Status Defunct Country of origin United Kingdom Publication types Books, magazines | Successor John Murray Headquarters location London | |
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Founders Alexander Elder, George Smith | ||
Smith, Elder & Co. or Smith, Elder, and Co. or Smith, Elder and Co. was a firm of British publishers who were most noted for the works they published in the 19th century.
Contents
History
The firm was founded by George Smith (1789–1846) and Alexander Elder (1790–1876) and successfully continued by George Murray Smith (1824–1901). They are known to have published as early as 1839.
They are notable for producing the first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB).
The firm achieved its first major success with the publication of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre in 1847, under the pseudonym of "Currer Bell."
Other major authors published by the firm included Robert Browning, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, Thomas Hardy, Richard Jefferies, George MacDonald, Charles Reade, John Ruskin, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Alfred Tennyson and George Gissing.
In addition, beginning in 1841, they published The London and Edinburgh Magazine. Beginning in 1859, they published Cornhill Magazine.