Smith, Elder & Co.

Smith, Elder & Co. was a firm of British publishers who were most noted for the works they published in the 19th century.

The firm was founded by George Smith (1789–1846) and Alexander Elder (1790–1876) and successfully continued by George Murray Smith (1824–1901).

They are notable for producing the first edition of the "Dictionary of National Biography" (DNB).

The firm achieved its first major success with the publication of Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" in 1847, under the pseudonym of "Currer Bell." Other major authors published by the firm' included Robert Browning, George Eliot, Mrs Gaskell, Thomas Hardy, Richard Jefferies, George MacDonald, Charles Reade, John Ruskin, Algernon Swinburne, Alfred Tennyson and George Gissing. [ see ODNB article of 15 pages: Bill Bell, "Smith, George Murray (1824–1901)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36138, accessed 27 June 2006] ]

Books published by Smith, Elder & Co.

* "Morocco in Diplomacy" by Edmund Dene Morel, 1912

References