M. Somer: Base Brands
Edward S. Sorenson: Murty Brown;
Thomas E. Spencer: Bindawalla;
A. G. Stephens (ed.) Aboriginalities (from The Bulletin)
Crystal Stirling: Soldiers Two
Ralph Stock: The Pyjama Man;
R. S. Tait: Scotty Mac, Shearer
Taylor: Campaign Cartoons
Harry Tighe: The Man of Sympathy
Robert Waldron: The Flying Doctor;
J. M. Walsh: Goldie Law;
Charles D. Websdale (J. Muir Auld ill.): Seafarers
Charles White: Ben Hall;
Arthur Wright: The Boss o' Yedden;
Claude P. Wynn: Princess Naldi's Fetish
(none named): Australian Bungalow and Cottage Home Designs
(none named): Canberra Cookery Book
(none named): Guide to the City of Sydney and the Pleasure Resorts of New South Wales
(none named): The Harbour Guide
(none named): Panoramic Sydney
(none named): Sydney from the Air
