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Title: A Publisher and His Friends
Memoir and Correspondence of John Murray; With an
Account of the Origin and Progress of the House, 1768-1843
Author: Samuel Smiles
Release Date: January 31, 2004 [EBook #10884]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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A PUBLISHER AND HIS FRIENDS
MEMOIR AND CORRESPONDENCE OF JOHN MURRAY
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE HOUSE, 1768-1843
BY THE LATE SAMUEL SMILES, LL.D.
CONDENSED AND EDITED BY THOMAS MACKAY
_WITH PORTRAITS_
1911
PREFACE
When my Grandfather's Memoirs were published, twenty years ago, they met
with a most favourable and gratifying reception at the hands of the
public. Interest was aroused by the struggle and success of a man who
had few advantages at the outset save his own shrewd sense and generous
nature, and who, moreover, was thrown on his own resources to fight the
battle of life when he was little more than a child.
The chief value of these volumes, however, consists in the fact that
they supply an important, if not an indispensable, chapter in the
literary history of England during the first half of the nineteenth
century. Byron and Scott, Lockhart, Croker, George Borrow, Hallam,
Canning, Gifford, Disraeli, Southey, Milman are but a few of the names
occurring in these pages, the whole list of which it would be tedious to
enumerate.
It may be admitted that a pious desire to do justice to the memory of
John Murray the Second--"the Anax of Publishers," as Byron called
him--led to the inclusion in the original volumes of some material of
minor importance which may now well be dispensed with.
I find, however, that the work is still so often quoted and referred to
that I have asked my friend Mr. Thomas Mackay to prepare a new edition
for the press. I am convinced that the way in which he has discharged
his task will commend itself to the reading public. He has condensed the
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