Murray, JOHN

Murray, JOHN, the name of four generations of English publishers, will for ever remain associated with the palmiest days of English literature in the 18th and 19th centuries. The founder of the house, John M'Murray, was born in Edinburgh in 1745. He obtained a commission in the Royal Marines in 1762, and in 1768 was still second-lieutenant, when, disgusted with the slowness of promotion, he purchased the bookselling business of Paul Sandby, 32 Fleet Street, London, and, dropping the Scottish prefix, became a bookseller and publisher. He brought out the English Review, and published the first two volumes of the elder Disraeli's Curiosities of Literature, &c. He died November 16, 1793, and was succeeded in due time by his son JOHN (born November 27, 1778), a minor of fifteen at his father's death, who was for a short time associated as partner with his father's shopman, Mr Highley. One of the earliest hits of John the second was Mrs Rundell's Cookery-book, of which over 300,000 copies were sold. He became connected with Mr Stratford Canning, afterwards Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, through the assistance he lent him and other Etonians with their publication of The Miniature. In 1808-9 he projected the Quarterly Review, a Tory organ, in opposition to the Whig Edinburgh Review; his first step being to obtain Canning's countenance. A severe criticism of Scott's Marmion in the Edinburgh Review suggested to Murray a visit to Scott; he secured his co-operation, as also that of Heber, Canning, George Ellis, and Sir John Barrow. The first number was published February 1, 1809, under the editorship of William Gifford. The new periodical was completely successful, attaining a circulation of 18,000 copies, and brought Murray into communication not only with the chief literati, but also with the Conservative statesmen of the time. A still more fortunate connection was that with Lord Byron (1810), whom he offered £600 for the first two cantos of Childe Harold (published 1812). Murray now removed from Fleet Street to Albemarle Street, where the business is still carried on. Here Byron and Scott first met, and here Southeby made the acquaintance of Crabbe. Almost all the literary magnates of the day were 'four o'clock visitors' in Albemarle Street—'wits and bards; Crabbes, Campbells, Crokers, Freres, and Wards.' Murray paid Byron nearly £20,000 for his works, and his dealings with Crabbe, Moore, Campbell, and Irving were princely. He had at one time dealings with Constable and Ballantyne, but never approved of their methods of business. Hearing that Byron was in difficulties in 1815, he sent him a cheque for £1500, promised another for the same amount, and even offered to sell the copyright of his works on his behalf if necessary. (As to Byron's autobiography, see BYRON, Vol. II. p. 598). Perhaps his only unsuccessful venture was the Representative (1826) newspaper; his 'Family Library' was begun in 1829, and he issued the travels of Mungo Park, Belzoni, Parry, Franklin, and others. The second John Murray died in his sixty-fifth year, June 27, 1843, and was succeeded by his son, JOHN MURRAY the third, born in 1808, and educated at the Charterhouse and at Edinburgh University. A more practical and realistic age had succeeded that of Byron, and the 'Home and Colonial Library' was the precursor of much of the cheap railway and other literature of the present day. Many of the greatest works in history, biography, travel, art, and science have been issued by the third Murray. Among his successes may be mentioned Dr Livingstone's Travels and Last Journals, Smiles's Life of George Stephenson, Self-help, of which more than 150,000 have been sold, Darwin's works, Dr Smith's dictionaries, and the well-known Handbooks for Travellers (begun 1836; see GUIDEBOOKS), of the first five of which he was author. He died April 2, 1892, when his son, the fourth JOHN MURRAY, became head of the firm. See S. Smiles, A Publisher and his Friends (1891).