Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
John Murray to Walter Scott, 14 December 1816
“Albemarle Street, 14th December, 1816.
“Dear Sir,
“Although I dare not address you as the author of
certain ‘Tales’
(which, however, must be written either by Walter
Scott or the Devil), yet nothing can restrain me from thinking
it is to your influence with the author that I am indebted for the essential
honour of being one of their publishers, and I must intrude upon you to offer
my most hearty thanks—not divided, but doubled—alike for my worldly gain
therein, and for the great acquisition of professional reputation which their
publication has already procured me. I believe I might, under any oath that
could be proposed, swear that I never experienced such unmixed pleasure as the
reading of this exquisite work has afforded me; and if you could see me, as the
author’s literary chamberlain, receiving the unanimous and vehement
praises of every one who has read it, and the curses of those whose needs my
scanty supply could not satisfy, you might judge of the sincerity with which I
now entreat you to assure him of the most complete success. Lord Holland said, when I asked his
opinion—‘Opinion! We did not one of us go to bed last
night—nothing slept but my gout.’ Frere, Hallam, Boswell,* Lord
Glenbervie, William
Lamb,† all agree that it surpasses all the other novels.
Gifford’s estimate is
increased at every reperusal. Heber says
there are only two men in the world—Walter Scott and
Lord Byron. Between you you have given
existence to a third. Ever your faithful servant,
James Boswell the younger (1778-1822)
Barrister and scholar, son of the biographer, who edited Shakespeare with Edmond
Malone.
Henry Richard Fox, third baron Holland (1773-1840)
Whig politician and literary patron; Holland House was for many years the meeting place
for reform-minded politicians and writers. He also published translations from the Spanish
and Italian;
Memoirs of the Whig Party was published in 1852.
John Hookham Frere (1769-1846)
English diplomat and poet; educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was envoy to Lisbon
(1800-02) and Madrid (1802-04, 1808-09); with Canning conducted the
The
Anti-Jacobin (1797-98); author of
Prospectus and Specimen of an
intended National Work, by William and Robert Whistlecraft (1817, 1818).
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).
Henry Hallam (1777-1859)
English historian and contributor to the
Edinburgh Review, author
of
Introduction to the Literature of Europe, 4 vols (1837-39) and
other works. He was the father of Tennyson's Arthur Hallam.
Richard Heber (1774-1833)
English book collector, he was the elder half-brother of the poet Reginald Heber and the
friend of Walter Scott: member of the Roxburghe Club and MP for Oxford 1821-1826.
William Lamb, second viscount Melbourne (1779-1848)
English statesman, the son of Lady Melbourne (possibly by the third earl of Egremont) and
husband of Lady Caroline Lamb; he was a Whig MP, prime minister (1834-41), and counsellor
to Queen Victoria.
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
