The Charleston Advisor / October 2020
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ADVISOR REVIEWS—STANDARD REVIEW
Nineteenth Century Literary Society: The John Murray Publishing Archive doi:10.5260/chara.22.2.39
Date of Review: June 15, 2020
Composite Score: HHHH 1/2 Reviewed by: Marisa Scigliano Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Abstract Nineteenth Century Literary Society is drawn from archive of the House of John Murray publishing company, held by the National Library of Scotland. The family-run firm, with Scottish roots, spanned seven generations and flourished in London from 1768 until 2002. John Murray is especially remarkable for publishing seminal English-language works of the 19th century, including those by Charles Darwin, David Livingstone, Charles Lyell, and Samuel Smiles, the father of self-help. The largest collection of Lord Byron’s private writings and manuscripts, assembled by the publisher, form a large part of the resource. Women writers feature prominently in the John Murray’s collection, including Jane Austen, Isabella Bird, Elizabeth Eastlake, and Caroline Lamb.
Pricing Nineteenth Century Literary Society is available for perpetual access or by subscription. Pricing is determined by a range of factors, including Carnegie Classification and full-time enrollment. Pricing is available by contacting the publisher.
Overview Nineteenth Century Literary Society (NCLS) is the archival collection of the House of John Murray publishers, held by the National Library of Scotland. The family-run publisher, spanning seven generations, was established in London in 1768 and stayed in family hands until 2002. John Murray’s establishment at 50 Albemarle Street in London was a hub of erudite nineteenth century society where the Four-o-Clock Friends convened, counting among its members Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott, and Isaac Disraeli. In addition to publishing books, John Murray extended his reach by establishing the influential Quarterly Review (1809-1967) as a Tory rival to the Whig Edinburgh Review (1802-1929). At the time the business was sold, it was the oldest independent family-run publishing house in the world. The family maintained ownership of the archival collection, housed at 50 Albemarle in London. The publisher offered the archive to the National Library of Scotland, as the family had ties to Scotland. The bulk of NCLS are materials from the legacies of John Murray II (1778-1843) and John Murray III (1808-1892). An important and influential establishment in the literary life, particularly during the nineteenth century, during its existence the proprietors maintained meticulous records of the firm’s activities and all manner of correspondence, while building relationships with some of the greatest minds in the English-speaking world. For these reasons and more, this resource provides exceptional insight into book publishing and the corollary intellectual life of nineteenth century Britain.
<mscigliano@trentu.ca>
The digital resource has 1,400 items representing almost 250,000 digitized images. Where exclusions have been made from the print archival collection, this is due to specific collection criteria <http:// www.nineteenthcenturyliterarysociety.amdigital.co.uk/Introduction/ SelectionCriteria>. A full contents list with library collection name and National Library of Scotland manuscript number is available for download from the supporting materials link <https://www.amdigital.co.uk/primary-sources/nineteenth-century-literary-society>. This support tool can be especially useful before undertaking any research, as it may be worthwhile to scan the list for an insight of the scope of the collection. Discovery for each item is supported by extensive metadata in NCLS. Among the collection are documents that record firm’s daily operations such as sets of correspondence between author and publisher, ledgers, cash books, manuscripts, advertisements, photographs, illustrations, sales catalogues, and records of stock and inventory. There are also annotated drafts and corrected proofs as well as notes and revisions for new editions. Authors’ agreements with the publisher service as evidence of John Murray’s significant contribution to the establishment of copyright protection in the nineteenth century. Lord Byron’s papers, the largest surviving collection of his private writings and published works, feature prominently. Although John Murray II and Lord Byron may have had a sometime thorny relationship, the publisher held the copyrights for Byron’s works as well as his personal archive. NCLS unlocks the door to the evolution of works that are seminal to understanding of the modern thought through science and exploration. To great commercial success, John Murray II published the writings of mathematician and astronomer Mary Somerville. The Arctic expeditions of Sir John Franklin captivated readers in the 1820s. In the 1830s, John Murray published the influential three volume set Principles of Geology by Charles Lyell. In the next decade, the publisher issued the first of a number of works by Henry Austen Layard, documenting archaeological excavations of palaces of ancient Assyria, most notably the lavishly illustrated two-volume publication Nineveh and its Remains. The 1850s was a particularly important decade for publishing in the sciences as John Murray III oversaw the publication of David Livingstone’s Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa in 1857 and Charles Darwin’s “big book” On the Origin of the Species by Natural Selection in 1859. An excellent primary resource for the study of women authors of the nineteenth century, NCLS includes materials related to novelist Jane Austen, writer and social advocate Caroline Norton, and Caroline Lamb. John Murray capitalized on the popularity of domestic arts by publishing the work of Maria Rundell, author of A New System of Domestic Cookery. Travel literature figures prominently, with exciting
