Page "Oxford University Press" Paragraph 54

Milford may not have fully understood what he was undertaking.

A fiftieth anniversary pamphlet published by the Music Department in 1973 says that OUP had " no knowledge of the music trade, no representative to sell to music shops, and −− it seems −− no awareness that sheet music was in any way a different commodity from books.

" However intentionally or intuitively, Milford took three steps that launched OUP on a major operation.

He bought the Anglo-French Music Company and all its facilities, connections, and resources.

He hired Norman Peterkin, a moderately well-known musician, as full-time sales manager for music.

And in 1923 he established as a separate division the Music Department, with its own offices in Amen House and with Foss as first Musical Editor.

Then, other than general support, Milford left Foss largely to his own devices.