A Publisher And His Friends

John Murray was the intimate friend and correspondent of Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Canning, Southey, the Disraelis, Campbell, Crabbe, Hallam, Croker, Milman, Washington Irving, Madame de Stael; as well as of the early editors of the Quarterly, Gifford, Coleridge, and Lockhart; and many original letters from these authors are in this book. The memoirs, and especially the correspondence of John Murray and his friends, are of value as giving a full picture of the literature and principal men of letters of the first half of the 19th century. Indeed, going still farther back---to the life and correspondence of John Murray's father---they include, to a certain extent, the literature of the times of Dr. Johnson, Dr. Langhorne, Dr. Cartwright, and others.