Simpkin & Marshall

Simpkin & Marshall was a British bookseller, book wholesaler and book publisher. The firm was founded in 1819 and traded until the 1940s.[1] For many decades the firm was Britain's largest book wholesaler[2] and a respected family-owned company,[3] but it was acquired by the media proprietor Robert Maxwell and went bankrupt in 1954, an event which, according to Lionel Leventhal, "sounded a warning to the book trade about Captain Robert Maxwell's way of doing business".[4]

19th century

In the years just before 1814 Benjamin Crosby and two assistants, William Simpkin (whose daughter married the publisher Henry George Bohn)[5] and Richard Marshall, ran a firm "supplying provincial firms with books and acting as an agent for their publications".[2] Following Crosby's illness with paralysis in 1814, the firm became known as Simpkin and Marshall.[2]

In 1828 the firm changed its name to Simpkin, Marshall & Co. and in 1837 it was based at Stationers' Hall Court, London. The firm became the largest book wholesaler in the United Kingdom.[2]

In 1889 the three firms, Simpkin, Marshall & Co. Hamilton, Adams & Co., and W. Kent & Co., merged to form Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. The firm was, however, still generally referred to by the general public as Simpkin & Marshall. By 1900 the firm enjoyed "almost monopoly status as a book wholesaler".[2]

As a book publisher Simpkin & Marshall was a generalist, with numerous fiction and nonfiction titles. In the second half of the nineteenth century it published many yellowback and paperback books, including the series "The Run and Read Library",[6] the "Bristol Library" and "almost all of the novels" of the popular Victorian novelist Mary E. Braddon.[2][7]

Acquisition by Robert Maxwell

In the early 1950s Simpkin Marshall, as the firm was then commonly known, was a book wholesaler with debts of $A575,000.[8] Robert Maxwell purchased it for the sum of $A115,000[8] and it continued to operate as a publishing warehouse company and a wholesale book distribution company within his business empire.[9] He used the company to raise funds, on which it paid interest, but then made generous interest-free loans to his private companies. In four years, he "ran the company into the ground".[8] According to Edward Pearce, Maxwell had used the "high reputation of the old-fashioned family company he had taken over... for purposes of predatory credit".[3] Simpkin, Marshall was declared insolvent in 1954[10] and its assets and good will were purchased by Hatchards.[11]

Book series

Book series published by Simpkin & Marshall and by Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. included:

  • The Abbey Classics
  • The Analytical Series of Greek and Latin Classics
  • Anglers' Evenings (First Series; etc.)
  • Beacon Library
  • The Beechwood Books
  • Breare Vocal Series
  • The Bygone Series
  • Clark's College Series of Text-Books
  • Crossley's Comprehensive Class Book
  • Curtis's Educational Series
  • The Devotional Series
  • Dr. Cornwell's Educational Series
  • Echoes of Exmoor (First Series; etc.)
  • Edinburgh Series of Monographs on Art
  • Eton School Lists
  • Evergreen Library Series
  • Farming Essays (First Series; etc.)
  • Gill's School Series
  • The Gravure Series
  • The Guide Series
  • Hardwicke's Science-Gossip: An Illustrated Medium of Interchange and Gossip for Studies and Lovers of Nature
  • Historic Houses in Bath and Their Associations
  • In Tune With Nature
  • Irish Texts Society
  • Kind Words to All Classes
  • The Jane Series
  • Jerrold's Jest Book Series
  • Kneetime Animal Stories
  • Lancashire Worthies
  • Library Association Series
  • Medieval Studies
  • The 101 Series
  • Old Friends And New Acquaintances
  • Our Country's Series
  • Oxberry's New English Drama Series
  • Poems of Eliza Cook (First Series; etc.)
  • Popular Edition
  • Popular Music Series
  • Popular School Books Series
  • The Quiet Hour Series
  • Railroadiana
  • The Repertory of Patent Inventions, and other discoveries & improvements in Arts, Manufactures, and Agriculture
  • Rosemary Booklets
  • The Run and Read Library[12]
  • Seventy Sermon Outlets
  • Simpkin's Thin-paper Classics
  • Simple Records (First Series; etc.)
  • Tales of a Grandfather: Being Stories Taken from Scottish History
  • Then and Now
  • Tourist Rambles in the Northern and Midland Counties
  • Towards New Culture
  • Walbran's British Angler Salmon, Trout and Grayling: How, When and Where to Catch Them (First Series; etc.)
  • Walbran's British Wrangler (First Series; etc.)
  • The Waverley Novels
  • The Women of The Poets

Series jointly published with other publishers
  • Abel Heywood & Sons Series of Illustrated Guide Books (jointly published with Abel Heywood & Sons)
  • Alembic Club Reprint (jointly published with William F. Clay)
  • Arrowsmith's Bristol Library Series (jointly published with J. W. Arrowsmith and Kent & Co. Limited)
  • Arrowsmith's Three & Sixpenny Series (AKA Arrowsmith's 3/6 Series) (jointly published with J. W. Arrowsmith)
  • The Botanic Garden (commonly referred to as: Maund's Botanic Garden) (jointly published with Baldwin and Cradock)
  • Chronicles of the Canongate (jointly published with Cadell and Co.)
  • Coles' and Tomlin's School (with several other publishers)
  • Cook's Traveller's Handbooks (jointly published with Thomas Cook & Son)
  • Edinburgh Cabinet Library (jointly published with Oliver & Boyd)
  • Oliver and Boyd's "Continuous" Readers series (jointly published with Oliver & Boyd)
  • Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations (jointly published with John Henry Boht, London and J. Anderson, Edinburgh)
  • The Vellum-Parchment Shilling Series of Miscellaneous Literature (jointly published with Field and Tuer)
  • Welsh Lyrics of the Nineteenth Century (jointly published with Jarvis & Foster)

References
  1. Simpkin & Marshall, britishmuseum.org. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  2. Chester W, Topp, Victorian Yellowbacks & Paperbacks, 1849-1905, Volume VIII, Denver, Colorado: The Heritage Antiquarian Bookshop, 2008, pp. xi-xii.
  3. Edward Pearce, "Trading as: self-employed or New Age serf?", The Guardian, 6 August 1994, p. 25.
  4. "Bookselling can kill you", The Bookseller, 12 August 2004. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  5. "A Famous Book Publisher", The Daily World, 1 March 1891, p. 3.
  6. Michael Sadleir, XIX Century Fiction: A Bibliographical Record, Volumes I and II, London: Constable, 1951, passim.
  7. The Venetians A novel : By the author of "Lady Audley's secret," ... In three volumes., upenn.edu. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  8. Paul McGeough and John Lyons, "Cap'n Crook", The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 December 1991, p. 43.
  9. "Christopher Downes: charismatic theatre dresser", The Independent, 22 December 2003, p. p. 50.
  10. Robert Verkalk, "The mystery of Robert Maxwell's death", The Independent, 10 March 2006, p. 2.
  11. FOB: Firms Out of Business Search Results 141 - 150 of 153, Harry Ransom Center, hrc.utexas.edu. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  12. Index to the British Catalogue of Books Published During the Years 1837 to 1857, London: Sampson, Low, Son, & Co., 1858, "Index to the Catalogue of New Books, New Editions and Pamphlets Published During the Year 1857", p. XXXVIII. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
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