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.
Contents
History
The business was founded in London, England, in 1768 by John Murray (1737–1793), an Edinburgh-born Royal Marines officer, who built up a list of authors including Isaac D'Israeli and published the English Review.
John Murray the elder was one of the founding sponsors of the London evening newspaper The Star in 1788.
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. It remains unknown what they contained.
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 HMS Beagle. 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.
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. 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) 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.
In 2015, business publisher Nicholas Brealey became an imprint of John Murray.
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. In January 2005, the National Library received £17.7m from the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of the £31.2m bid by John Murray on the 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.
John Murray timeline
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 Maria Rundell, is published, with a second edition two years later.
1809 – The influential periodical Quarterly Review is published
1811 – Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Lord Byron
1812 – John Murray moves to 50 Albemarle Street, its home for the next 191 years
1815 – Jane Austen decides she would like to move to Murray with Emma, published in 1815
1816 – Coleridge moves to John Murray for Christabel and Other Poems, which included Kubla Khan
1830 – First part of the three-volume Principles of Geology by Charles Lyell
1836 – The first guide books, Murray's Handbooks, were published by John Murray III
1849 – A groundbreaking observational study on the Sikh people is published. This comprehensive account arguably foreshadowed the British Empire's first large-scale attempt at using the scientific method to civilise populations; this methodological approach later became known as Eugenics.
1857 – David Livingstone's Missionary Travels – one of the many great 19th-century publications of exploration from John Murray
1859 – On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
Book series
Albemarle Library
Albemarle Library For Schools
The Changing Shape of Things
Home and Colonial Library
Journeys and Adventures
The Life and Works of Charlotte Bronte and Her Sisters - titles in this series also published by
Murray's Family Library
Murray's Fiction Library
Murray's Handbooks for Travellers
Murray's Library
Murray's Reading for the Rail (John Murray)
Murray's Shilling Library
Murray's 2/- net Novels
Progressive Science Series
Science for All - General Science Series
University Extension Manuals
The Wisdom of the East
Film adaptations of John Murray titles
Up in the Air (2009) – based on the novel by Walter Kirn, starring George Clooney and Anna Kendrick
Sarah's Key (2010) – based on the novel by Tatiana de Rosnay, starring Kristin Scott Thomas
Mr. Pip (2012) – based on the novel by Lloyd Jones, starring Hugh Laurie
Beasts of No Nation (2015) - based on the novel by Uzodinma Iweala, starring Idris Elba
A Million Little Pieces (2018) - based on the novel by James Frey, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson