Bradbury & Evans (est.1830) was an English printing and publishing business founded by William Bradbury (1799–1869)England, Derbyshire, Church of England Parish Registers, 1538–1910. and

Frederick Mullett Evans Frederick Mullett Evans (1803–1870) was an English printer and publisher. He is known for his work as a partner from 1830 in Bradbury & Evans, who printed the works of a number of major novelists, as well as leading periodicals. Life He was the ...

(1804–1870)General Register Office: Birth Certificates from the Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist Registry and from the Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan Registry. in London.Bradbury and Evans
at

Victorian Web The Victorian Web is a hypertext project derived from hypermedia environments, Intermedia and Storyspace, that anticipated the World Wide Web. Initially created between 1988 and 1990 with 1,500 documents, it grew to 50,000 in the 21st century. In c ...

, last accessed January 2011.

History

For the first ten years Bradbury & Evans were printers, then added publishing in 1841 after they purchased ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

'' magazine. As printers they did work for

Joseph Paxton Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

Edward Moxon Edward Moxon (12 December 1801 – 3 June 1858) was a British poet and publisher, significant in Victorian literature. Biography Moxon was born at Wakefield in Yorkshire, where his father Michael worked in the wool trade. In 1817 he left ...

and

Chapman and Hall Chapman & Hall is an imprint owned by CRC Press, originally founded as a British publishing house in London in the first half of the 19th century by Edward Chapman and William Hall. Chapman & Hall were publishers for Charles Dickens (from 1840 ...

(publishers of

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

). Dickens left

in 1844 and Bradbury and Evans became his new publisher. Bradbury and Evans published

William Makepeace Thackeray William Makepeace Thackeray (; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was a British novelist, author and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1848 novel '' Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and t ...

's '' Vanity Fair'' in 1847 (as a serial), as well as most of his longer fiction. The firm operated from offices at no.11 Bouverie Street, no.85

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was na ...

, and no.4-14 Lombard Street, London (now Lombard Lane). The inclusion of a monthly supplement, ''Household Narrative'', in the weekly ''

Household Words ''Household Words'' was an English weekly magazine edited by Charles Dickens in the 1850s. It took its name from the line in Shakespeare's ''Henry V'': "Familiar in his mouth as household words." History During the planning stages, titles origi ...

'' edited by Dickens was the occasion for a test case on newspaper taxation in 1851. Bradbury & Evans as publishers might have found themselves in the forefront of the ongoing campaign against "

taxes on knowledge Taxes on knowledge was a slogan defining an extended British campaign against duties and taxes on newspapers, their advertising content, and the paper they were printed on. The paper tax was early identified as an issue: "A tax upon Paper, is a ta ...

"; but the initial court decision went in their favour. The government then tried amending the existing law, to duck public opinion, reversing the stand taken by the revenue on the definition of "newspaper". After Bradbury & Evans broke with Dickens in 1859, they founded the illustrated literary magazine '' Once a Week'', which competed with Dickens' new '' All The Year Round'' (the successor to ''Household Words''). Among the artists who contributed illustrations to the firm's publications: John Leech and

John Tenniel Sir John Tenniel (; 28 February 182025 February 1914)Johnson, Lewis (2003), "Tenniel, John", ''Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online'', Oxford University Press. Web. Retrieved 12 December 2016. was an English illustrator, graphic humorist and pol ...

. In 1861 Evans' daughter, Bessie Evans, married Dickens' son, Charles Dickens, Jr. The founders' sons, William Hardwick Bradbury (1832–1892) and Frederick Moule Evans (1832–1902), continued the business, with the much needed financial backing of William Agnew and his brother Thomas.

References

External links

Portraits
of Bradbury, Evans, and sons * Morgan Library
Letter from Dickens to F.M. Evans
1849 * UK National Portrait Gallery
Portrait
of "Frederick Evans, associate of Charles Dickens" * Oxford University, Bodleian Library

mainly relating to Punch {{Authority control English printers Printing companies of the United Kingdom Publishing companies of the United Kingdom Defunct companies based in London Publishing companies established in 1830 1830 establishments in England 19th century in London

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links