Charles Edward Mudie
Encyclopedia
Charles Edward Mudie English
publisher and founder of Mudie's Lending Library and Mudie’s Subscription Library, was the son of a second-hand bookseller and newsagent. In 1840 he established a stationery and book-selling business in Bloomsbury
. He was the first publisher of James Russell Lowell
's poems in England, and of Emerson
's Man Thinking.
per year for the right to borrow one volume of a novel at a time. This proved so successful that in 1852 he moved his "Select Library" to larger premises at 509, 510 & 511 New Oxford Street, at its junction with Museum Street and Hart Street, just a few yards south of the British Museum
. London. As a side-note, Mudie's Library is mentioned in the H.G.Wells classic, The Invisible Man. Chapter 21 : In Oxford Street. "We crawled past Mudie's, and there a tall woman with five or six yellow-labelled books hailed my cab, and I sprang out just in time to escape her, shaving a railway van narrowly in my flight. I made off up the roadway to Bloomsbury Square, intending to strike north past the Museum and so get into the quiet district."
Mudies soon had outlets on Cross Street in Manchester and on New Street in Birmingham. They also exported books using watertight boxes some of which were reported to have survived shipwreck.
He was able to offer publishers advance purchase of three or four hundred copies of their new books and was obtaining corresponding discounts. Mudies withdrawn books were offered for sale at £5 for a hundred volumes in 1860.
The cost of novels in the Victorian era was such that most middle-class English people could not afford to purchase novels privately, so lending libraries like "Mudie's" had a strong influence over publishers and authors. The rise of the three-volume novel
can be directly attributed to this influence, and Mudie's refusal to stock "immoral" books, such as, George Moore's
A Modern Lover (1883), A Mummers Wife (1885) and A Drama in Muslin (1886), also had an effect on the direction of Victorian literature.
Mudie was also crucial in the success of scientific volumes – In November 1859 he bought 500 copies of the first publication of Charles Darwin
's On the Origin of Species.
In 1860 the company's New Oxford Street premises were substantially enlarged, and new branches of the business were subsequently established in other English cities such as York, Manchester and Birmingham. In 1864 Mudie's was converted into a limited company. The decline of Mudie's eventually came as a result of the rising number of government-funded public libraries
, which offered similar services at a much reduced rate.
About Mudie's
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
publisher and founder of Mudie's Lending Library and Mudie’s Subscription Library, was the son of a second-hand bookseller and newsagent. In 1840 he established a stationery and book-selling business in Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury
-Places:* Bloomsbury is an area in central London.* Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...
. He was the first publisher of James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the popularity of British poets...
's poems in England, and of Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
's Man Thinking.
Career
In 1842 he began to lend books to students at the University of London, charging subscribers one guineaGuinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...
per year for the right to borrow one volume of a novel at a time. This proved so successful that in 1852 he moved his "Select Library" to larger premises at 509, 510 & 511 New Oxford Street, at its junction with Museum Street and Hart Street, just a few yards south of the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. London. As a side-note, Mudie's Library is mentioned in the H.G.Wells classic, The Invisible Man. Chapter 21 : In Oxford Street. "We crawled past Mudie's, and there a tall woman with five or six yellow-labelled books hailed my cab, and I sprang out just in time to escape her, shaving a railway van narrowly in my flight. I made off up the roadway to Bloomsbury Square, intending to strike north past the Museum and so get into the quiet district."
Mudies soon had outlets on Cross Street in Manchester and on New Street in Birmingham. They also exported books using watertight boxes some of which were reported to have survived shipwreck.
He was able to offer publishers advance purchase of three or four hundred copies of their new books and was obtaining corresponding discounts. Mudies withdrawn books were offered for sale at £5 for a hundred volumes in 1860.
The cost of novels in the Victorian era was such that most middle-class English people could not afford to purchase novels privately, so lending libraries like "Mudie's" had a strong influence over publishers and authors. The rise of the three-volume novel
Three-volume novel
The three-volume novel was a standard form of publishing for British fiction during the nineteenth century. It was a significant stage in the development of the modern Western novel as a form of popular literature.The format does not correspond closely to what would now be considered a trilogy of...
can be directly attributed to this influence, and Mudie's refusal to stock "immoral" books, such as, George Moore's
George Moore (novelist)
George Augustus Moore was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist. Moore came from a Roman Catholic landed family who lived at Moore Hall in Carra, County Mayo. He originally wanted to be a painter, and studied art in Paris during the 1870s...
A Modern Lover (1883), A Mummers Wife (1885) and A Drama in Muslin (1886), also had an effect on the direction of Victorian literature.
Mudie was also crucial in the success of scientific volumes – In November 1859 he bought 500 copies of the first publication of Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
's On the Origin of Species.
In 1860 the company's New Oxford Street premises were substantially enlarged, and new branches of the business were subsequently established in other English cities such as York, Manchester and Birmingham. In 1864 Mudie's was converted into a limited company. The decline of Mudie's eventually came as a result of the rising number of government-funded public libraries
Public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...
, which offered similar services at a much reduced rate.
Sources
- Trafficking In Literary Authority: Mudie's Select Library And The Commodification Of The Victorian Novel, L Roberts - Victorian Literature and Culture, 2006 - Cambridge Univ Press
- A Victorian Leviathan: Mudie's Select Library, Guinevere L. Griest, Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 20, No. 2, 103-126. Sep., 1965
Further reading
CatalogsAbout Mudie's
- "Mudie's." Leisure Hour, 1861
- "Going to Mudie's." London Society v.16, no.95, Nov. 1869.
- Clarence Gohdes. British Interest in American Literature During the Latter Part of the Nineteenth Century as Reflected by Mudie's Select Library. American Literature, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Jan., 1942), pp. 356–362
External links
- Pratt Institute. Bookplate of Mudie's Select Library
- Flickr. Mudie's Library label in a 1928 collected edition of Sherlock Holmes stories, published by John Murray
- New York Public Library. Portrait of Mudie