More On the Murray Archive
In a bizarrely titled article, the Scotsman‘s Tim Cornwell talks about the process of cataloguing the John Murray archives.
The archive is being offered to the National Library at what is said to be a discount price by today’s John Murray, after the firm was sold to publishing giant Hodder Headline. Quaritch have put the value at 45m, possibly more.
For the last quarter-century or so it has been maintained by Murray’s wife, Virginia. She enjoys the detailed ledgers kept for every book, showing costings, print run, sales figures, correspondence between author and publisher, and even where a book was pulped because it failed to sell.
Read the article here.