Longmans, a well-known firm of London publishers, whose name has been associated with high-class literature for five generations. Thomas Longman (1699-1755), descended from a line of Bristol merchants, was bound apprentice to John Osborne, bookseller, Lombard Street, whose daughter he married. The earliest title-page bearing the imprint of T. Longman is the Countess of Moreton's Daily Exercise (1665). The name of T. Osborne also appears on the title. Longman bought the business of William Taylor, publisher of Robinson Crusoe, conducted in Paternoster Row, and in 1726 moved there, the present site of the firm. As was the custom at that time, the first Longman held shares in many important publications, such as Boyle's Works, Ainsworth's Latin Dictionary, the Cyclopædia of Ephraim Chambers, and Johnson's Dictionary. His nephew and successor Thomas Longman (1731-97) brought out a new edition of Chambers's Cyclopædia. Under Thomas Norton Longman (1771-1842) the firm reached a high point of literary and commercial success, and from time to time fresh blood was introduced in the partners, Messrs Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Roberts. When the government was about to impose an additional duty on paper, subsequent to that of 1794, the Longman firm used such arguments as averted that calamity. At that time the house had nearly £100,000 sunk in various schemes. Lindley Murray's Grammar was a good property, while the firm had a literary connection with Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, Scott, Moore (who received £3000 for Lalla Rookh),
Sydney Smith, and others. Byron's English Bards was rejected because of its severe handling of the Lake poets, whose works were issued by Longman. After Constable's (q.v.) failure in 1826 the Edinburgh Review became the property of the firm. Some of the foremost authors of the day were contributors to Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia (1829-46) in 132 volumes. The next guiding spirits of the firm were Thomas Longman (1804-79), eldest son of T. N. Longman, who issued under his special care a beautifully-illustrated New Testament, and William Longman (1813-77), the third son. The latter figured as an author and historian, and printed privately a Six Weeks' Tour in Switzerland, contributed to the Alpine Journal, was a president of the Alpine Club, and wrote Lectures on the History of England (1859), History of the Life and Times of Edward III. (1869), and History of the Three Cathedrals of St Paul (1873). The event of this generation was the publication in succession of Macaulay's Lays (1842) and Essays (1843), and History. The famous cheque for £20,000 paid to Macaulay 'on account' of his share of the profits of the third and fourth volumes for the first few months (1855) is still preserved. The absorption of the stock-in-trade and business connection of the Parkers in 1863 introduced the works of J. S. Mill, Froude, and Sir Cornewall Lewis. The Traveller's Library was an excellent cheap series. The partners of the fifth generation are now Thomas Norton Longman and George Henry Longman, sons of Thomas Longman, and Charles James Longman and H. H. Longman, sons of William Longman. One of the earliest ventures of this generation was Lord Beaconsfield's Endymion, for which they gave the author £10,000. Lord Beaconsfield's other works had come into possession of the firm in 1870, when they published Lothair. Since the stoppage of Fraser's Magazine a sixpenny magazine has been published by the house—Longmans. A partner, Thomas Brown, left in 1869 £10,000 each to the Booksellers' Provident Retreat and Institution, in which the firm has since been much interested. In 1890 Rivington's business and stock was bought by the Longmans. Rivington's was the only business which exceeded that of the Longmans in antiquity, and by this purchase a friendly rivalry of over 150 years came to an end.