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Letter from Smiles to Murray, 3 Jan 1860

Author(s): Smiles, Samuel

Text

6, Granville Park Terrace
Blackheath S.E.
3 Jany 1860

My Dear Sir


Mr Cooke writes me that
you will not object to my including
your “forbears”, as the Scotch call
them , among my list of self made
men. I have this morning received
materials from Mr Walter
of Bearwood for a capital memoïr
of his father , and I have no
doubt you can supply me with
quite as good respecting yours ;—
and by the way , as there have
been 3 Walters , so have there
been 3 Murrays , contemporaries
in the publishing world , each steadily





advancing & going right to the
head of his own branch of business.
There must be a great deal of
curious & interesting facts you can
supply me with respecting successful
& unsuccessful books — the detection , by
the quick sighted publisher , of the merits
of books — in short a large amount
of literary anecdotes of an entirely
original character. Any facts
relating to small beginnings are always
interesting. I have some very good ones
respecting Clowes & Walter (the first)
and you may be able to supply
me with quite as good respecting
Murray the First. As I have said
to Mr Cooke , I have been surprized




to find how extensive a field of
unworked biography has been opened
up to me by the publication of this last
little book ; and it is more than
ever clear to me that the men
of industry , who have made this county
what it is , have been too much neglected.
I shall be glad if I can
do some what to rescue from forgetfulness
a few of the more distinguished
of these honourable men . When
you are at leisure , I must spend
an evening with you , entirely by
yourself , and this matter can be
talked over. In the mean time you
will oblige me by noting down the
[heads] of any interesting recollections
that may occur to you .

Yours vy faithfully

S Smiles

J. Murray Esq




Jan 3 1860

Smiles. S.

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APA Style:

Letter from Smiles to Murray, 3 Jan 1860. 2024. In The Corpus of Modern Scottish Writing. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. Retrieved 13 December 2024, from http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/cmsw/document/?documentid=208.

MLA Style:

"Letter from Smiles to Murray, 3 Jan 1860." The Corpus of Modern Scottish Writing. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2024. Web. 13 December 2024. http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/cmsw/document/?documentid=208.

Chicago Style

The Corpus of Modern Scottish Writing, s.v., "Letter from Smiles to Murray, 3 Jan 1860," accessed 13 December 2024, http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/cmsw/document/?documentid=208.

If your style guide prefers a single bibliography entry for this resource, we recommend:

The Corpus of Modern Scottish Writing. 2024. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/cmsw/.

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Letter from Smiles to Murray, 3 Jan 1860

Document Information

Document ID 208
Title Letter from Smiles to Murray, 3 Jan 1860
Year group 1850-1900
Genre Personal writing
Year of publication 1860
Place of publication London
Wordcount 329

Author information: Smiles, Samuel

Author ID 59
Forenames Samuel
Surname Smiles
Gender Male
Year of birth 1822
Place of birth Haddington, Scotland
Mother's place of birth Dalkeith, Scotland
Father's place of birth Haddington, Scotland
Occupation Author, physician, editor, secretary
Education University
Locations where resident England, Haddington, Edinburgh, Londno