Smith, Elder

About Smith, Elder

Smith, Elder & Co. was a London publisher founded in 1816 by George Smith and Alexander Elder, famous as the first publisher of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (1847) and of The Cornhill Magazine, and absorbed by John Murray in 1917.

The partners began as booksellers and stationers in Fenchurch Street, moved to 65 Cornhill in 1824 and later to 15 Waterloo Place. Alongside publishing they ran agency and banking business with strong Indian connections. The founder's son, George Murray Smith, took charge of publishing in 1843 and made the firm's literary name. He accepted Jane Eyre, issued under the pseudonym Currer Bell in 1847, and the firm also published Thackeray, Robert Browning, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy and John Ruskin.

Smith launched The Cornhill Magazine, first issued in January 1860 with Thackeray as editor, founded the Pall Mall Gazette in 1865, and financed the Dictionary of National Biography, published in 63 volumes from 1885 to 1900. Between 1891 and 1915 the firm published much of Arthur Conan Doyle's work, including The White Company, Rodney Stone, The Great Boer War, Sir Nigel and The Valley of Fear.

After the death of Reginald Smith, George Smith's son-in-law and the last head of the firm, on 26 December 1916, John Murray bought its book rights and stock in May 1917.

How to spot a Smith, Elder first edition

• The first edition of Jane Eyre (1847) is in three volumes with the title page reading "edited by Currer Bell" and the imprint of Smith, Elder and Co., London.
• First-edition copies carry a 32-page publisher's catalogue, which auction descriptions record in more than one form: dated June 1847 in some copies, with a leaf advertising The Calcutta Review at the end of volume 1, and dated October at the end of volume 1 in others.