NINETEENTH CENTURY LITERARY MANUSCRIPTS

Part 2: The Correspondence and Records of Smith, Elder & Co from the National Library of Scotland

This is a key source for all scholars of Victorian and Edwardian Literature, offering the surviving records of Smith, Elder & Co, 1846–1924.

• Most importantly; there is the editorial correspondence relating to The Cornhill Magazine, edited by Thackeray and later by Leslie Stephen. It is fascinating to see the exchanges between Thackeray and fellow authors.
• There is also editorial correspondence between the publisher's reader (W S Williams) and authors published by Smith, Elder & Co.
• Correspondents include Matthew Arnold, Thomas Hardy, John Ruskin, Anthony Trollope and many others.
• We also feature George Smith’s substantial, unpublished autobiography – Recollections of a long and busy life (written c1895), describing life at a Victorian publishing house and with material regarding the Bronte’s, Ruskin, Thackeray, Eliot, Tennyson and others.