William Dymock

William Dymock (11 May 1861 – 5 October 1900) was an Australian bookseller and publisher. He was the "first native-born Australian to launch and maintain a successful bookselling venture".

Early life and career

William Dymock was born in North Melbourne, Victoria, on 11 May 1861. His parents, both immigrants from Scotland, were Walter Dymock, a wheelwright, and Janet, née McFarlane. While still a child, he moved to Redfern, in Sydney, New South Wales with his family.

After attending the Cleveland Street Public School, he entered the booktrade, working successively for John Andrews in Pitt Street as an apprentice, then for James Reading and Company, and finally for George Robertson and Company.

Dymock's Book Arcade

Following a visit to England where he studied the booktrade and met the bookseller and collector Bernard Quaritch, Dymock returned to Sydney and in the early 1880s set up a bookshop with the name of the Dymock's Book Arcade. He took over several book firms including The Picturesque Atlas Publishing Company and, in 1896, Maddock's circulating library. He maintained the lending library as a part of Dymock's until at least the 1930s.

The Dymock's Book Arcade traded at a number of addresses in the Sydney CBD, including at 208 Pitt Street, and then at 142 King Street and finally, from 1890, at 428 George Street where it is still located. and Alfred Lee. Mitchell has been credited with drawing Dymock's "attention to the value of old Australian books from the commercial standpoint", a piece of advice which helped the latter "in building up his business".

Dymock also argued that the Free Public Library should continue to supply itself through English book agents such as Trübner & Co. However, Anderson and Angus & Robertson replied that sourcing that English agents resulted in "intolerable delays in delivery" and the supply of works unsuitable for the Library, whereas Sydney booksellers could supply books efficiently and offered "a good stock of Australian titles".

Personal life and death Dymock was unmarried. He lived with his sister Marjory Forsyth and her husband John in Randwick. He was a Freemason and "a member of many social and sporting associations".

On 5 October 1900, at the age of 39 years, he died suddenly of an apoplectic seizure. Control of the bookshop passed to the Forsyth family, who expanded the business, which eventually became Dymocks Booksellers, Australia's largest franchise bookshop chain.