Writers relationships with their publishers have frequently been fraught with tension and dislike. One English writer proposed at toast to Napoleon at a dinner, when England was at war with France lead by Napoleon, saying “He executed a publisher”. This charming and wonderfully engaging book shows that different relationships are also possible. Plenty of room for complaining, room for friendship as well. John Murray founded his publishing firm in 1768 in London and it remained a family firm for seven generations The leters are drawn from the John Murray Archive and elswhere.
Maria Rundell wrote A new System of Domestic Cookery in 1805 and it became one of the most successful cookery books in the nineteenth-century, Maria Rundell wrote to John Murray in 1805 to congragulate him on his marriage and took the opportunity to complain about printing errors in the second edition. The letter is an mix offriendly congratulations, heartfelt complaints aboput errors in the edition and the thought it might damage prospects for a third edition and family news. it shows that the writer and the publisher had more than a business relationship, no matter how important the busines was to both.
Lady Caroline Lamb had n affair with Byron which affected her deeply. In 1813 she sent a letter to John Murray, pretending to bte Byron to get a portrait miniture of Byron the poet had gived to to Mr Murry for safekeeping. Mr murry sent the minitaure as requested and later founf from Brron that the letter had been a forgery.
Benjamin D’Israeli , aged twenry-one wasa sent to Scotland to get the the support of Walter Scott and his son-in-law John Gibson Lockhart for a newspaper he was trying to launch. Understanding the need to be careful with the information Benjamin D’Israeli managed to disguise hois news so effectively that they were completely mysterious to John Murray.
Kathleen Hale was a lithographer wo illustrated several books and leters to John Murray. Her death in childbirth lead to her husband sending the following heartbreaking postcard, “John dear, This postcard is to let you know that Hamish arrived this morning but my darling left me this afternoon suddenly. Bless you for always being so sweet to her”
The letters from the Irish travel writer Dervela Murphy to John Murrary are among the last to mark the personal relationship between a publisher and a writer. Publishers became more corporate and the room for such relationships has vanished.
This is a delightful book, David McClay probvodes sufficent context for each letter for it to be fully enjoyed without ever drowning in detail. The selection id wide ranging and thoughtful. The changing styles of letter writing is one of the many pleasures of the book.
