John Murray
John Murray is a London publisher founded in 1768, family-run for seven generations, publisher of Byron, Austen's Emma and Darwin's Origin of Species, and now part of Hachette UK.
- Editions tracked
- 63
- First editions
- 37
- Books
- 63
- Years
- 1822 to 2021
About John Murray
John Murray is a London publishing house founded in 1768 by John Murray, an Edinburgh-born former officer of marines, and run by seven generations of the family until 2002; it was the publisher of Lord Byron, Jane Austen's Emma and Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, and is now an imprint of Hachette UK.
The founder bought a bookselling business at 32 Fleet Street in 1768. His son, John Murray II, launched the Quarterly Review in 1809, published Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Walter Scott and Austen's Emma (1815), and in 1812 moved the firm to 50 Albemarle Street, Mayfair, its home for nearly two centuries and a famous meeting place for writers. John Murray III published Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859), David Livingstone and Herman Melville, and created the Handbooks for Travellers.
In 1917 Murray bought the book rights and stock of Smith, Elder & Co., and it went on to publish Arthur Conan Doyle, issuing The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes on 16 June 1927. The family ran the firm through John Murray V, Jock Murray and John Murray VII until 2002, when it was sold to Hodder Headline. Lagardere bought Hodder Headline in 2004, and John Murray now publishes within Hachette UK. The National Library of Scotland holds the firm's archive.
How to spot a John Murray first edition
- From at least the 1920s Murray printed "First Edition" on the reverse of the title page of new books, a practice it confirmed to H. S. Boutell in both 1928 and 1947.
AuthorsCharles Darwin (4)Arthur Conan Doyle (4)James Frey (3)Françoise Sagan (3)Amitav Ghosh (2)Manu Joseph (2)Jonathan Rosenberg (2)Eric Schmidt (2)Aesop (1)Al-Ghazali (1)
SeriesJesse StoneSherlock Holmes novelsSlough Housecanon of Sherlock Holmes
Published by John Murray
- John Murray1836 Hardback Not yet valued Log in to want this
- John Murray1846 Hardback Not yet valued Log in to want this
- John Murray1854 Hardback Not yet valued Log in to want this
- John Murray1859 Hardback Not yet valued Log in to want this
- John Murray1875 Hardback Not yet valued Log in to want this
- John Murray1881 Hardback Not yet valued Log in to want this
- 1st John Murray1910 Hardback Not yet valued Log in to want this
- John Murray1915 Hardback Not yet valued Log in to want this
- John Murray1920 Hardback Not yet valued Log in to want this
- John Murray1922 Hardback Not yet valued Log in to want this
- John Murray1960 Hardback Not yet valued Log in to want this
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify a John Murray first edition?
- From at least the 1920s Murray printed "First Edition" on the reverse of the title page of new books, a practice it confirmed to H. S. Boutell in both 1928 and 1947.
How many John Murray books does MyVolumes track?
We track 63 editions published by John Murray, 37 of them first editions, across 63 books.
Where these facts come from
- John Murray (publishing house), Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- John Murray family, National Library of Scotland (nls.uk)
- John Murray, The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia (arthur-conan-doyle.com)
- First Editions of Today and How to Tell Them (3rd edn), H. S. Boutell, Internet Archive, 1949 (archive.org)
- Boutell's First Editions of To-Day, Ash Rare Books, 2019 (ashrarebooks.com)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 17 October 2026.