IT was a grievous day for Glasgow book-lovers 20 years ago when John Smith & Son closed its stores at 57 St Vincent Street and in Byres Road, on the eve of its 250th anniversary.

Competition within the trade had been remorseless; as the Herald noted at the time, Waterstones had opened a huge store in Sauchiehall Street in 1998, while over on Buchanan Street there was a new, substantial and thriving branch of Borders Books.

Willie Anderson, Smith's managing director, said he was devastated by the loss of the two bookshops. “We have found it increasingly difficult to compete head-on against two of the largest individual bookshops in Britain, both of whom have the resources of multinational chains behind them, plus hugely advantageous terms of book supply from publishers”, he added.

“At the same time, High Street bookselling has encountered tremendous competition from internet booksellers and from supermarkets”.

He said the company would continue to thrive in its core business of academic, specialist and library services.

The emotional reaction to news of the closure was caught by the Sunday Herald: “Customers were bursting into tears amid the tall shelves. Newswires round the world flashed headlines like 'World’s Oldest Bookseller Killed By Internet'. When the fate of John Smith’s bookshop in Glasgow’s St Vincent Street was announced, it felt like more than just the closure of another retail outlet”.

“It is a travesty, something that will pain the heart of every bookseller in Britain,” lamented Martin Grindley, president of the Booksellers’ Association. “It is becoming impossible for the independent retailer to compete in cities against the big boys, and against their bland McDonald’s-isation of bookselling”.

Authors Alasdair Gray and Bernard Maclaverty, and publisher Angus Calder, campaigned in vain to save the Byres Road store. Calder described it as “probably the best bookstore in Scotland” and said it would be a “disaster’’ for Glasgow if it closed.

The main image here shows fittings being removed by workmen from the St Vincent Street branch. It was a sad end to a store that had been opened in 1907, and which, in the 1970s, had launched readings as part of its support for Scottish authors.

In his Burns Encyclopedia, Maurice Lindsay records the firm’s association with Robert Burns.

The firm had subscribed for 12 copies of the 1787 edition of Burns’s poems, and apparently ordered a further nine copies. In July 1788 Burns wrote to John Smith Jnr, eldest son of the John Smith who had founded the business, mentioning payment for these nine copies; he raised the matter again the following June.

The company, added Lindsay, also acted as agents for the distribution of subscriber’s copies, for which service they charged only five per cent.

“According to the history of the firm, A Short Note on a Long History, when the poet heard of the modesty of this charge, he is said to have exclaimed, ‘You seem a decent sort of folk, you Glasgow booksellers, but, eh, they’re sair birkies in Edinburgh’.”

Read more: Herald Diary