Overview

Byron and John Murray: A Poet and His Publisher is the first comprehensive account of the relationship between Byron and the man who published his poetry for over ten years. It is commonly seen as a paradox of Byron’s literary career that the liberal poet was published by a conservative publishing house. It is less of a paradox when, as this book illustrates, we see John Murray as a competitive, innovative publisher who understood how to deal with his most famous author. The book begins by charting the early years of Murray’s success prior to the publication of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, and describes Byron’s early engagement with the literary marketplace. The book describes in detail how Byron became one of Murray’s authors, before documenting the success of their commercial association and the eventual and protracted disintegration of their relationship. Byron wrote more letters to John Murray than anyone else and their correspondence represents a fascinating dialogue on the nature of Byron’s poetry, and particularly the nature of his fame. It is the central argument of this book that Byron’s ambivalent attitude towards professional writing and popular literature can be illuminated through an understanding of his relationship with John Murray.

Full Product Details

9781781381335

Table of Contents

Reviews

Interesting, original, well-researched, and important ... a natural companion to The Letters of John Murray to Lord Byron. -- Bernard Beatty A substantial and enduring contribution to Byron studies and, more broadly, to literary history and publishing history. -- Peter Graham O'Connell neatly explores the demands that the publishing market placed on both Murray and Byron...Byron and John Murray is as much a contribution to studies of sociability, the nineteenth-century publishing world, and the bookselling market place, as it is to accounts of Byron and Byronism. By bringing together reception history, private letters that were exposed to a public world, and Byron's literary works themselves, this book enhances our understanding of the changing literary landscapes of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. -- Charlotte May The BARS Review, No. 48

Interesting, original, well-researched, and important ... a natural companion to The Letters of John Murray to Lord Byron. -- Bernard Beatty A substantial and enduring contribution to Byron studies and, more broadly, to literary history and publishing history. -- Professor Peter Graham

Author Information

Mary O'Connell has taught in the School of English at University College Cork, and was previously Leverhulme Visiting Fellow at St Andrews University.

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