Simpkin & Marshall

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Simpkin & Marshall was a British bookseller, wholesaler and publisher. The firm was founded in 1819 and traded until the 1940s. [1] For many decades the firm was Britain's largest book wholesaler [2] and a respected family-owned company, [3] but it was acquired by the media proprietor Robert Maxwell and went bankrupt in 1954, an event which, according to Lionel Leventhal, "sounded a warning to the book trade about Captain Robert Maxwell's way of doing business". [4]

Contents

19th century

In the years just before 1814 Benjamin Crosby and two assistants, William Simpkin (whose daughter married the publisher Henry George Bohn) [5] and Richard Marshall, ran a firm "supplying provincial firms with books and acting as an agent for their publications". [2] Following Crosby's illness with paralysis in 1814, the firm became known as Simpkin and Marshall. [2]

In 1828 the firm changed its name to Simpkin, Marshall & Co. and in 1837 it was based at Stationers' Hall Court, London. The firm became the largest book wholesaler in the United Kingdom. [2]

In 1889 the three firms, Simpkin, Marshall & Co. Hamilton, Adams & Co., and W. Kent & Co., merged to form Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. The firm was, however, still generally referred to by the general public as Simpkin & Marshall. By 1900 the firm enjoyed "almost monopoly status as a book wholesaler". [2]

As a book publisher Simpkin & Marshall was a generalist, with numerous fiction and nonfiction titles. In the second half of the nineteenth century it published many yellowback and paperback books, including the series "The Run and Read Library", [6] the "Bristol Library" and "almost all of the novels" of the popular Victorian novelist Mary E. Braddon. [2] [7]

Acquisition by Robert Maxwell

In the early 1950s Simpkin Marshall, as the firm was then commonly known, was a book wholesaler with debts of $A575,000. [8] Robert Maxwell purchased it for the sum of $A115,000 [8] and it continued to operate as a publishing warehouse company and a wholesale book distribution company within his business empire. [9] He used the company to raise funds, on which it paid interest, but then made generous interest-free loans to his private companies. In four years, he "ran the company into the ground". [8] According to Edward Pearce, Maxwell had used the "high reputation of the old-fashioned family company he had taken over... for purposes of predatory credit". [3] Simpkin, Marshall was declared insolvent in 1954 [10] and its assets and good will were purchased by Hatchards. [11]

Book series

Book series published by Simpkin & Marshall and by Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. included:

Series jointly published with other publishers

References

  1. ↑ Simpkin & Marshall, britishmuseum.org. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Chester W, Topp, Victorian Yellowbacks & Paperbacks, 1849-1905, Volume VIII, Denver, Colorado: The Heritage Antiquarian Bookshop, 2008, pp. xi-xii.
  3. 1 2 Edward Pearce, "Trading as: self-employed or New Age serf?", The Guardian , 6 August 1994, p. 25.
  4. ↑ Leventhal, Lionel (12 August 2004). "Bookselling can kill you". The Bookseller. Retrieved 29 March 2025.
  5. ↑ "A Famous Book Publisher", The Daily World, 1 March 1891, p. 3.
  6. ↑ Michael Sadleir, XIX Century Fiction: A Bibliographical Record, Volumes I and II, London: Constable, 1951, passim.
  7. ↑ The Venetians A novel : By the author of "Lady Audley's secret," ... In three volumes., upenn.edu. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  8. 1 2 3 Paul McGeough and John Lyons, "Cap'n Crook", The Sydney Morning Herald , 21 December 1991, p. 43.
  9. ↑ "Christopher Downes: charismatic theatre dresser", The Independent, 22 December 2003, p. p. 50.
  10. ↑ Robert Verkalk, "The mystery of Robert Maxwell's death", The Independent , 10 March 2006, p. 2.
  11. ↑ FOB: Firms Out of Business Search Results 141 - 150 of 153, Harry Ransom Center, hrc.utexas.edu. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  12. ↑ Index to the British Catalogue of Books Published During the Years 1837 to 1857 , London: Sampson, Low, Son, & Co., 1858, "Index to the Catalogue of New Books, New Editions and Pamphlets Published During the Year 1857", p. XXXVIII. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
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