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
In 1817 Colburn determined to introduce a paper upon the plan of a
popular German prototype, and on the 26th January the first number of
the _Literary Gazette_ appeared, price one shilling. H. E. Lloyd, a
clerk in the Foreign Department of the Post-Office, a good linguist,
and a well-known translator from the German, was the chief contributor,
and appears to have shared the editorial duties with Miss Ross, a lady
afterwards pensioned by the Government. The reputation achieved was
great, especially in reference to the Fine Arts, which were skilfully
handled by William Carey, and at the twenty-sixth number Mr. Jerdan,
formerly editor of the _Sun_, purchased a third of the property, and
became the regular editor. Messrs. Longman eagerly embraced the offer
of a third share, and with a staff of contributors, who varied from
Canning to Maginn, the _Literary Gazette_ obtained a wide popularity,
and was recognized as an authority upon other matters than literature.
At present, however, the _Gazette_ is most gratefully remembered as
having encouraged in its poetical columns (fairly and impartially
opened to merit, however obscure), the earliest writings of Mrs.
Hemans, Bowles, Hood, Swain, James Smith, Howitt, and even Tupper.
In 1842 Jerdan bought out Colburn and the Messrs. Longman, and from
his hands the editorship passed to L. Phillips, L. Beeve, and J. L.
Jephson. In 1858 a new series was commenced, under, successively, S.
Brooks, H. Christmas, W. R. Workman, F. Arnold, John Morley, and C. W.
Goodwin. In 1862 it was finally incorporated with the _Parthenon_.
In 1816, the year before the foundation of the _Literary Gazette_,
Colburn had, as we have seen, migrated to New Burlington Street, and
soon rendered his shop famous as the chief emporium for the purchase
and sale of novels and other light literature. The first book issued
from the new establishment was Lady Morgan’s “Zana”--a work certainly
not worth much, but scarcely meriting an attack in the _Quarterly_,
which Talfourd stigmatises as “one of the coarsest insults ever offered
in print by man to woman;” however, through the power of her ladyship’s
name, and with the aid of skilful advertising--in which Colburn was
perhaps the greatest expert in a time when the art had not reached its
present high state of development--“Zana” proved eminently successful.
Talented in a manner Lady Morgan certainly was, and, as a proof, is
said to have made more than twenty-five thousand pounds by her pen.
She had published a volume of verses at the unfortunately early age of
fourteen, and this idea of precocity seems to us to accompany all her
works.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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