Smith, Elder & Co.

Smith, Elder & Co.
Status	Defunct
Founder	George Smith and Alexander Elder
Successor	John Murray
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Headquarters location	London[1][2]
Publication types	Books, magazines

Smith, Elder & Co. or Smith, Elder, and Co.^[1] or Smith, Elder and Co.^[2]^[3] was a British publishing company who were most noted for the works they published in the 19th century.

History

The firm was founded by George Smith (1789–1846) and Alexander Elder (1790–1876) and successfully continued by George Murray Smith (1824–1901). They are known to have published as early as 1839.^[2]

They are notable for producing the first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB).

The firm achieved its first major success with the publication of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre in 1847, under the pseudonym of "Currer Bell."

Other major authors published by the firm included Robert Browning, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, Thomas Hardy, Richard Jefferies, George MacDonald, Charles Reade, John Ruskin, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Alfred Tennyson and George Gissing.^[4]

In addition, beginning in 1841, they published The London and Edinburgh Magazine. Beginning in 1859, they published Cornhill Magazine.^[1]

Offices of Smith, Elder & Co. at No. 15 Waterloo Place in London^[5]

Works published

The Comic Offering volumes one through five by Louisa Henrietta Sheridan, 1831–1835
Friendship's Offering, 1837
Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa by Andrew Smith, 1838–50
Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle by Charles Darwin, 1838–43
Modern Painters by John Ruskin, 1843
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, 1847
The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin, 1851
The History of Henry Esmond by William Makepeace Thackeray, 1852
The Professor by Charlotte Brontë, 1854
The Ring and the Book by Robert Browning, 1868–69
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, 1886
The Great Boer War by Arthur Conan Doyle, 1900
The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers, 1903
Morocco in Diplomacy by Edmund Dene Morel, 1912
Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters, A Family Record by William and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh, 1913

References

1 2 3 "Business Correspondence of Smith, Elder, and Co., 1850–1908: Finding Aid". Princeton University Library. 2008. Retrieved 2012-07-07. Abstract. Consists, for the most part, of business correspondence of George Smith relating to the Cornhill Magazine, which he founded in 1859, and other publishing business of Smith, Elder, and Co., the London publishing firm.
1 2 3 Forbes, Alexander (1839). California: A History of Upper and Lower California. Cornhill, London: Smith, Elder and Co.
↑ Steve King. "Charlotte Bronte. Charlotte Bronte as "Currer Bell"". Today in Literature. Retrieved 2012-07-07. Smith, Elder and Co. took the risk on passages like that, and Jane Eyre was an immediate and controversial hit.
↑ "George Murray Smith (1824–1901)". oxforddnb.com. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
↑ One 1850 advertisement of "New Christmas Books" (3) shows footer "London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65, Cornhill." (The Observer, 1850-12-22 p. 1). The Cornhill Magazine was inaugurated January 1960, named after the 65 Cornhill street address.
The "Sixth Edition" title page of The King of the Golden River, no date, shows "London:" over "Smith, Elder & Co., 15 Waterloo Place." (viewed as HathiTrust Digital Library 011986310).

External links

The House of Smith Elder by Leonard Huxley at the Internet Archive

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[Princeton2008-1] 1 2 3 "Business Correspondence of Smith, Elder, and Co., 1850–1908: Finding Aid". Princeton University Library. 2008. Retrieved 2012-07-07. Abstract. Consists, for the most part, of business correspondence of George Smith relating to the Cornhill Magazine, which he founded in 1859, and other publishing business of Smith, Elder, and Co., the London publishing firm.

[California1839-2] 1 2 3 Forbes, Alexander (1839). California: A History of Upper and Lower California. Cornhill, London: Smith, Elder and Co.

[TinL-3] Steve King. "Charlotte Bronte. Charlotte Bronte as "Currer Bell"". Today in Literature. Retrieved 2012-07-07. Smith, Elder and Co. took the risk on passages like that, and Jane Eyre was an immediate and controversial hit.

[4] "George Murray Smith (1824–1901)". oxforddnb.com. Retrieved 5 October 2010.

[street-5] One 1850 advertisement of "New Christmas Books" (3) shows footer "London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65, Cornhill." (The Observer, 1850-12-22 p. 1). The Cornhill Magazine was inaugurated January 1960, named after the 65 Cornhill street address.
The "Sixth Edition" title page of The King of the Golden River, no date, shows "London:" over "Smith, Elder & Co., 15 Waterloo Place." (viewed as HathiTrust Digital Library 011986310).