Joseph Shaylor

Joseph Shaylor was an English writer active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, remembered for literary essays and for books shaped by a lifelong enthusiasm for reading. Works associated with him include Saunterings in Bookland with Gleanings by the Way (1899), Some Favourite Books and Their Authors (1901), The Fascination of Books (1912), The Pleasures of Bookland (1914), and Sixty Years a Bookman (1923).

His writing suggests a man deeply at home in the company of books, and surviving records also connect him with the publishing and bookselling trade. A contemporary publishing history notes that Joseph Shaylor was involved in the New York branch of Truslove, Hanson & Comba around 1899, which fits neatly with the bookish, insider tone of his later work.

Today, he is chiefly of interest to readers who enjoy essays about books themselves: browsing, collecting, literary companionship, and the quiet pleasures of a well-stocked shelf. Sixty Years a Bookman, published in 1923, stands as the clearest expression of that lifelong relationship with the literary world.