Murray's Family Library

Murray's Family Library was a series of non-fiction works published from 1829 to 1834, by John Murray II of the John Murray publishing house, in 51 volumes. The series editor was John Gibson Lockhart, who also wrote the first book, a biography of Napoleon.^[1] The books were priced at five shillings;^[2] Murray's approach, which did not involve part-publication, is considered a fundamentally more conservative business model, and intention, than used by the contemporary library of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.^[3]

Original Library

Volume	Year	Author	Title
I (2 vols.)	1829[4]	John Gibson Lockhart[1]	The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte[5]
III	1829[6]	John Williams	The Life and Actions of Alexander the Great[5][7]
IV, X, XIII, XIX, XXVII, XXXVIII	1829–31	Allan Cunningham[8]	Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters, Sculptors and Architects[5][9]
V, VI and IX	Vol. V August 1829[6]	Henry Hart Milman[10]	The History of the Jews[5]
VII, LI	1829[6]	Anonymous (a number of authors;[6] Robert Ferguson)[9][11]	The Natural History of Insects[5]
VIII	1829	Anonymous (S. Dunham Whitehead)[6]	The Court and Camp of Buonaparte[5]
XI	1830[6]	Washington Irving	The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (abridged)[5]
XII	1830[6]	Robert Southey	The Life of Nelson, third edition[5]
XIV	1830[6]	Anonymous (William Macmichael and others; memoir of Caleb Hillier Parry by his son W. C. Parry)[6][12]	Lives of Eminent British Physicians[5]
XV, XLVIII, XLIX, L	1830[13]	George Robert Gleig	The History of British India[5][9]
XVI	1830[13]	Walter Scott	Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft[14]
XVII	1830[13]	Francis Bond Head	Life of Bruce the African Traveller[14]
XVIII	1830[13]	Irving	Companions of Columbus[9]
XX, XXXII	Vol. XX 1831[13]	Anonymous, (Edward Smedley)[15]	Sketches from Venetian History[9][16]
XXI	1831[13]	Francis Palgrave	History of England[9]
XXII, XXXIV, XXXVII	Vol. XXII 1831	Patrick Fraser Tytler	Lives of Scottish Worthies[9]
XXIII	1831	Anonymous (John Barrow)[13]	Family Tour through South Holland[9]
XXIV	1831[13]	David Brewster	Life of Sir Isaac Newton[9]
XXV	1831[13]	Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet	The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of HMS Bounty[9]
XXVI (2 vols.)	Vol. XXVI December 1831[13]	John James Blunt	Reformation in England[9][17]
XXVIII (3 vols.)	1832[13]	John Lander and Richard Lander, editor Alexander Bridport Becher[13]	Adventures in the Niger[9]
XXXI	1832[13]	Anonymous (Charles Edward Dodd)[13]	The Trials of Charles I, and of some of the Regicides[18]
XXXIII	1832[19]	Brewster	Letters on Natural Magic[9]
XXXV	1832[19]	Sir John Barrow[19]	Life of Peter the Great[9]
XXXVI	1832[19]	Henry Nelson Coleridge	Six Months in the West Indies[9]
XXXIX (2 vols.)	1834[19]	Irving[19]	Sketch Book[9]
XLI (6 vols.)	1834[19]	Alexander Fraser Tytler[19]	Universal History[9]
XLVII	22 September 1834.[19]	Crofton Croker[19]	Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, 2nd edition illustrated by Daniel Maclise[9][20]

Subsequent additions

In 1834 Murray sold out to Thomas Tegg.^[21] Further volumes were added to the Library, under Tegg's management. There was a total of 80 volumes, by 1847.^[22]

Volume	Year	Author	Title
LII		Daniel Defoe	History of the Plague[9] Notes by E. W. Brayley[22]
LIII (2 vols.)		Cyrus R. Edmonds	Life and Times of George Washington[9]
LV		Irving	Knickerbocker's History of New York[9][22]
LVI (3 vols.)		John Wesley	A Compendium of Natural Philosophy[9]
LIX (2 vols.)		Philippe-Paul de Ségur	Bonaparte's Campaigns in Russia[9]
LXI	1837	Richard Alfred Davenport[23]	Life of Ali Pasha, of Tepelini[9]
LXII		Charles Macfarlane[24]	Lives and Exploits of Banditti and Robbers[9]
LXIII		Davenport[23]	Sketches of Imposture, Decepture and Credulity[9]
LXIV	1838	Davenport[23]	History of the Bastile[9]
LXV		James Francis Hollings	Life of Gustavus Adolphus[9]
LXVI		Richard Thomson[22]	Chronicles of London Bridge[9]
LXVII		Charles Bucke	Life of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough[9]
LXVII	1839	Thomas Roscoe	The Life and Writings of Miguel de Cervantes (1839), based on Martín Fernández de Navarrete.[25][26]
LXIX	1839	Hollings	Cicero's Life[22][27]
LXX (2 vols.)	1840	Bucke	Ruins of Ancient Cities[28][29]
LXXII	1840	William Edmonstoune Aytoun	Life and Times of Richard I[22][30][31]
LXXIII	1840	Samuel Green	Life of Mahomet[22][32][33]
LXXIV (2 vols.)		Davenport	Narrative of Perils and Sufferings[22][34]
(3 vols.)	1841	John Chetwode Eustace	Classical Tour through Italy, 8th edition[22][35]
LXXIX		Davenport	Lives of Individuals who have Raised Themselves from Poverty to Eminence or Fortune[36]
LXXX	1842	Anonymous (William Johnson Neale)	History of the Mutiny at Spithead and the Nore[37]

References

• Scott Bennett, John Murray's Family Library and the Cheapening of Books in Early Nineteenth Century Britain, Studies in Bibliography Vol. 29, (1976), pp. 139–166. Published by: Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40371632