Why would the publisher of a long-established series of well-regarded scholarly monographs with a strong series identity and an elegant design decide to close the imprint down? Why, in order to "eliminate confusion in the marketplace", of course. The Clarendon Press, an imprint of Oxford University Press, has been the name on the title-pages of scholarly monographs and editions at least since the First World War; Clarendon titles are readily recognizable by their subdued typographical design and high standard of presentation; above all, Clarendon titles do not have to struggle for a place in the market; they are published in a dignified manner, and they stay in print, the way books used to. There is no place for such volumes in modern publishing. Oxford University Press has decided to "phase out" the Clarendon Press, and, perhaps alarmed by the amount of bad publicity it has had over its recent decision to discontinue its poetry list, it has announced this quietly, almost privately, while claiming that it is hardly doing anything at all. A written statement from Caroline Pailing, OUP's Group Public Affairs Manager, may reassure those who see the action as the worrying removal of an academic imprint:

The phasing out of the Clarendon Press imprint is the dropping of an anachronistic title only and betokens no diminishing commitment to our core scholarly purpose. We are continuing and strengthening our distinguished scholarly publishing programme through a closer association with the Oxford imprint.

Pailing further claims that the decision will "reinforce the value of the Oxford imprint as a guarantee of academic excellence".

Last week, an informal poll of academics - including some past and potential Clarendon authors - revealed that many were not entirely clear about what made a book a Clarendon rather than an OUP publication. However, while nearly all of those asked recognized the Clarendon imprint, few had a good word to say about OUP's editorial and production standards in general. The half-promise that books which would formerly have been Clarendon Press titles would now be published by Oxford should be looked at carefully. Will the publisher which has described Clarendon Press as anachronistic be committed to its products? It is hard to imagine the OUP publicity department getting wholeheartedly behind A Critical Difference: T. S. Eliot and John Middleton Murry in English Literary Criticism, 1919-1928 by David Goldie or Community and Clientele in Twelfth-century Tuscany: The origins of the rural commune in the plain of Lucca by Chris Wickham. One might even go so far as to say that it was the very unmarketability of Clarendon books - clearly the reason behind Oxford's decision - that was their strength. The fate of that once satisfying list "Oxford World's Classics" is instructive. Described as a "major hard cover publishing event" and given introductory essays, these texts are now appearing in new covers under the slogan: "Great Writers on Great Writing".

What is likely to be one of the last poetry titles to be published by OUP, Peter Porter's Collected Poems 1961-1999, will be published on February 16, the poet's seventieth birthday, and launched at the Australian High Commission. Before that, Peter Porter, James Fenton, Tom Paulin, Hugo Williams et al will be giving readings of poetry - their own and others' - from the Oxford list on February 3 at 7.30 pm in Freud's, Walton Street, Oxford. Tickets for the event in this cavernous student wine bar are sold out, but a small crowd on the pavement outside might impress the Delegates.

Click for the next item in Oxford's 1999 poetry fiasco.