Memoir of John Murray
John Barrow to John Murray, 24 September 1824
I saw Gifford last
night, who is in good spirits and much pleased with a letter which you had
written to him; but I find he is completely decided to give in, and
advises—what you will, of course, do as soon as convenient—to call
a few of your friends together to arrange for the future conducting of the
Quarterly. He is quite of opinion that the gentleman in the
North [Southey] would, in a few numbers,
ruin the Review if he had the
management.
Yours always,
Sir John Barrow, first baronet (1764-1848)
English traveler, secretary of the Admiralty, and author of over two hundred articles in
the
Quarterly Review; he is remembered for his
Mutiny on the Bounty (1831).
William Gifford (1756-1826)
Poet, scholar, and editor who began as a shoemaker's apprentice; after Oxford he
published
The Baviad (1794),
The Maeviad
(1795), and
The Satires of Juvenal translated (1802) before becoming
the founding editor of the
Quarterly Review (1809-24).
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose
works, among them the
Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813),
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and
The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
