George Bell and Sons (London: 1873-1910) George Bell (London: 1839-1856) Bell and Daldy (London: 1856-1873) George Bell and Sons Ltd
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George Bell and Sons (London: 1873-1910) George Bell (London: 1839-1856) Bell and Daldy (London: 1856-1873) George Bell and Sons Ltd. (London: 1910-1977) Bell and Hyman Ltd. (London: 1977-1989) In 1839 George Bell founded a publishing ence. There he might have stayed had he not firm that endured, in its modest way, for a cen been exposed to wider horizons at the local gram tury and a half. In his memoir of his father, mar school. The Reverend James Tate, the head George Bell Publisher (1924), Edward Bell re master, was a classics scholar of wide reputation marked that the family firm was of "moderate who tutored Bell's literary tastes. When Bell left size, of no great antiquity, and with no preten school at age sixteen, he cherished scholarly aspi sions to any phenomenal successes in the book rations and an ambition to do more than run the world." Yet, at George Bell's death in 1890, the Ath local bookshop. After a couple of years assisting enaeum referred to him as "one of the most his father, Bell left Richmond to test his mettle successful publishers of the latter half of this cen in the London publishing world. tury." Bell specialized in the educational book As an assistant at the wholesale booksellers trade and his sons carried on the tradition. The Whittaker and Company of Ave Maria Lane, Bell firm was not glamorous or innovative, although made some of the connections that would deter on occasion it became entwined with some of the mine the course of his own career as an indepen more sensational characters in the London pub dent bookseller/publisher. Whittaker specialized lishing world. Bell's inclinations tended toward in the schoolbook trade; during the six years Bell the more solid side of the literary marketplace: spent with the firm he learned a great deal about school and university textbooks, theological the educational book market and decided to base works, and reprints of European classics. By fol his future on his contemporaries' passion for for lowing his instincts Bell established the founda mal and informal education. Bell's first ventures tion that would ensure the firm's longevity. into publishing took the form of writing shilling Born in 1814, Bell was the eldest son of Mat guides to subjects such as chess, cricket, angling, thew Bell, a bookseller, stationer, bookbinder, and architecture. They appeared under the im and printer who now and then published manu print either of his employer's firm or that of scripts that came his way in the Yorkshire town Simpkin, another wholesale book dealer. of Richmond. It was in his father's shop that In 1839, having made a little profit on his George Bell gained his first professional experi- handbooks and having some prosperous relatives 22 DLB 106 George Bell and Sons who were willing to finance his first enterprise, Wood's creditors, who took all the capital Wood he set up shop at 1 Bouverie Street as an educa had brought in, plus a share of the profit and in tional book supplier. Armed with a letter of recom terest-£895 all told. mendation from Tate, who by then was canon of More satisfactory was Bell's friendship with St. Paul's, Bell canvassed the academic publishers the brothers Alexander and Daniel Macmillan, of England's two major university towns. He per who launched their bookselling business in Lon suaded the firms of Deighton, Grant, Hall, Steven don just as Bell began his. Bell published Alexan son, and Johnson of Cambridge and Parker, Vin der Macmillan's anonymous biography of Percy cent, and Slatter of Oxford to use him as their Bysshe Shelley, which included a selection of Shel London agent. In his first catalogue in 1840 Bell ley's poems; Macmillan bore part of the expense announced that his premises would henceforth of publication. Through Macmillan, Bell made be the London depot for supplying university his first connections with the Scottish educational books to serious readers in the general public. milieu, resulting in a series of six schoolbooks by In establishing a secure source of income Scottish schoolmasters. After the Macmillan broth from the retail trade as he took his first steps ers moved to Cambridge in 1843, the close rela into the more turbulent world of publishing, Bell tionship between the firms persisted. Bell became followed a practice widespread among his peers. Macmillan's representative in London, and the His first independent publications, which ap firms jointly published a theological book by peared in 1840, also displayed his cautious inclina Hugh Miller in 1844. Alexander Macmillan sig tions. An edition of Cicero's De Senectute with ex naled the depth of his regard when he invited planatory notes and translations and a gardening Bell to accompany the family at Daniel handbook were the first to carry the imprint Macmillan's funeral in 1857. In the next genera "George Bell, I Bouverie Street." Classical texts tion, Edward Bell and Daniel Macmillan's eldest and practical guidebooks were to dominate the son, Frederick, were friends. Bell lists in years to come. Bell also had a keen Another early friend whose association wid eye for up-and-corning public enthusiasms: in ened Bell's list was Henry Cole. A man of diverse 1840, for instance, he published a series of rail interests, Cole was the savior of Britain's official way guides to take advantage of the first burst of documents, which he organized in the first Pub railway tourism. His "Railway Companions" com lic Record Office. He was also a founder of the bined practical information about timetables and South Kensington Museum and an adviser on cul fares with descriptions of towns and historic sites tural matters to Prince Albert. Cole's interest in along the route. the practical application of art led him to project Within his first year as a bookseller and pub a series of illustrated handbooks intended to di lisher Bell outgrew his original premises and rect attention to Britain's architectural heritage. rented more expansive quarters at 186 Fleet He chose the pseudonym "Felix Surnrnerly" for Street. He had a personal reason for moving as his works, the first of which was a guide to the well: he wanted to secure suitable accommoda art treasures and grounds of Hampton Court, tions for his bride, Hannah Simpson Bell, a neigh published by Hugh Cunningham in 1841. It was bor from his hometown whom he married in a great success, and the second edition carne out 1840. His son Edward, who was to lead the firm in 1843 under the George Bell imprint. Bell also into the twentieth century, was born in 1844 and published Cole's A Handbook for Holidays (1842) spent the first five years of his life in the Fleet and The National Gallery (1843), illustrated hand Street house. somely by artists such as J. B. Pyne and David During the 1840s Bell's literary circle wid Cox and, for the more modest pictures, by Cole ened and his business connections became more himself. Cole cultivated another of his pet proj complex. After a heartening success with Mrs. ects, his interest in skilled trades for women, in Jane Loudon's The First Book of Botany (1841), these productions: the illustrations were en which sold nearly nine hundred copies, Bell went graved by a group of women he had encouraged into partnership with Henry Wood, another neigh to learn woodcutting. Through his friendship bor from the Richmond days, in 1842. Wood had with Cole, Bell began to gain a reputation for a talent for writing humorous handbooks on card books on art, architecture, and archaeology games; he also had a penchant for playing those particularly those he produced in collaboration games, and frequently lost. The partnership with joseph Cundall, another of Cole's proteges, lasted only a few months; Bell was left to face who was among the first to use photography in 23 George Bell and Sons DLB 106 published books. Examples of Ornament, which Cundall produced for Bell in 1855, was illus trated by twenty-four plates depicting ornaments from the Crystal Palace and museums in Lon don. (Later Cundall applied his interest in photo graphic reproduction to The Great Works of Raph ael Sanzio of Urbino, which Bell and Daldy pub lished in 1866.) All the time he was expanding the publish ing side of his business, Bell was still carrying on the retail side from his Fleet Street premises. He was a member of the Booksellers' Association, which aimed to limit the business to licensed book sellers who would agree to sell books at the pub lished prices; the publishers would in turn pro tect the licensed booksellers by boycotting unli censed ones. Their efforts to mitigate the precari ousness of the publishing and bookselling busi ness led to a collision with the champions of free trade in literature. At a time when liberalism was ascendant and laissez-faire the watchword of eco nomic orthodoxy, any attempt to regulate the mar ketplace was bound to set up a public outcry. George Bell, age thirty-seven The question of free access to literature and knowledge became an emotional issue, and was in flamed by the well-publicized and spirited objec Bell to persist with his scheme. To advance the tions of authors and intellectuals such as Charles pace of publication he sought out his old employ Dickens, John Stuart Mill, and Thomas Carlyle. ers, Whittaker and Company, to join him in the The opposition overcame the ability of the Book venture.