Andrew Melrose

Andrew Melrose (died 6 November, 1928 ["Times" obituary] ) was a British publisher associated with the Sunday School Union in the late 19th - early 20th century. Much of his early career was spent at the Ludgate Hill offices of the Sunday School Union, where he edited and contributed to the "Sunday School Chronicle". ["Times" obituary] He began publishing under his own name around 1899 in York Street, Covent Garden, finally moving to an address next door to Macmillan in St. Martin Street, Leicester Square. Among the writers he encouraged and published was W.E. Cule, a friend and colleague from the Sunday School Union. He published and contributed to a weekly paper "Boys of the Empire" (1901-1903), edited by Howard H Spicer. According to a reference in the "Australian Dictionary of Biography" [ [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/AS10066b.htm Buley, Ernest Charles (1869 - 1933) Biographical Entry - Australian Dictionary of Biography Online ] ] Andrew Melrose founded a movement called the Boys' Empire League.

Melrose was described as "an extremely shrewd, somewhat dour Scotsman, possessing a keen sense of literary values". He was one of the pioneers of offering money prizes to aspiring authors. He published Caradoc Evans's inflammatory "My People" (1915). He was also responsible for introducing David Grayson to English readers, but the book on which he chiefly prided himself was "The House with the Green Shutters" by George Douglas Brown. While he was still connected with the Sunday School Union, he inspired Brown to write his grim story of a Scottish village. In the following year, Brown died in his arms at Melrose's house in Hornsey. Melrose published a memorial edition of Brown's "House with the Green Shutters" in 1923 and subsequently unveiled a memorial to the author in his Ayrshire birthplace. ["Times" obituary]

Under the pseudonym A.E.Macdonald, Melrose wrote popular biographies of Alexander Mackay, missionary hero of Uganda,William Gladstone and Henry Morton Stanley. [COPAC]

In 1927 Melrose's publishing business was taken over by the Hutchinson group and became known as Andrew Melrose Limited ["Times" obituary] . It published religious and general titles and the imprint lasted until the mid-1950s. Melrose's son Douglas Melrose, who was associated with his father's business, founded the publishing firm of Melrose and Co. of St. Martin's Lane.

References

*Obituary, "The Times", 7 November 1928