[A Publisher and His Friends by Samuel Smiles]@TWC D-Link bookA Publisher and His Friends CHAPTER X 3/26
It appears from the "Memoirs of Adam Black" that Black was for a short time a partner with the Underwoods.
Adam Black quitted the business in 1813. Upon the failure of the Underwoods in 1831, Mr.Samuel Highley, son of Mr.Murray's former partner, took possession, and the name of Highley again appeared over the door.] The terms arranged with Mr.Miller were as follows: The lease of the house, No.
50, Albemarle Street, was purchased by Mr.Murray, together with the copyrights, stock, etc., for the sum of L3,822 12_s_.
6_d_.; Mr.Miller receiving as surety, during the time the purchase money remained unpaid, the copyright of "Domestic Cookery," of the _Quarterly Review_, and the one-fourth share in "Marmion." The debt was not finally paid off until the year 1821. Amongst the miscellaneous works which Mr.Murray published shortly after his removal to Albemarle Street were William Sotheby's translation of the "Georgies of Virgil"-- the most perfect translation, according to Lord Jeffrey, of a Latin classic which exists in our language; Robert Bland's "Collection from the Greek Anthology"; Prince Hoare's "Epochs of the Arts"; Lord Glenbervie's work on the "Cultivation of Timber"; Granville Penn's "Bioscope, or Dial of Life explained"; John Herman Merivale's "Orlando in Roncesvalles"; and Sir James Hall's splendid work on "Gothic Architecture." Besides these, there was a very important contribution to our literature--in the "Miscellaneous Works of Gibbon" in 5 volumes, for the copyright of which Mr.Murray paid Lord Sheffield the sum of L1,000. In 1812 he published Sir John Malcolm's "Sketch of the Sikhs," and in the following year Mr.Macdonald Kinneir's "Persia." Mr.D'Israeli's "Calamities of Authors" appeared in 1812, and Murray forwarded copies of the work to Scott and Southey. _Mr.Scott to John Murray_. _July_ 2,1812. I owe you best thanks for the 'Calamities of Authors,' which has all the entertaining and lively features of the 'Amenities of Literature.' I am just packing them up with a few other books for my hermitage at Abbotsford, where my present parlour is only 12 feet square, and my book-press in Lilliputian proportion.
Poor Andrew Macdonald I knew in days of yore, and could have supplied some curious anecdotes respecting him.
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