Publishing History > Thacker's Handbooks of Hindostan (Thacker, Spink, and Co.)
Thacker's Handbooks of Hindostan
Publisher: Thacker, Spink, and Co.
Place: Calcutta (Kolkata), India. Date: 1874-1909.
A Handbook for Visitors to Agra and Its Neighbourhood
by H. G. Keene
Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co., 1888 (Thacker’s Handbooks of Hindostan).
Hardback bound in brown cloth and lettered in gilt. vi, [6], 163pp, [1], 30pp, [2]. With a half-title, five maps (three folding), and a publisher's advertisement catalogue in the final pages.
THACKER'S HANDBOOKS OF HINDOSTAN (THACKER, SPINK & CO.)
Series Note: Thacker’s Handbooks of Hindostan was a small late-nineteenth-century guidebook series issued by Thacker, Spink & Co. of Calcutta for English-reading travellers, officials, soldiers, and residents visiting major North Indian sites. The series appears to have begun in the 1870s with H. G. Keene’s compact handbooks to Agra, Dehli/Delhi, and Lucknow, later expanded to include nearby centres such as Allahabad, Cawnpore, and Benares. Catalogue evidence identifies the Agra volume as part of Thacker’s Hand-books of Hindostan in 1874, and later editions continued under Thacker’s Handbooks of Hindostan.
The books combined practical travel guidance with historical description, architectural notes, local topography, maps, plans, and illustrations. They were not general India guidebooks, but focused local companions for specific cities and tourist circuits, especially places associated with Mughal monuments and the events of 1857. Later editions were revised or rewritten as routes, rail access, and colonial tourist expectations changed. The series also included Edmund Mitchell’s Thacker’s Guide Book to Darjeeling and its Neighbourhood, recorded in catalogue form under Thacker’s Handbooks of Hindostan. Together the volumes show Thacker, Spink’s role as a Calcutta publisher serving the practical and antiquarian needs of British India’s travelling public.
SERIES LIST
Number / Title / Author, Reviser / Editions, Publication Details
Scope note: This list consolidates the four title-families identified for Thacker’s Handbooks of Hindostan, published by Thacker, Spink & Co., Calcutta. Spelling and series-title forms vary in the records, including Hand-book/Handbook and Hindostan/Hindustan.
No. 1
Title
A Hand-book for Visitors to Agra and its Neighbourhood
Author / reviser
H. G. Keene; later editions revised / rewritten by E. A. Duncan.
Editions / publication details found
1874, revised edition, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co.; 160 pp.; illustrated; with plans.
1878, 4th ed., Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co.; described as considerably enlarged and improved.
1888, 5th ed.; 163 pp.; recorded under the series title Thacker’s handbooks of Hindostan.
1899, 6th ed.; 163 pp.
1909, 7th ed.; re-written and brought up to date by E. A. Duncan.
No. 2
Title
A Hand-book for Visitors to Dehli / Delhi and its Neighbourhood
Author / reviser
H. G. Keene; later edition revised / rewritten by E. A. Duncan.
Editions / publication details found
1874, 2nd edition, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co. Early records commonly use the spelling Dehli.
1882, 4th ed., Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co.; 80 pp.
1899, 5th ed.; 88 pp.; recorded under the series title Thacker’s handbooks of Hindostan.
1906, 6th ed.; re-written and brought up to date by E. A. Duncan; viii + 155 pp.; with map and six plans.
No. 3
Title
A Hand-book for Visitors to Lucknow; later A Handbook for Visitors to Lucknow, Allahabad, and Cawnpore; later Keene’s Handbook for Visitors: Allahabad, Cawnpore and Lucknow
Author / reviser
H. G. Keene.
Editions / publication details found
1875, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co.; also issued with Bombay and London Thacker imprints. The text indicates that the book was chiefly intended for visitors to Lucknow, with notes on Allahabad and Cawnpore.
1880, edition titled A Handbook for Visitors to Lucknow, Allahabad, and Cawnpore.
1896, 2nd ed. revised; adding a chapter on Benares; viii + 97 pp.; with maps.
Later publisher advertising lists the title as covering Allahabad, Cawnpore, Lucknow and Benares.
No. 4
Title
Thacker’s Guide Book to Darjeeling and its Neighbourhood
Author / reviser
Edmund Mitchell; 2nd edition by G. Hutton Taylor.
Editions / publication details found
1891, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co.; 144 pp.; frontispiece and folding maps. Catalogue records may misprint Darjeeling as Darjoeling and Spink as Sping.
1899, 2nd ed., by G. Hutton Taylor; Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co.; London: W. Thacker & Co.; 136 pp.; illustrations and maps.
The 1891 HathiTrust MARC record explicitly gives the series statement: Thacker’s handbooks of Hindostan.
Author: David Paul Wagner