Roberts Brothers (publishers)
Encyclopedia
Messrs. Roberts Brothers (1857–1898) were bookbinders and publishers in 19th-century Boston
, Massachusetts
. Established in 1857 by Austin J. Roberts, John F. Roberts, and Lewis A. Roberts, the firm began publishing around the early 1860s. Authors included Louisa May Alcott
, George Sand
, Julia Ward Howe
and many others.
, the business moved to Somerset Street in the 1880s.
As publishers, the Roberts Brothers made their name in 1868 with the publication of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women
, a best-seller. It featured illustrations by Alcott's sister, May Alcott
, who also appeared as a character (Amy) in the book.
The Famous Women Series of the 1880s and 1890s consisted of biographies of Margaret Fuller
, Jane Austen
, Mary Wollstonecraft
, George Eliot
, and others, most of them written by women. As a contemporary review put it, "subjects and authors are in the main English, but several famous American women have had their trials and triumphs recorded by other famous American women."
Little, Brown
bought the firm in 1898.
British and European authors included:
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. Established in 1857 by Austin J. Roberts, John F. Roberts, and Lewis A. Roberts, the firm began publishing around the early 1860s. Authors included Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist. She is best known for the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. Little Women was set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, and published in 1868...
, George Sand
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
, Julia Ward Howe
Julia Ward Howe
Julia Ward Howe was a prominent American abolitionist, social activist, and poet, most famous as the author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".-Biography:...
and many others.
History
The Roberts Brothers were "bookbinders" from 1857 until 1862 (offices successively at: 120 Washington St.; Temple Place; 149 Washington St.) Beginning in 1862 they were also makers of "photograph albums." In 1863 Thomas Niles, Jr. began working at the firm. He became partner some years thereafter and remained with the Roberts Brothers until his death in 1894. By 1873 the firm was listed under the names of just Lewis Roberts and Thomas Niles. After several decades on Washington Street across from Old SouthOld South Meeting House
The Old South Meeting House , in the Downtown Crossing area of Boston, Massachusetts, gained fame as the organizing point for the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. 5,000 colonists gathered at the Meeting House, the largest building in Boston at the time.-Church :The church, with its 56 m ...
, the business moved to Somerset Street in the 1880s.
As publishers, the Roberts Brothers made their name in 1868 with the publication of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women
Little Women
Little Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott . The book was written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts. It was published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869...
, a best-seller. It featured illustrations by Alcott's sister, May Alcott
Abigail May Alcott Nieriker
May Alcott Nieriker was an American artist and the youngest sister of Louisa May Alcott. She was the basis for the character Amy in her sister's semi-autobiographical novel Little Women...
, who also appeared as a character (Amy) in the book.
The Famous Women Series of the 1880s and 1890s consisted of biographies of Margaret Fuller
Margaret Fuller
Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli, commonly known as Margaret Fuller, was an American journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement. She was the first full-time American female book reviewer in journalism...
, Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
, Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book...
, George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
, and others, most of them written by women. As a contemporary review put it, "subjects and authors are in the main English, but several famous American women have had their trials and triumphs recorded by other famous American women."
Little, Brown
Little, Brown and Company
Little, Brown and Company is a publishing house established by Charles Coffin Little and his partner, James Brown. Since 2006 it has been a constituent unit of Hachette Book Group USA.-19th century:...
bought the firm in 1898.
Authors
American authors included:- Louisa May AlcottLouisa May AlcottLouisa May Alcott was an American novelist. She is best known for the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. Little Women was set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, and published in 1868...
- Susan CoolidgeSarah Chauncey WoolseySarah Chauncey Woolsey was an American children's author who wrote under the pen name Susan Coolidge.-Background:...
- Maud Howe ElliottMaud Howe ElliottMaud Howe Elliott was an American writer, most notable for her Pulitzer prize-winning collaboration with her sister, Laura E. Richards, on their mother's biography The Life of Julia Ward Howe...
- Louise Imogen GuineyLouise Imogen GuineyLouise Imogen Guiney was an American poet, essayist and editor born in Roxbury, Massachusetts.-Biography:...
- Julia Ward HoweJulia Ward HoweJulia Ward Howe was a prominent American abolitionist, social activist, and poet, most famous as the author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".-Biography:...
- Helen Hunt JacksonHelen Hunt JacksonHelen Maria Hunt Jackson, born Helen Fiske , was a United States writer who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of Native Americans by the U.S. government. She detailed the adverse effects of government actions in her history A Century of Dishonor...
- Abigail May Alcott NierikerAbigail May Alcott NierikerMay Alcott Nieriker was an American artist and the youngest sister of Louisa May Alcott. She was the basis for the character Amy in her sister's semi-autobiographical novel Little Women...
British and European authors included:
- Berthold AuerbachBerthold AuerbachBerthold Auerbach was a German-Jewish poet and author. He was the founder of the German “tendency novel,” in which fiction is used as a means of influencing public opinion on social, political, moral, and religious questions.-Biography:Moses Baruch Auerbach was born in Nordstetten in the Kingdom...
- Caroline BauerCaroline BauerCaroline Bauer was a German actress of the Biedermeier era who used the name Lina Bauer.Caroline Philippina Augusta Bauer was born in Heidelberg, Germany to Heinrich Bauer and Christiane Stockmar...
- Mathilde BlindMathilde BlindMathilde Blind , was a German-born British poet.She was born at Mannheim, Germany, but settled in London about 1849, adopting the surname of her stepfather, Karl Blind...
- Juliana Horatia EwingJuliana Horatia EwingJuliana Horatia Ewing was an English writer of children's stories.-Youth and marriage:Known as Julie, she was the second of ten children of the Reverend Alfred Gatty, vicar of Ecclesfield in Yorkshire, and Margaret Gatty, who was herself a children's author...
- Anne Gilchrist
- David GrayDavid Gray (poet)David Gray was a Scottish poet.The son of a handloom weaver, Gray was born at Merkland, by Kirkintilloch, Dunbartonshire. His parents resolved to educate him for the kirk, and through their self-denial and his own exertions as a pupil teacher and private tutor he was able to complete a course of...
- Philip Gilbert HamertonPhilip Gilbert HamertonPhilip Gilbert Hamerton , was an English artist and art critic and author.He was born at Laneside, a hamlet in Crompton, Lancashire, England. His mother died giving birth to him, and his father died ten years later...
- Jean IngelowJean IngelowJean Ingelow , was an English poet and novelist.- Early life and education :Born at Boston, Lincolnshire, she was the daughter of William Ingelow, a banker...
- Vernon LeeVernon LeeVernon Lee was the pseudonym of the British writer Violet Paget . She is remembered today primarily for her supernatural fiction and her work on aesthetics. An early follower of Walter Pater, she also wrote over a dozen volumes of essays on art, music, and travel.-Biography:She was born at Château...
- William MorrisWilliam MorrisWilliam Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
- Silvio PellicoSilvio PellicoSilvio Pellico was an Italian writer, poet, dramatist and patriot.-Biography:Silvio Pellico was born at Saluzzo . He spent the earlier portion of his life at Pinerolo and Turin, under the tuition of a priest named Manavella. At the age of ten he composed a tragedy inspired by a translation of the...
- Adelaide RistoriAdelaide RistoriAdelaide Ristori was a distinguished Italian tragedienne, who was often referred to as the Marquise.-Biography:...
- A. Mary F. RobinsonAgnes Mary Frances DuclauxAgnes Mary Frances Robinson, known after her first marriage as Agnes-Marie-François Darmesteter, and after her second as Agnes Mary Frances Duclaux born in Leamington Hastings on February 27, 1857 - dead in Aurillac on February 9, 1944, was an English writer and scholar on many subjects connected...
- Charlotte Mary YongeCharlotte Mary YongeCharlotte Mary Yonge , was an English novelist, known for her huge output, now mostly out of print.- Life :Charlotte Mary Yonge was born in Otterbourne, Hampshire, England, on 11 August 1823 to William Yonge and Fanny Yonge, née Bargus. She was educated at home by her father, studying Latin, Greek,...
- Helen ZimmernHelen ZimmernHelen Zimmern was a German-British writer and translator.-Biography:Zimmern and her parents emigrated in 1850 to Britain, where her father became a Nottingham lace merchant. She was naturalized upon coming of age. She was the sister of the suffragist Alice Zimmern and a cousin of the political...
Works published by the firm
- David Gray. Poems. 1865.
- Shakespeare. The works of William Shakespeare. 1866.
- Philip Gilbert Hamerton. Painter's Camp. 1867.
- Jean Ingelow. A story of doom: and other poems. 1867.
- Berthold Auerbach. On the heights. 1868.
- Silvio Pellico. My Prisons: Memoirs. 1868.
- F.C. Burnand. Happy Thoughts. 1869.
- George Sand. Antonia. v.2, 1870.
- Abigail May Alcott Nieriker. Studying art abroad, and how to do it cheaply. 1879.
- Julia Ward Howe. Modern Society. 1881.
- Maud Howe Elliott. Newport Aquarelle. 1883.
- Memoirs of Karoline Bauer. 1885.
- Louise Imogen Guiney. Goose-Quill Papers. 1885.
- Balzac. Cousin Bette. 1888.
- Mary Prudence Wells Smith. Their canoe trip. 1889.
- George Sand. Mauprat. 1890.
- William Morris. The earthly paradise: a poem. 1893.
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Poor folk. 1894.
Famous Women Series
- Anne Gilchrist. Mary Lamb. 1883.
- Julia Ward Howe. Margaret Fuller (Marchesa Ossoli). 1883
- Bertha Thomas. George Sand. 1883.
- Elizabeth Robins Pennell. Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. 1884.
- Helen Zimmern. Maria Edgeworth. 1884.
- Mathilde Blind. George Eliot. 1885.
- Vernon Lee. Countess of Albany. 1885.
- Mrs. F. Fenwick Miller. Harriet Martineau. 1885.
- Mathilde Blind. Madame Roland. 1886.
- Eliza Clarke. Susanna Wesley. 1886.
- A. Mary F. Robinson. Emily Bronte. 1886.
- Bella Duffy. Madame de Stael. 1887.
- Nina A. Kennard. Mrs. Siddons. 1887.
- John H. Ingram. Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 1888.
- Adelaide Ristori. Studies and memoirs: an autobiography. 1888.
- Mrs. Bradley Gilman. Saint Theresa of Avila. 1889.
- Charlotte M. Yonge. Hannah More. 1890.
- Nina H. Kennard. Rachel. 1895.
- Mrs. Charles Malden. Jane Austen. 1896.
Children's books
- Louisa May Alcott. Little Women. 1868.
- Louisa May Alcott. An Old-Fashioned Girl. 1870. Engravings by W.H. Morse.
- R.L. Stevenson. Treasure Island. 1884.
- Susan Coolidge. Nine Little Goslings. 1893.
- Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing. Story of a Short Life. 1893.
- Helen Jackson. Ramona. 1896.
Works about the firm
- Book-making at the Hub; Boston's old and new publishers and their work. New York Times, September 10, 1881.
- Raymond L. Kilgour. Messrs. Roberts Brothers Publishers. 1952.
- Joel Myerson. "Roberts Brothers." Publishers for mass entertainment in 19th century America. 1980; p. 267-276.
- "Thomas Niles, Jr." Louisa May Alcott encyclopedia. Greenwood Pr., 2001; p. 233-234.
- "Roberts Brothers." Louisa May Alcott encyclopedia. Greenwood Pr., 2001; p. 287.
External links
- WorldCat
- Houghton Library, Harvard Univ. Roberts Brothers (Boston, Mass.). Roberts Brothers (Boston, Mass.) letters to Louisa May Alcott: Guide.