Robert Bowes (publisher)

Last updated • 3 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Robert Bowes (born 22 August 1835, near Stewarton, Ayrshire, Scotland – died 9 February 1919, Park Terrace, Cambridge. England) was a Scottish bookseller and publisher. He is known for A Catalogue of Books Printed at or relating to the University, Town & County of Cambridge, from 1521 to 1893 : with Bibliographical and Biographical Notes 1891–1894 (praised by David McKitterick as "monumental and still unsuperseded"). [1]

Biography

Robert Bowes's mother was born Margaret Macmillan, an older sister of Daniel and Alexander Macmillan, the founders of Macmillan Publishers. At an early age Robert Bowes was sent to Cambridge, England to work in his uncles' business, which consisted of "bookselling, publishing, printing, and the supply of stationery". [1] In 1851 Bowes was an apprentice living in Cambridge with his uncle Alexander in the bookshop at 1 Trinity Street, [1] where books had been sold since 1581. [2] In its early years, the Macmillan business consisted mainly of academic books, with a few works of fiction — one major success was publication in 1855 of Charles Kingsley's Westward Ho! and another was publication in 1857 of Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days . [1]

In 1858 Bowes, his uncle Daniel having died in 1857, was sent by his uncle Alexander to London to take charge of the company's newly founded branch at 23 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden.

It was at this period that Alexander Macmillan began coming to London every Thursday to host his celebrated “tobacco parliaments”. Leading writers across many diverse fields – Alfred Tennyson, Herbert Spencer, T. H. Huxley, Francis Turner Palgrave, Coventry Patmore, Charles Kingsley, Thomas Hughes ... and others would gather for evening feasts of “talk, tobacco and tipple”. These were the brains behind the enduring Victorian success of Macmillan’s Magazine which commenced in 1859. [1]

By 1863 Alexander Macmillan moved to London, whilst Robert Bowes returned moved back to Cambridge to work at the Trinity Street bookshop. In April 1868 Bowes married Fanny Brimley (1831–1903), younger sister of Alexander Macmillan’s wife, Caroline. Fanny and Caroline were sisters of the essayist and literary critic George Brimley. Robert and Fanny Bowes had two daughters, Mabel Ethel (1869–1957) and Janet Mabel (1871–1944), and a son George Edmund (1874–1946). [1]

Bowes's mother Margaret, sister of Daniel and Alexander Macmillan, emigrated to America with her husband Robert Bowes Senior, and lived at Waltham, Illinois. After Robert Senior's death, she returned to live with her son at Cambridge, where she died in 1890. [3]

By 1881 Robert Bowes was a full partner in the Trinity Street bookshop. As a publisher, one of his noteworthy successes was James Kenneth Stephen's Lapsus Calami in 1891. After Bowes became a full partner, the bookshop was called "Macmillan & Bowes". His son George Edmund Brimley Bowes joined the Macmillan & Bowes firm in 1897 and became a partner in 1899. In 1907 the name of the business was changed from "Macmillan & Bowes" to "Bowes & Bowes". [1] Upon Robert Bowes's death in 1919, George Edmund Brimley Bowes, a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, became the head of Bowes & Bowes. [4] In 1953 the Bowes family sold the business to W H Smith. [1]

Robert Bowes was the president of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association in 1914; his son was the Association's president in 1923. [1]

The Bowes & Bowes archive, comprising early cash books, journals and letter-books, and a run of printed catalogues is preserved at the University of Reading. [1]

Robert Bowes, his wife and several other members of the Bowes family are buried in Mill Road Cemetery, Cambridge. [5]

Related Research Articles

Blackwell UK, also known as Blackwell's and Blackwell Group, is a British academic book retailer and library supply service owned by Waterstones. It was founded in 1879 by Benjamin Henry Blackwell, after whom the chain is named, on Broad Street, Oxford. The brand now has a chain of 18 shops, and an accounts and library supply service. It employs around 1000 staff in its divisions.

George Bell & Sons was an English book publishing house. It was based in London and existed from 1839 to 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bowes & Bowes</span> Former publisher in Cambridge, England

Bowes & Bowes was a bookselling and publishing company based in Cambridge, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander MacMillan (publisher)</span> Scottish cofounder of Macmillan Publishers

Alexander MacMillan, born in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, was a cofounder, in 1843, with his brother Daniel, of Macmillan Publishers in Covent Garden, London. His family were crofters from the Isle of Arran.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herman H. J. Lynge</span>

Herman Henrik Julius Lynge was a Danish antiquarian bookseller. He continued and owned the first antiquarian bookshop in Scandinavia, now “Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S”.

Charles Edwin George Bayntun, more commonly known as George Bayntun was an English bookseller, bookbinder, and collector.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trinity Street, Cambridge</span> Street in England

Trinity Street is a street in central Cambridge, England. The street continues north as St John's Street, and south as King's Parade and then Trumpington Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Mary's Street, Cambridge</span>

St Mary's Street is a historic street in the centre of the University area in Cambridge, England. The street links with the junction of King's Parade and Trinity Street to the west, along which many of the University's oldest colleges are to be found. To the east is Market Hill, the location of the city's Market Square. The street continues as Market Street.

Samuel Hale Parker (1781–1864) was a publisher and bookseller in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He published musical scores as well as novels, sermons, and other titles. He operated the Boston Circulating Library, and was among the founders of the Handel and Haydn Society.

Alexander William Crawford Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford, 8th Earl of Balcarres, styled Lord Lindsay between 1825 and 1869, was a Scottish peer, art historian and collector.

Edgar Smith Wigg was a South Australian bookseller and stationer, founder of the Adelaide firm E. S. Wigg & Son. It still operates under that name as of December 2020, with branches across Australia.

Diana Margaret Parikian was a British antiquarian bookseller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Dymock</span> Australian bookseller and publisher

William Dymock (1861–1900) was an Australian bookseller and publisher. He was the "first native-born Australian to launch and maintain a successful bookselling venture".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Robert Tyrrell</span> Australian bookseller, art dealer, publisher and author

James Robert Tyrrell was an Australian bookseller, art dealer, publisher and author. He enjoyed a career of seven decades in the booktrade and was esteemed in his era as the "doyen of Sydney booksellers". He wrote a standard history of early bookselling in Australia entitled Old Books, Old Friends, Old Sydney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Henry Spencer</span> Australian bookseller

Albert Henry Spencer, often referred to as A. H. Spencer, was an Australian bookseller. He was a specialist in antiquarian bookselling and Australiana and established the Hill of Content bookshop in Melbourne, one of that city's "finest bookshops". He has been called "one of the last links with an heroic age of Australian bookselling and collecting".

George Heywood Hill was a British bookseller, and the founder of the Mayfair bookshop Heywood Hill in 1936.

Walter Goldwater was an American antiquarian bookseller, who worked briefly at International Publishers before founding University Place Book Shop in Manhattan, part of "Book Row". He was also a co-founder and publisher of Dissent magazine and a noted tournament chess player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deighton, Bell, & Company</span> British bookshop and publishing house

Deighton, Bell, & Company was a British firm of booksellers and publishers located in Cambridge, England. It enjoyed a long and close association with the University of Cambridge. In 1978 it celebrated two centuries in the book business and, along with two other booksellers Heffers and Bowes & Bowes, the firm contributed to "making Cambridge a prestigious centre of bookselling".

Ernst Philip Goldschmidt (1887–1954) was a Viennese-born antiquarian bookseller, scholar and bibliophile. During his career he issued more than 100 "meticulously researched" and scholarly sales catalogues, which "set high standards" and many of which are now standard reference works in libraries. He also wrote books and articles about early books and manuscripts, including his Gothic and Renaissance Bookbindings (1928), which remains "one of the most important works on bookbinding history", and works on the relation of humanism to the spread of printing, which "broke new ground".

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Worms, Laurence (2012). "Robert Bowes". Antiquarian Booksellers Association.
  2. History of the Bookshop , Cambridge University Press.
  3. "Robert Bowes". Mackintosh Architecture.
  4. "Bowes, George Edmund Brimley (BWS892GE)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  5. "Fanny Brimley Bowes; George Brimley Bowes; Janet Mabel Bowes; Margaret Bowes; Robert Bowes; Margaret Ethel Hamilton; Christine Robinett". Mill Road Cemetery, Cambridge.