John Wright was a major London publisher and bookseller and one of the two booksellers who sold Shakespeare's Sonnets

Shakespeare's sonnets

Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form written by William Shakespeare, dealing with themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. All but two of the poems were first published in a 1609 quarto entitled SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS.: Never before imprinted. Sonnets 138 and 144...

in 1609. He also was a member of the syndicate that printed the Shakespeare First Folio

First Folio

Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. is the 1623 published collection of William Shakespeare's plays. Modern scholars commonly refer to it as the First Folio....

 in 1623. He published several editions of Christopher Marlowe’s

Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...

 Doctor Faustus

Doctor Faustus

Doctor Faustus could refer to:*The character of Faust*Dr. Johann Georg Faust , widely considered to be an inspiration for the character of Faust....

beginning with the second in 1616, was an official printer for Parliament

Parliament

A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...

, and published several early newspapers and ballads.

Career

Wright finished his apprenticeship in 1602 and published many notable books, setting up his business at the Kings Head in the Old Bailey. He was the chief publisher of ballads in partnership with Fr. Coles, T. Vere, and W. Gilbertson. In 1609 he and bookseller William Aspley

William Aspley

William Aspley was a London publisher of the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline eras. He was a member of the publishing syndicates that issued the First Folio and Second Folio collections of Shakespeare's plays, in 1623 and 1632.-Career:...

 were the vendors of Shakespeare's sonnets, and seven of the 13 extant copies bear Wright's imprint.

His publication of a book against the Parliament in 1643 caused him to be committed to the Compter, but by the next month he had become one of the official printers for the body.

On 11 May 1643, he started a news-sheet called Mercurius Civicus

Mercurius Civicus

Mercurius Civicus: Londons Intelligencer, or, Truth impartially related from thence to the whole Kingdome to prevent mis-information was an English Civil War weekly newspaper appearing on Thursdays from 4 May 1643 to 10 December 1646 published by John Wright and Thomas Bates...

with Thomas Bates, which ran until the end of 1646. Each issue included a woodcut or two on the first page illustrate some event. Wright and Bates were also published The True Informer, another news-sheet.

Family and death

Wright married Katherine, the daughter of Christopher Hatfield, citizen and cutler of London, and is mentioned in his will. They had a son, John Wright, Jr. Wright died in May 1658 and was buried on the 11th of that month.

John Wright, Jr.

John Wright, Jr., became his father’s partner beginning in 1634 and ran the business after his father’s death until 1667. On 13 June 1742 he obtained the rights to 62 publications from Robert Bird and Edward Brewster, including The History of Gargantua, A Book of Riddles, and Robinson's Citharine book. He also continued the ballad printing partnership. He included his address, "dwelling at the upper end of the Old Bayley" on his early imprints, and later "at the Globe in Little Britain".