John Murray (publishing house)

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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.

History

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),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> an Edinburgh-born Royal Marines officer, who built up a list of authors including Isaac D'Israeli and published the English Review.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

John Murray the elder was one of the founding sponsors of the London evening newspaper The Star in 1788.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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.<ref>Eisler, Benita. Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame, page 3.</ref> It remains unknown what they contained.

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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 Template:HMS.<ref>Hershel Parker, Herman Melville: A Biography; Volume 1, 1819–1851, (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), 392, 482–84, 508–10.</ref> 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.

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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.<ref>Wisdom of the East Series, seriesofseries.com. Retrieved 10 June 2018.</ref> 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)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2015, business publisher Nicholas Brealey became an imprint of John Murray.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

John Murray timeline

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  • 1768 – John MacMurray, a former lieutenant of the Marines, buys a bookselling business at 32 Fleet Street. He changes his name to Murray and uses his naval contacts to build up a thriving business
  • 1806 – The first bestseller, A New System of Domestic Cookery, by A Lady (Maria Rundell), was published, with a second edition two years later.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 1934 – Julius Kugy Alpine Pilgrimage (1st edition (English) 1934), Klugy's literary masterpiece on the Julian Alps of Slovenia as translated by H. E. G. Tyndale (Henry Edmund Guise Tyndale)
  • 1938 – Daniele Varè's biography The Laughing Diplomat is published
  • 1958 – John Betjeman's Collected Poems published and has sold over two million copies to date
  • 1967 – Last issue of the Quarterly Review published
  • 1969 – The first TV tie-in, Kenneth Clark's Civilisation, published
  • 1975 – Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Heat and Dust wins the Booker Prize<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 2008 – Down River by John Hart wins Edgar Award for Best Novel<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Book series

Film adaptations of John Murray titles

References

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Further reading

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