A History of Booksellers, the Old and the NewCurwen, Henry
History
A History of Booksellers, the Old and the New
Curwen, Henry
Book industries and trade -- Great Britain -- History; Booksellers and bookselling -- Great Britain -- History
Mr. George Long, who is now leaving a Professorship at Brighton College
for Chichester,[19] had been bracketed with Macaulay and Professor
Malden for the Craven Scholarship--a fact that says something, were it
necessary, for his attainments--and was able to gather together the
most able men of the day on his staff, all of whom, whether belonging
to the Society or otherwise, were handsomely remunerated for their
labour. Upon De Morgan rested, perhaps, after the editor, the heaviest
labour, for he undertook the whole department of Mathematical Science.
The Biographical portion was chiefly due to G. C. Lewis, G. Long
himself, P. and W. Smith, and Donaldson. It is impossible, necessarily,
to mention many out of the 200 contributors, and it will suffice for
our purpose to enumerate the names of Professors Craik, Forbes, and
Donaldson, and Messrs. Ellis, Lewis, and Kitto, as writers on all
general subjects; and Mr. W. J. Broderip as taking the Natural History
department. Quite a new feature in the composition of the staff was the
introduction of foreign writers of eminence, who composed either in
their own language or in ours, all the articles being revised by the
editor and his assistants, and rendered into perfectly good English.
We must follow Mr. Knight’s own publications, remembering that their
issue was contemporary with the “Encyclopædia.” Next to that in
costliness was the “Gallery of Portraits,” issued in monthly parts at
half-a-crown each, to which, among other authors, Hallam and De Quincey
contributed.
The connection between Mr. Knight and Kitto was still very strong and
affectionate. In January, 1834, we find him detailing pleasantly the
amount of work he had to do for £16 a month--“a most comfortable sum
for me”--and later on we come across him asking Mr. Knight’s advice in
regard to his proposed marriage. “I have felt it prudent and proper to
postpone it for awhile until I should have consulted with you.... I
have hitherto been so connected in my employments with those who took a
strong personal interest in my affairs, and to whom I am accustomed to
talk freely about them, that I am led to trouble you more about myself
and my circumstances than is warranted by my existing relations. If so,
I doubt not your kindness will readily excuse the absence in a dumb man
of those little proprieties with which he has not had much opportunity
of becoming acquainted.” A curious subject on which to consult one’s
publisher, but then Mr. Knight was something more, and immediately
promised such remuneration and regular employment as would free Kitto’s
entrance into wedded life from the charge of imprudence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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