150-YEAR OLD FIRM

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 89, 9 January 1919, Page 9

150-YEAR OLD FIRM

! .'■ ' . v .'. '. ♦,-■"-'■' '''■' ••■' The great publishing.'.house of John Murray recently attained its iWtli birth.dny. There is something of romance in tho story of the firni (states the , "Daily News"). The first John Murray, a kinsman of the Dukes of Atholl, was a lieutenant of Marines, whp'at one time called himself MucMuiriiy. It -was in- 1768 that' Lieutenant John Mac Murray retired on half-pay at the age of 23; "and purchased a' bookselling business at tho 6ign of tlio "Ship," No. 32 Fleet Street, opposite St. Dunstan's .Church. He put a' ship in full enil;'. which sign the firm still/uses, at the-head of his invoices. The firm remained in ■ Fleet Street! till 1812,' when they moved into .Albemirle Street, where they Jjav'e remained. • From its foundation the,head of the firm, has'been a John Murray, , ' and the heir'is Lieutenant-Colonel John Murray, .commanding a' battalion of the ■ Koyal Scots. in Manders. ; With the exception of a short period the Murrays have al-' wnye lived at the firm's premises! or (as at the present i time) next door. The biggest names in the literature of the post 150 years are on the Hurrays' roll. Byron, Scott, Jano Austen, George .Borrow, Thonuis Campbell, .'Coleridge, Benjamin. Disraeli, .. Grote, Hallam, Washington Irving, Southey—to take a few at random—owed much to'the houseof'Murray—Byron., in particular. They also published for Dr. Livingstone, Mr. Gladstone, and tho famous letters of Queen Victoria in more recent times.'