Smiles: Memoir of John Murray

In these volumes it has been found impossible to present a strictly chronological record of Mr. Murray’s life, and we have endeavoured so to group his correspondence as to lay before our readers the various episodes which go to form the business life of a publisher. In pursuance of this plan we now proceed to narrate the closing incidents of his friendship with Lord Byron, reserving to subsequent chapters the various other transactions in which he was engaged.

During the later months of Byron’s residence in Italy this friendship had suffered some interruption, due in part perhaps to questions which had arisen out of the publication of ‘Don Juan,’ and in part to the interference of the Hunts. With the activity aroused by his expedition to Greece, Byron’s better nature reasserted itself, and his last letter to his publisher, though already printed in Moore’s Life, cannot be omitted from these pages:—

I have heard from Mr. Douglas Kinnaird that you state “a report of a satire on Mr. Gifford having arrived from Italy, said to be written by me! but that you do not believe it.” I dare say you do not, nor any body else, I should think. Whoever asserts that I am the author or abettor of anything of the kind on Gifford lies in his throat. I always regarded him as my literary father, and myself as his prodigal son; if any such composition exists, it is none of mine. You know as well as anybody upon whom I have or have not written; and you also know whether they do or did not deserve that same. And so much for such matters.

Byron died at Missolonghi on April 19th, 1824, and when the body arrived in London, Murray, on behalf of Mr. Hobhouse, who was not personally acquainted with Dr. Ireland, the Dean of Westminster, wrote to him, conveying “the request of the executors and nearest relatives of the deceased for permission that his Lordship’s remains may be deposited in Westminster Abbey, in the most private manner, at an early hour in the morning.”

No doubt the family vault is the most proper place for the remains of Lord Byron. It is to be wished, however, that nothing had been said publicly about Westminster Abbey before it was known whether the remains could be received there. In the newspapers, unfortunately, it has been proclaimed by somebody that the Abbey was to be the spot, and, on the appearance of this article, I have been questioned as to the truth of it from Oxford. My answer has been that the proposal has been made, but civilly declined. I had also informed the members of the church at Westminster (after your first letter) that I could not grant the favour asked. I cannot, therefore, answer now that the case will not be mentioned (as it has happened) by some person or other who knows it. The best thing to be done, however, by the executors and relatives, is to carry away the body, and say as little about it as possible. Unless

BYRON’S FUNERAL.

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the subject is provoked by some injudicious parade about the remains, perhaps the matter will draw little or no notice.

Lady Caroline Lamb was so ill at this time that her letter was written by an amanuensis.

I have been more ill than I can express, or I should have written to you. I wish I could see you. It is surprising to me that I have not heard from Hobhouse. Will you write and tell me every particular of what has passed since I saw you? Lord Byron’s hearse came by our gates yesterday. You may judge what I felt. Tell Hobhouse to see about my pictures, and letters and drawings. I will do anything he wishes about Lord Byron’s letters. I am in no anxiety about my own; only you know that they were the most imprudent possible, and, for others’ sakes, it were best to have them destroyed. There are two or three of Lord Byron’s letters to me I should like to keep; all the rest Hobhouse may have. I wish to see Fletcher—is it possible? You may show this letter to Mrs. Leigh or Lady Byron, and tell them I am too ill to write myself. Lord Byron’s death has made an impression on me which I cannot express. I am very sorry I ever said one unkind word against him. I am sure, if you knew how ill I have been, and am, you would come down and see me, for I have a great deal to say which I cannot write.

The death of Byron brought into immediate prominence the question of his autobiographical memoirs, the MS. of which he had given to Moore, who was at that time his guest at La Mira, near Venice, in 1819.

“A short time before dinner,” wrote Moore, “he left the room, and in a minute or two returned carrying in his hand a white-leather bag. ‘Look here,’ he said, holding it up, ‘this would be worth something to Murray, though you, I daresay, would not give sixpence for it.’ ‘What is it?’ I asked. ‘My Life and Adventures,’ he answered. On hearing this I raised my hands in a gesture of wonder. ‘It is not a thing,’ he continued, ‘that can be published during my lifetime, but you may have it if you like: there, do whatever you please with it.’”

“May 28th, 1820.—Received a letter at last from Lord Byron, through Murray, telling me he had informed Lady B. of his having given me his Memoirs for the purpose of their being published after his death, and offering her the perusal of them in case she might wish to confute any of his statements. Her note in answer to this offer (the original of which he enclosed me) is as follows:”—

Moore received the continuation of Lord Byron’s ‘Memoirs’ on the 26th of December, 1820, the postage amounting to forty-six francs and a half. “He advises me,” said Moore in his Diary, “to dispose of the reversion of the MS. now.” Accordingly, Moore, being then involved in pecuniary responsibilities by the defalcations of his deputy in Bermuda, endeavoured to dispose of the ‘Memoirs of Lord Byron.’ He first wrote to the Messrs. Longman, who did not offer him enough; and then to Mr. Murray, who offered him the sum of 2000 guineas, on condition that he should be the editor of the ‘Memoirs,’ and write the ‘Life of Lord Byron.’

I have just received a letter from Mr. Moore—the subject of it is every way worthy of your usual liberality—and I had not a moment’s hesitation in acceding to a proposal which enabled me in any way to join in assisting so excellent a fellow. I have told him—which I suppose you will think fair—that he should give me all additions that you may from time to time make—and in case of survivorship edit the whole—and I will leave it as an heirloom to my son.

Mr. Moore accepted the proposal, and then proceeded to draw upon Mr. Murray for part of the money. It may be added that the agreement between Murray and Moore gave the former the right of publishing the ‘Memoirs’ three months after his Lordship’s death. When that event was authenticated, the manuscript remained at Mr. Murray’s absolute disposal if Moore had not previously redeemed it by the repayment of the 2000 guineas.

During the period that Mr. Moore had been in negotiation with the Longmans and Murray respecting the purchase of the Memoirs, he had given “Lady Holland the MS. to read.” Lord John Russell also states, in his ‘Memoirs of Moore,’ that he had read “the greater part, if not the whole,” and that he should say that some of it was too gross for publication. When the Memoirs came into the hands of Mr. Murray, he entrusted the manuscript to Mr. Gifford, whose opinion coincided with that of Lord John Russell. A few others saw the Memoirs, amongst them Washington

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Irving and Mr. Luttrell. Irving says, in his ‘Memoirs,’ that Moore showed him the Byron recollections, and that they were quite unpublishable.

Mr. Moore himself seems to have been thrown into some doubt as to the sale of the manuscript by the opinion of his friends. “Lord Holland,” he said, “expressed some scruples as to the sale of Lord Byron’s Memoirs, and he wished that I could have got the 2000 guineas in any other way; he seemed to think it was in cold blood, depositing a sort of quiver of poisoned arrows for a future warfare upon private character.”* Mr. Moore had a long conversation on the subject with Mr. J. C. Hobhouse, “who,” he says in his journal, “is an upright and honest man.” When speaking of Lord Byron, he said, “I know more about Lord Byron than any one else, and much more than I should wish any one else to know.”

Lady Byron offered, through Mr. Kinnaird, to advance 2000 guineas for the redemption of the Memoirs from Mr. Murray, but the negotiation was not brought to a definite issue. Moore, when informed of the offer, objected to Lady Byron being consulted about the matter, “for this would be treachery to Lord Byron’s intentions and wishes,” but he agreed to place the Memoirs at the disposal of Lord Byron’s sister, Mrs. Leigh, “to be done with exactly as she thought proper.” He was of opinion that those parts of the manuscript should be destroyed which were found objectionable; but that those parts should be retained which were not, for his benefit and that of the public. These were his own words.

Mr. Murray therefore put himself into communication with Lord Byron’s nearest friends and relations with respect to the disposal of the Memoirs. His suggestion was at first strongly opposed by some of them; but he urged his objections to publication with increased zeal, even renouncing every claim to indemnification for what he had paid to Mr. Moore. A meeting of those who were entitled to act in the matter was at length agreed upon, and the day preceding that on which it was to take place, Mr. Murray received the following letter from his old friend Mr. Barrow:—

I enclose you a note from Sir William Hope, who is exceedingly interested in what concerns Lady Byron; and I have ventured to assure him that you will take no step hastily, and I have reason to believe that you have no other object than of being indemnified for the money you gave for the manuscript. It would be well got rid of, if he would take it off your hands and consign it to the flames. Entre nous, however, don’t let any of the parties see it, or know what it contains.

The meeting at length took place in Murray’s drawing-room, on the 17th of May, 1824. There were present

MEETING IN MURRAY’S DRAWING-ROOM.

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Mr. Murray, Mr. Moore, Mr. J. C. Hobhouse, Colonel Doyle representing Lady Byron, Mr. Wilmot Horton representing Mrs. Leigh, and Mr. Luttrell, a friend of Moore’s. Young Mr. Murray—then sixteen; the only person of those assembled now living—was also in the room. The discussion was long and stormy before the meeting broke up, and nearly led to a challenge between Moore and Hobhouse. A reference to the agreement between Moore and Murray being necessary, for a long time that document could not be found; it was at length discovered, but only after the decision to commit the manuscript to the flames had been made and carried out, and the party remained until the last sheet of Lord Byron’s Memoirs had vanished in smoke up the Albemarle Street chimney.

“The parties, Messrs. Moore, Murray, Hobhouse, Col. Doyle for Lady B., and Mr. Wilmot for me, and Mr. Luttrell, a friend of Mr. Moore’s, met at Mr. Murray’s; and after a long dispute and nearly quarrelling, upon Mr. Wilmot stating what was my wish and opinion, the MS. was burnt, and Moore paid Murray the 2000 guineas. Immediately almost after this was done, the legal agreement between Moore and Murray (which had been mislaid) was found, and, strange to say, it appeared from it (what both had forgotten), that the property of the MS. was Murray’s bonâ fide. Consequently he had the right to dispose of it as he pleased; and as he had behaved most handsomely upon the occasion. . . . it was desired by our family that he should receive the 2000 guineas back.”*

The statements made in the press, as to Lord Byron’s Memoirs having been burnt, occasioned much public excitement, and many applications were made to Mr. Murray for information on the subject. Amongst those who made particular inquiry was Mr. Jerdan, of the Literary Gazette, who inclosed to Mr. Murray the paragraph which he proposed to insert in his journal. Mr. Murray informed him that the account was so very erroneous, that he desired him either to condense it down to the smallest compass, or to omit it altogether. Mr. Jerdan, however, replied that the subject was of so much public interest, that he could not refuse to state the particulars, and the following was sent to him, prepared by Mr. Murray:—

Some months after the execution of this assignment, Mr. Moore requested me, as a great personal favour to himself and to Lord Byron, to enter into a second agreement, by which I should resign the absolute property which I had in the Memoirs, and give Mr. Moore and Lord Byron, or any of their friends, a power of redemption during the life of Lord Byron. As the reason pressed upon me for this change was that their friends thought there were some things in the Memoirs that might be injurious to both, I did not hesitate to make this alteration at Mr. Moore’s request; and, accordingly, on the 6th day of May, 1822, a second deed was executed, stating that, “Whereas Lord Byron and Mr. Moore are now inclined to wish the said work not to be published, it is agreed that, if either of them shall, during the life of the said Lord Byron, repay the 2000 guineas to Mr. Murray, the latter shall redeliver the Memoirs; but that, if the sum be not repaid during the lifetime of Lord Byron, Mr. Murray shall be at full liberty to print and publish the said Memoirs within Three Months* after the death of the said Lord Byron.” I need hardly call your particular attention to the words, carefully inserted twice over in this agreement, which limited its existence to the lifetime of Lord Byron; the reason of such limitation was obvious and natural—namely that, although I consented to restore the work, while Lord Byron should be alive to direct the ulterior disposal of it, I would by no means consent to place it after his death at the disposal of any other person.

Finding this application unavailing, and becoming, by the greater lapse of time, still more doubtful as to what the intentions of the parties might be, I, in March 1824, repeated my demand to Mr. Moore in a more peremptory manner, and was in consequence at length put into possession of the original deed. But, not being at all satisfied with the course that had been pursued towards me, I repeated to Mr. Moore my uneasiness at the terms on which I stood under the second agreement, and renewed my request to him that he would either cancel it, or execute its provisions by the immediate redemption of the work, in order that I might exactly know what my rights in the property were. He requested time to consider this proposition. In a day or two he called, and told me that he would adopt the latter alternative—namely, the redemption of the Memoirs—as he had found persons who were ready to advance the money on his insuring his life; and he promised to conclude the business on the first day of his return to town, by paying the money and giving up the agreement. Mr. Moore did return to town, but did not, that I have heard of, take any proceedings for insuring his life; he positively neither wrote nor called upon me as he had promised to do (though he was generally accustomed to make mine one of his first houses of call);—nor did he take any other step, that I am aware of, to show that he had any recollection of the conversation which had passed between us previous to his leaving town, until the death of Lord Byron had, ipso facto, cancelled the agreement in question, and completely restored my absolute rights over the property of the Memoirs.

As I myself scrupulously refrained from looking into the Memoirs, I cannot, from my own knowledge, say whether such an opinion of the contents was correct or not; it was enough for me that the friends of Lord and Lady Byron united in wishing for their destruction. Why Mr. Moore should have wished to preserve them I did not nor will I inquire; but, having satisfied myself that he had no right whatever in them, I was happy in having an opportunity of making, by a pecuniary sacrifice on my part, some return for the honour, and I must add, the profit, which I had derived from Lord Byron’s patronage and friendship. You will also be able to bear witness that—although I could not presume to impose an obligation on the friends of Lord Byron or Mr. Moore, by refusing to receive the repayment of the 2000 guineas advanced by me—yet I had determined on the destruction of the Memoirs without any previous agreement for such repayment:—and you know the Memoirs were actually destroyed without any stipulation on my part, but even with a declaration that I had destroyed my own private property—and I therefore had no claim upon any party for remuneration.

“Poor Lord Byron! No person’s death has ever yet had the effect upon me which his had. I had a full persuasion, however, that his career would be a short one, and I never took up a paper with intelligence from Greece in it without the apprehension of seeing that Lord Byron had fallen in battle—the fate which my mind had assigned to him.”

Mr. Murray, acting on the advice offered by Mr. Turner in his postscript, prepared a short pamphlet, which he circulated widely, containing seriatim Mr. Medwin’s statements of what he alleged Lord Byron to have said, contrasted with extracts from Lord Byron’s own letters, which Murray printed side by side in double columns. In every case Mr. Medwin’s statements were flatly contradicted by Lord Byron’s own words; and the pamphlet, though in a small compass, was considered one of the most effective replies which have ever been made to an accusation of the kind. One proof of this is that Mr. Medwin never attempted any repetition or vindication of his charges.*

“If you write,” he wrote to Moore, “write poetry, or, if you can find a good subject, write prose; but do not undertake to write the life of another reprobate [referring to Moore’s ‘Life of Sheridan.’] In short, do anything but write the life of Lord Byron.”†

Yet Moore grievously wanted money, and this opportunity presented itself to him with irresistible force as a means of adding to his resources. At length he became reconciled to Mr. Murray through the intercession of Mr. Hobhouse. Moore informed the Longmans of the reconciliation, and, in a liberal and considerate manner, they said to him, “Do not let us stand in the way of any arrangements you may make; it is our wish to see you free from debt, and it would be only in this one work that we should be separated.” It was in this way that Mr. Moore undertook to write for Mr. Murray the Life of Lord Byron. Mr. Murray agreed to repay Moore the 2000 guineas he had given for the burned Memoirs and £2000 extra for editing the letters and writing the Life, and Moore in his diary says that he considered this offer perfectly liberal. Nothing, he adds, could be more frank, gentleman-like, and satisfactory than the manner in which this affair had been settled on all sides.

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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).

Ada King, countess of Lovelace [née Byron] (1815-1852) Byron's daughter by Lady Byron; in 1835 she married William King, eighth Baron King of Ockham (1805-1893), afterwards earl of Lovelace.

Anne Isabella Noel Byron [née Milbanke] [Annabella] (1792-1860) The only child of Sir Ralph Milbanke; married Byron in 1815, separating shortly after the birth of their daughter Ada in January 1816.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) The author of Childe Harold and Don Juan.

Henry Colburn (1785-1855) English publisher who began business about 1806; he co-founded the New Monthly Magazine in 1814 and was publisher of the Literary Gazette from 1817.

Emily Mary Cowper, countess Cowper [née Lamb] (1787-1869) Whig hostess, the daughter of Sir Peniston Lamb, first Viscount Melbourne; she married (1) in 1805 Sir Peter Leopold Louis Francis Nassau Cowper, fifth Earl Cowper, and (2) in 1839, her long-time lover, Henry John Temple, third Viscount Palmerston.

Sir Francis Hastings Doyle, first baronet (1783-1839) Major-General, friend of Lady Byron, and father of the poet of the same name.

William Fletcher (1831 fl.) Byron's valet, the son of a Newstead tenant; he continued in service to the end of the poet's life, after which he was pensioned by the family. He married Anne Rood, formerly maid to Augusta Leigh, and was living in London in 1831.

Elizabeth Fox, Lady Holland [née Vassall] (1771 c.-1845) In 1797 married Henry Richard Fox, Lord Holland, following her divorce from Sir Godfrey Webster; as mistress of Holland House she became a pillar of Whig society.

King George IV of Great Britain (1762-1830) Prince Regent (1811-20) and King of Great Britain (1820-1830).

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).

Hatagèe (1824 fl.) A Turkish girl of about nine years of age who Byron rescued while in Missolonghi and proposed sending to Dr. James Kennedy for adoption; in the event, she was restored to her father, Hussein Aga, a secretary to Yusuf Pasha.

John Cam Hobhouse, baron Broughton (1786-1869) Founder of the Cambridge Whig Club; traveled with Byron in the orient, radical MP for Westminster (1820); Byron's executor; after a long career in politics published Some Account of a Long Life (1865) later augmented as Recollections of a Long Life, 6 vols (1909-1911).

Francis Hodgson (1781-1852) Provost of Eton College, translator of Juvenal (1807) and close friend of Byron. He wrote for the Monthly and Critical Reviews, and was author of (among other volumes of poetry) Childe Harold's Monitor; or Lines occasioned by the last Canto of Childe Harold (1818).

Sir William Johnstone Hope (1766-1831) Naval officer and MP for Dumfries (1800-02) and Dumfries-shire (1804-30) aligned with Lord Melville; he was an acquaintance of Lady Byron.

Sir Robert John Wilmot- Horton, third baronet (1784-1841) Byron's cousin; he was MP for Newcastle under Lyme (1818-30), governor of Ceylon (1831-37), and was Augusta Leigh's representative at the destruction of Byron's memoir; he succeeded to his title in 1834.

John Ireland (1761-1842) Dean of Westminster and a close friend of William Gifford; he published Nuptiae sacrae, or, An Enquiry into the Scriptural Doctrine of Marriage and Divorce (1801).

Washington Irving [Geoffrey Crayon] (1783-1859) American writer living in England in 1815, where he made his reputation with The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent (1820).

William Jerdan (1782-1869) Scottish journalist who for decades edited the Literary Gazette; he was author of Autobiography (1853) and Men I have Known (1866).

Douglas James William Kinnaird (1788-1830) Whig MP (1819-20) and banker; he introduced Byron to Isaac Nathan and managed Byron's finances.

Lady Caroline Lamb [née Ponsonby] (1785-1828) Daughter of the third earl of Bessborough; she married the Hon. William Lamb (1779-1848) and fictionalized her infatuation with Lord Byron in her first novel, Glenarvon (1816).

Hon. Augusta Mary Leigh [née Byron] (1783-1851) Byron's half-sister; the daughter of Amelia Darcy, Baroness Conyers, she married Lieutenant-Colonel George Leigh on 17 August 1807.

Edward Noel Long (1788-1809) Byron's classmate at Harrow, afterwards ensign in the Coldstream Guards; he died at sea during the Peninsular Campaign.

Thomas Norton Longman (1771-1842) A leading London publisher whose authors included Southey, Wordsworth, Scott, and Moore.

Henry Luttrell (1768-1851) English wit, dandy, and friend of Thomas Moore and Samuel Rogers; he was the author of Advice to Julia, a Letter in Rhyme (1820).

Prince Alexander Mavrocordatos [Αλεξανδρος Μαβροκορδατος] (1791-1865) Greek statesman and diplomat with Byron at Missolonghi; after study at the University of Padua he joined the Greek Revolution in 1821 and in 1822 was elected by the National Assembly at Epidaurus. He commanded forces in western Central Greece and retired in 1826 after the Fall of Messolonghi.

Thomas Medwin (1788-1869) Lieutenant of dragoons who was with Byron and Shelley at Pisa; the author of Conversations of Lord Byron (1824) and The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley, 2 vols (1847).

Thomas Mitchell (1783-1845) Son of a riding master; after study at Christ's Hospital and Pembroke College, Cambridge; Mitchell worked as a tutor for Thomas Hope, wrote for the Examiner and Quarterly Review, and translated Aristophanes.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Irish poet and biographer, author of the Irish Melodies (1807-34), The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and Lalla Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.

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.

John Murray III (1808-1892) The son of the Anak of publishers; he successfully carried on the family publishing business.

Mary Ann Musters [née Chaworth] (1785-1832) The grand-niece of the Chaworth who was killed by “Wicked Jack” Byron; she was the object of Byron's affections before and after she married John Musters in 1805.

James Parke, baron Wensleydale (1782-1868) English barrister and member of the King's Bench (1828); he was created a peer in 1856.

William Parry (1773-1859) Military engineer at Missolonghi; he was author of The Last Days of Lord Byron (1825).

William Pitt the younger (1759-1806) The second son of William Pitt, earl of Chatham (1708-1778); he was Tory prime minister 1783-1801.

John Russell, first earl Russell (1792-1878) English statesman, son of John Russell sixth duke of Bedford (1766-1839); he was author of Essay on the English Constitution (1821) and Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe (1824) and was Prime Minister (1865-66).

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Scottish poet, novelist, antiquary, biographer, editor, and sheriff.

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).

Sharon Turner (1768-1847) Attorney, historian, and writer for the Quarterly Review; he wrote History of the Anglo-Saxons, 4 vols (1799-1805).

Literary Gazette, and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, etc. (1817-1862). Edited by William Jerdan to 1850, the Literary Gazette was the most successful of the weekly literary newspapers.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) Don Juan. (London: 1819-1824). A burlesque poem in ottava rima published in installments: Cantos I and II published in 1819, III, IV and V in 1821, VI, VII, and VIII in 1823, IX, X, and XI in 1823, XII, XIII, and XIV in 1823, and XV and XVI in 1824.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) Memoir. (1824: destroyed). The autobiographical memoranda begun in 1818 and given to Thomas Moore in 1819; after Byron's death it was suppressed with the encouragement of John Cam Hobhouse and John Murray.

Francis Hodgson (1781-1852) Memoir of the Rev. Francis Hodgson, B.D., Scholar, Poet, and Divine, with numerous Letters from Lord Byron and others. 2 vols (London: Macmillan, 1878). The memoir by the Hodgson's son, James Thomas Hodgson (1845-1880).

Thomas Medwin (1788-1869) Conversations of Lord Byron: noted during a Residence with his Lordship at Pisa, in the Years 1821 and 1822. (London: Colburn, 1824). Medwin had been invited to Italy by Shelley and was intimate with both poets.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Letters and Journals of Lord Byron with Notices of his Life. 2 vols (London: Murray, 1830). The first authorized collection of Byron's letters and journals.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence. 8 vols (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1853). Edited by Moore's friend Lord John Russell.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan. 2 vols (London: Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1825). Moore's first venture into biography was successful enough that he was elected to produce the authorized life of Byron.

John Murray II (1778-1843) Notes on Captain Medwin's Conversations of Lord Byron. ([London]: 1824). Byron's publisher defends his reputation in this unpublished (but circulated) pamphlet.

INFORMATION FROM TEI HEADER

Source Description:

Author: Smiles, Samuel, 1812-1904

Title: Memoir of John Murray 2 Vols (London: John Murray, 1891).

Electronic Edition:

Series: Lord Byron and his Times: http://lordbyron.org

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Markup and editing by: David Hill Radcliffe

Completed April 2009

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Publisher: Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Tech

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