A PUBLISHING CENTENARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 65, 17 March 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

A PUBLISHING CENTENARY.

Although new publishers seem to spring up every other day, tho historic publishing houses of London still pursue their prosperous way (says the London correspondent of the" "Manchester Guardian"). Tho firm of Routledge, for example, is celebrating the centenary of its foundation shortly. The original Georgo Routledge, who founded the business in 1 834, died in 1888. He was one of tho enterprising publishers who saw tho new public arriving through the Education Ac'ts of the period and started publishing shilling editions of books by Marryat, Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irvine, and other popular writers. About i 1853 the house published cheap editions of Bulwer Lytton's works, for which they paid that author £20,000, and the success of the venture led them to cheap editions of Disraeli, Harrison, Ainsworth and G. P. I!. James. After George Routledge's death his two sons carried on, and the important events in tho firm were the issue of the Universal Library edited by Henry Morley, and the Hundred Best Books, chosen by Sir John Lubbock.

In 1902 the business underwent several changes. .The, New Universal Library was published and the Muses Library. Tho firms of J. C. Nimnio and of Kcgan Paul were taken over, and many well-known libraries, including tho History of Civilisation series, were established. The business is now carried on by Mr. Cecil A. Franklin and Frederick J. Warburg, and the chairman of the board is Sir Frederick Maurice. Tho end of their century which began in fiction, ends without fiction, for no novels have been issued for several years by these publishers.