MURRAY, John, an eminent publisher, was the son of John M'Murray, a bookseller in Fleet Street, London, and was born in November 1778. His education was received at the High School of Edinburgh and at several seminaries in England. In his fifteenth year he was left, by his father's death, to conduct the business, with the assistance of the
shopman, Mr Highley. On his coming of age, he made his assistant a partner. The partnership, however, was dissolved in 1803; and Murray began a career of publication unrivalled in the history of literature. His acuteness in detecting the merits of an author, and his knack of discerning the taste and wants of the public, soon rendered him one of the most successful of publishers. In 1807 he suggested to Canning the project of establishing a Tory periodical that might prove a worthy rival to the Edinburgh Review. The plan received the approval and hearty co-operation of Walter Scott in 1808; and in 1809 Murray published the first number of the Quarterly Review. In 1810 he sought the acquaintance of Lord Byron, whose high poetical powers were not yet recognised, made him a liberal offer for the first two cantos of Childe Harold, and commenced a literary connection with him which increased the fame of both publisher and poet. To other eminent authors he was equally generous. They received princely sums for the copyrights of their works. If the sale surpassed expectation, the stipulated price was increased, and sometimes even doubled. Such generous and highly honourable conduct soon raised Murray to the position of a patron of literature. Authors began to frequent the shop in Albemarle Street, to which he had removed in 1812. In his little back parlour there might have been seen of an afternoon such men as Byron, Scott, Crabbe, Southey, Washington Irving, and Lockhart, enjoying the racy and humorous conversation of the publisher. Among the many undertakings which he continued to conduct was the Family Library, begun in 1829. He sometimes published with great success works, such as the Sketch-Book, which had proved failures in the hands of other publishers. He died in June 1843, leaving his trade to his son, the present Mr John Murray.