John Murray (publisher)

John Murray (1745–1793) was the founder of a British publishing house, renowned for the roster of authors it has published in its history, including Jane Austen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Byron, Charles Lyell, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Charles Darwin.

History

The business was founded in London in 1768 by John Murray I (1745–1793), an Edinburgh-born Royal Marines officer, who built up a list of authors including Isaac D'Israeli and published the "English Review".

John Murray the elder was one of the founding sponsors of the London evening newspaper "The Star" in 1788. [ [http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/encap/corvey/articles/database/star.html Cardiff University Corvey Articles] ]

He was succeeded by his son, John Murray II, who made the publishing house one of the most important and influential in Britain. He was a friend of many leading writers of the day and launched the "Quarterly Review" in 1809. He was the publisher of Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott, Washington Irving, George Crabbe and many others. His home and office at 50 Albemarle Street in Mayfair was the centre of a literary circle, fostered by Murray's tradition of "Four o'clock friends", afternoon tea with his writers.

Murray's most notable author was Lord Byron, who became a close friend and correspondent of his. Murray published many of his major works, paying him over £20,000 in rights. On 10 March 1812 Murray published Byron's second book, "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage", which sold out in five days, leading to Byron's observation "I awoke one morning and found myself famous".

On 17 May 1824 Murray participated in one of the most notorious acts in the annals of literature. Byron had given him the manuscript of his personal memoirs to publish later on. Together with five of Byron's friends and executors, he decided to destroy Byron's manuscripts because he though the scandalous details would damage Byron's reputation. Opposed only by Thomas Moore, the two volumes of memoirs were dismembered and burnt in the fireplace at Murray's office. ("Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame", page 3, Benita Eisler) Unfortunately we do not know what was contained in the memoirs. They would have provided valuable information on how the poet thought and on his poetry in addition to his life.

John Murray III (1808–1892) continued the business and published Charles Eastlake's first English translation of Goethe's Theory of Colours (1840), David Livingstone's "Missionary Travels" (1857), and Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species" (1859).

His successor Sir John Murray IV (1851–1928) was publisher to Queen Victoria. Among other works, he published Murray's Magazine from 1887 through 1891.

His son Sir John Murray V (1884–1967), John Murray VI (John Arnaud Robin Grey Murray) and John Murray VII continued the business until it was taken over. John Murray is no longer an independent business, but the name survives as a subdivision of publisher Hodder Headline.

John Murray archive

The archive of John Murray Publishers, from 1768 through to 1920, was offered for sale to the nation by John Murray VII for £31 million and the National Library of Scotland has acquired it, including the manuscript of Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species". On 26 January 2005, it was announced that the National Library was to be given £17.7m by the Heritage Lottery Fund towards the £31.2m price offered by John Murray (on condition the library digitise the materials and make them openly available). The Scottish Executive agreed to make a contribution of £8.3m, with the National Library setting a £6.5m fundraising target for the remainder. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6586205.stm "Stars back literary archive plans"] , BBC News website, accessed 24 April, 2007] [ [http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2006/03/28092520 "John Murray Archive unwrapped"] , Scottish Executive website, accessed 25 April, 2007] [ [http://www.nls.uk/jma/about.html "About the John Murray Archive"] , National Library of Scotland website, accessed 25 April 2007] [ [http://www.nls.uk/jma/mss/search/index.cfm "John Murray Archive Catalogue"] , National Library of Scotland website, accessed 27 April 2007] [ [http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1828112006 "Pages from history"] , Scotsman.com, accessed 27 April 2007]

Further reading

* William Zachs - "The First John Murray and the Late Eighteenth-Century London Book Trade" (1998) ISBN 0-19-726191-4

References

External links

* [http://www.johnmurray.co.uk/ John Murray imprint]
* [http://www.nls.uk/jma/index.html National Library of Scotland - John Murray archive]
* (the work is actually a new-release catalogue from 1890)
* [http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/ Darwin Project] , a project to publish all of the correspondence of Charles Darwin, including his correspondence with Murray.