John Murray (publishing house)

Last updated

John Murray
John-Murray-logo.png
Parent company Hachette UK (brand under Lagardère Group)
Statusactive
Founded1768;256 years ago (1768)
FounderJohn Murray
Country of originScotland
Headquarters locationLondon, England
Publication typesBooks
Official website www.johnmurray.co.uk

John Murray is a Scottish publisher, known for the authors it has published in its long history including Jane Austen, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Byron, Charles Lyell, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Herman Melville, Edward Whymper, Thomas Robert Malthus, David Ricardo, and Charles Darwin. Since 2004, it has been owned by conglomerate Lagardère under the Hachette UK brand.

Contents

History

John Murray (1745-1793), the eponymous founder of the publishing house Murray John First.jpg
John Murray (1745–1793), the eponymous founder of the publishing house

The business was founded in London, England, in 1768 by John Murray (1737–1793), [1] an Edinburgh-born Royal Marines officer, who built up a list of authors including Isaac D'Israeli and published the English Review . [2]

John Murray the elder was one of the founding sponsors of the London evening newspaper The Star in 1788. [3]

John Murray II John Murray b1788.jpg
John Murray II

He was succeeded by his son John Murray II, who made the publishing house important and influential. 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, Mary Somerville and many others. Murray's 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 thought the scandalous details would damage Byron's reputation. With only Thomas Moore objecting, the two volumes of memoirs were dismembered and burnt in the fireplace at Murray's office. [4] It remains unknown what they contained.

John Murray III John Murray III.jpg
John Murray III

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). Murray III contracted with Herman Melville to publish Melville's first two books, Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847) in England; both books were presented as nonfiction travel narratives in Murray's Home and Colonial Library series, alongside such works as the 1845 second edition of Darwin's Journal of Researches from his travels on HMS Beagle. [5] John Murray III also started the Murray Handbooks in 1836, a series of travel guides from which modern-day guides are directly descended. The rights to these guides were sold around 1900 and subsequently acquired in 1915 by the Blue Guides.

John Murray IV John Murray IV (1851-1928).png
John Murray IV

His successor Sir John Murray IV (1851–1928) was publisher to Queen Victoria. Among other works, he published Murray's Magazine from 1887 until 1891. From 1904, he published the Wisdom of the East book series. [6] Competitor Smith, Elder & Co. was acquired in 1917.

His son Sir John Murray V (1884–1967), grandson John Murray VI (John Arnaud Robin Grey Murray, known as Jock Murray; 1909–1993) [7] [8] and great-grandson John Murray VII (John Richmond Grey Murray; 1941–) continued the business until it was taken over.

In 2002, John Murray was acquired by Hodder Headline, which was itself acquired in 2004 by the French conglomerate Lagardère Group. Since then, it has been an imprint under Lagardère brand Hachette UK. [9]

In 2015, business publisher Nicholas Brealey became an imprint of John Murray. [10]

John Murray archive

The John Murray Archive was offered for sale to the nation by John Murray VII for £31 million and the National Library of Scotland 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 available. The Scottish Government agreed to contribute £8.3m, with the Library setting a £6.5m fundraising target for the remainder. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

John Murray timeline

Film adaptations of John Murray titles

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Booker Prize</span> British literary award established in 1969

The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, which was published in the United Kingdom and/or Ireland. The winner of the Booker Prize receives £50,000, as well as international publicity that usually leads to a significant sales boost. When the prize was created, only novels written by Commonwealth, Irish, and South African citizens were eligible to receive the prize; in 2014, eligibility was widened to any English-language novel—a change that proved controversial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian Rankin</span> Scottish writer

Sir Ian James Rankin is a Scottish crime writer and philanthropist, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Booker Prize</span> International literary award

The International Booker Prize is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. The introduction of the International Prize to complement the Man Booker Prize, as the Booker Prize was then known, was announced in June 2004. Sponsored by the Man Group, from 2005 until 2015 the award was given every two years to a living author of any nationality for a body of work published in English or generally available in English translation. It rewarded one author's "continued creativity, development and overall contribution to fiction on the world stage", and was a recognition of the writer's body of work rather than any one title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Edward Mudie</span> English publisher

Charles Edward Mudie , English publisher and founder of Mudie's Lending Library and Mudie's Subscription Library, was the son of a second-hand bookseller and newsagent. Mudie's efficient distribution system and vast supply of texts revolutionized the circulating library movement, while his "select" library influenced Victorian middle-class values and the structure of the three-volume novel. He was also the first publisher of James Russell Lowell's poems in England, and of Emerson's Man Thinking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Murray (publisher, born 1778)</span> Scottish publisher, member of the John Murray publishing house (1778–1843)

John Murray was a Scottish publisher and member of the John Murray publishing house. He published works by authors such as Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Jane Austen and Maria Rundell.

Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.

The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) is a specialist authors' organisation in the United Kingdom, most notable for its "Dagger" awards for the best crime writing of the year, and the Diamond Dagger awarded to an author for lifetime achievement. The Association also promotes crime writing of fiction and non-fiction by holding annual competitions, publicising literary festivals and establishing links with libraries, booksellers and other writer organisations, both in the UK such as the Society of Authors, and overseas. The CWA enables members to network at its annual conference and through its regional chapters as well as through dedicated social media channels and private website. Members' events and general news items are published on the CWA website, which also features Find An Author, where CWA members are listed and information provided about themselves, their books and their awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lloyd Jones (New Zealand author)</span> New Zealand writer

Lloyd David Jones is a New Zealand author. His novel Mister Pip (2006) won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Liza Cody is an English crime fiction writer.

Oneworld Publications is a British independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Novin Doostdar and Juliet Mabey originally to publish accessible non-fiction by experts and academics for the general market. Based in London, it later added a literary fiction list and both a children's list and an upmarket crime list, and now publishes across a wide range of subjects, including history, politics, current affairs, popular science, religion, philosophy, and psychology, as well as literary fiction, crime fiction and suspense, and children's titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George G. Harrap and Co.</span> British publisher

George G. Harrap, Ltd was a publisher of speciality books, many of them educational, such as the memoirs of Winston Churchill, or highly illustrated with line drawings, engravings or etchings, such as the much republished classic educational children's book The Cave Boy of the Age of Stone from at least 1901 into the 1980s.

Publishers of English classics for the educational trade, Harrap was also known for publishing finely illustrated books by Rackham, Gooden, and others, and as the publisher of Winston Churchill.

Anuradha Roy is an Indian novelist, journalist and editor. She has written five novels: An Atlas of Impossible Longing (2008), The Folded Earth (2011), Sleeping on Jupiter (2015), All the Lives We Never Lived (2018), and The Earthspinner (2021).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Lynch (writer)</span> Irish writer (born 1977)

Paul Lynch is an Irish novelist known for his poetic, lyrical style and exploration of complex themes. He has published five novels and has won several awards, including the 2018 Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award and the 2023 Booker Prize, for Prophet Song.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 Booker Prize</span> British literary award given in 2020

The 2020 Booker Prize for Fiction was announced on 19 November 2020. The Booker longlist of 13 books was announced on 27 July, and was narrowed down to a shortlist of six on 15 September. The Prize was awarded to Douglas Stuart for his debut novel, Shuggie Bain, receiving £50,000. Stuart is the second Scottish author to win the Booker Prize, after it was awarded to James Kelman for How Late It Was, How Late in 1994. The ceremony was hosted by John Wilson at the Roundhouse in Central London, and broadcast by the BBC. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the shortlisted authors and guest speakers appeared virtually from their respective homes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The John Murray Archive</span>

The John Murray Archive is a collection of 234 years' worth of manuscripts, private letters, and business papers from various notable, mostly British, authors including correspondence between Mary Shelley and Lord Byron, and letters of Jane Austen and Charles Darwin. The Archive consists of over a million items, valued at more than £100 million, and is kept at the National Library of Scotland (NLS) in Edinburgh, Scotland.

<i>Sleeping on Jupiter</i> Novel by Anuradha Roy

Sleeping on Jupiter is a novel by Anuradha Roy. It is her third novel and was published by Hachette India on 15 April 2015. It was longlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the 2015 The Hindu Literary Prize. It won the 2016 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Booker Prize</span> British literary award given in 2022

The Booker Prize is a literary award given for the best English novel of the year. The 2022 award was announced on 17 October 2022, during a ceremony hosted by Sophie Duker at the Roundhouse in London. The longlist was announced on 26 July 2022. The shortlist was announced on 6 September. Leila Mottley, at 20, was the youngest longlisted writer to date, and Alan Garner, at 87, the oldest. The majority of the 13 titles were from independent publishers. The prize was awarded to Shehan Karunatilaka for his novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, receiving £50,000. He is the second Sri Lankan to win the prize, after Michael Ondaatje.

Sarah Bernstein is a Canadian writer and scholar. She was born in Montreal, Quebec, and now lives in Scotland where she teaches literature and creative writing. She has taught at the universities of Sheffield, Edinburgh and Strathclyde.

References

  1. Zachs, William (1998). The First John Murray and the Late Eighteenth-Century Book Trade. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp.  7. ISBN   0-19-726191-4.
  2. Nichols, John Treadwell (1812). "(Printers and booksellers)". Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century. Vol. 3. London: Printed for the author, by Nichols, Son, and Bentley. OCLC   1138961.
  3. Belanger, Jacqueline; Peter Garside; Anthony Mandal; Sharon Ragaz (4 January 2003). "British Fiction, 1800–1829: A Database Of Production And Reception, Phase Ii: Advertisements For Novels In 'The Star', 1815–1824". Cardiff Corvey: Reading the Romantic Text. ISSN   1471-5988 . Retrieved 23 September 2011.
  4. Eisler, Benita. Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame, page 3.
  5. Hershel Parker, Herman Melville: A Biography; Volume 1, 1819–1851, (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), 392, 482–84, 508–10.
  6. Wisdom of the East Series, seriesofseries.com. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  7. Leigh Fermor, Patrick (23 July 1993). "Obituary: Jock Murray". The Independent. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
  8. Murphy, Dervla (8 April 2019). "Jock Murray – A Scholar and a Gentleman". The Oldie. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
  9. Hachette UK (2008). "Corporate History Highlights". Hachette UK. Hachette UK. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
  10. "Hachette UK buys Nicholas Brealey".
  11. "Stars back literary archive plans". BBC News. 24 April 2007. Retrieved 24 April 2007.
  12. "John Murray Archive unwrapped". Scottish Executive website. Retrieved 25 April 2007.
  13. "About the John Murray Archive". National Library of Scotland. Archived from the original on 11 June 2007. Retrieved 25 April 2007.
  14. "John Murray Archive Catalogue". National Library of Scotland. Archived from the original on 11 June 2007. Retrieved 27 April 2007.
  15. "Pages from history". Scotsman.com . Retrieved 27 April 2007.
  16. "Maria Rundell". (Persephone Books information page)
  17. "Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology". British Library. Archived from the original on 19 April 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2021. ( OCLC   8990449(all editions))
  18. Cunningham, Joseph Davy (1849). A History of the Sikhs: From the Origin of the Nation to the Battles of the Sutlej. John Murray.
  19. Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries; and of the Discovery of the Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa. 1858–1864 (PDF)
  20. "An etymological dictionary of modern English". archive.org. 1921.
  21. "Heat and Dust | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  22. Laing, Olivia (7 July 2007). "Review: Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  23. "Mister Pip | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  24. "Sea of Poppies | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  25. "Category List – Best Novel | Edgars Database" . Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  26. "Icelight — The Crime Writers' Association". thecwa.co.uk. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  27. Wood, Heloise (18 January 2022). "John Murray's new crime imprint Baskerville launches with Herron and Boyle". The Bookseller . Retrieved 31 December 2022.

Further reading