The two years after the liberation of Paris were a period of strikes, civil unrest, and of shortages, especially of food and fuel, exacerbated by two exceptionally cold winters; conditions that were hardly conducive to the publication of large, expensive luxury books. Yet they were published, requiring skilled printers, supplies of fine, often handmade papers, funds to finance publication, and readers with money to buy them. Fine books had also been produced during the Occupation, to raise money for good causes, indicating that the practice of fine printing in France managed to survive throughout the years of the War, leaving everything in place for a flowering of fine printing after the Liberation and the end of censorship.