John Russell Smith (1810–1894), known as Russell Smith, was an English bookseller and bibliographer. He is best known for his "Library of Old Authors" reprint series.

Life

He was born at

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parishes in England, civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter South Eastern Main Line, main line railway into Lon ...

, Kent, and was apprenticed to John Bryant of

Wardour Street Wardour Street () is a street in Soho, City of Westminster, London. It is a one-way street that runs north from Leicester Square, through Chinatown, London, Chinatown, across Shaftesbury Avenue to Oxford Street. Throughout the 20th century the ...

, London. He took a shop at 4

Old Compton Street Old Compton Street is a road that runs east–west through Soho in the West End of London. History The street was named after Henry Compton who raised funds for a local parish church, eventually dedicated as St Anne's Church in 1686. Th ...

, Soho, and concentrated on English

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

and

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

. Among his supporters was John Sheepshanks, the collector. In 1842 there was a rift in the Archæological Association. One section of its members, including Thomas Wright, Mark Anthony Lower,

James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (born James Orchard Halliwell; 21 June 1820 – 3 January 1889) was an English Shakespearean scholar, antiquarian, and a collector of English nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Life The son of Thomas Halliwell, he ...

, and

Arthur Henfrey Arthur Henfrey may refer to: * Arthur Henfrey (footballer) (1867–1929), English footballer * Arthur Henfrey (botanist) (1819–1859), English surgeon and botanist {{hndis, Henfrey, Arthur ...

, transferred their publications to Russell Smith. The increase of business caused Russell Smith to move to 36

Soho Square Soho Square is a garden square in Soho, London, hosting since 1954 a ''de facto'' public park let by the Soho Square Garden Committee to Westminster City Council. It was originally called King Square after Charles II, and a much weathered s ...

. Smith retired from business about 1884, when his stock and copyrights were sold; the "Library of Old Authors" was disposed of to the bookseller William Reeves, and his collection of engravings to Jonathan Nield. He died on 19 October 1894, in

Kentish Town Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town. Less than four miles north of central London, Kentish Town has good transport connections and is situated close to the ope ...

, aged 84.

Works and publications

Smith issued in 1837 ''Bibliotheca Cantiana''. The titles are classified with collations and notes; Smith left two copies, with manuscript annotations, to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. His ''Bibliographical List of the Works that have been published towards illustrating the Provincial Dialects of England'', arranged by county, appeared in 1839, as well as ''Westmoreland and Cumberland Dialects''.''Westmoreland and Cumberland Dialects: Dialogues, Poems, Songs, and Ballads by various Writers in the Westmoreland and Cumberland Dialects, now first collected, with a copious Glossary''. Among the books Smith published were

Robert Nares Robert Nares (9 June 1753, York – 23 March 1829) was an English clergyman, philologist and author. Life He was born at York in 1753, the son of James Nares (1715–1783), organist of York Minster and educated at Westminster School and Ch ...

's ''Glossary'' (edited by Thomas Wright and Halliwell-Phillipps),

William Barnes William Barnes (22 February 1801 – 7 October 1886) was an English polymath, writer, poet, philologist, priest, mathematician, engraving artist and inventor. He wrote over 800 poems, some in Dorset dialect, and much other work, including a co ...

's ''Dialect Poems and Grammar'', Edward Johnston Vernon's ''Guide to the Anglo-Saxon Tongue'', and

Joseph Bosworth Joseph Bosworth (1788 – 27 May 1876) was an English scholar of the Anglo-Saxon language and compiler of the first major Anglo-Saxon dictionary. Biography Born in Derbyshire in 1788, Bosworth was educated at Repton School as a 'Poor Scholar' b ...

's ''Anglo-Saxon Dictionary'', abridged. He is best remembered for his "Library of Old Authors" series of reprints, mainly of sixteenth and seventeenth century literature, printed by the

Chiswick Press The Chiswick Press was founded by Charles Whittingham I (1767–1840) in 1811. The management of the Press was taken over in 1840 by the founder's nephew Charles Whittingham II (1795–1876). The name was first used in 1811, and the Press continu ...

and issued between 1856 and 1875. Catalogues of secondhand books issued by Russell Smith included: one of topographical prints, drawings, and books printed before 1700 (1849); ''Shakesperiana'' (1864); ''Americana'' (1865); tracts, 26,000 in number (1874); and engraved portraits (1883). He contributed the list of English writers on fishes and fishing to Robert Blakey's ''Historical Sketches of Angling Literature'' (1855), with some copies separately issued as ''Bibliographical Catalogue of English Writers on Angling and Ichthyology'' (1856).

Family

Smith married in 1844 Frances Caigou, daughter of the printer James Daniel Caigou. They had a son and a daughter.

Notes

External links

Online Books page
;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, John Russell 1810 births 1894 deaths English booksellers English bibliographers People from Sevenoaks 19th-century English businesspeople