John Murray

A Publisher and His Friends: Samuel Smiles John Murray

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 whole, has corrected errors, and has rewritten certain passages in a more concise form. I desire to acknowledge my debt to him for what he has done, and to express a hope that the public may extend a fresh welcome to "an old friend with a new face."