John Taylor (31 July 1781 – 5 July 1864) was an English publisher, essayist, and writer. He is noted as the publisher of the poets

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculos ...

and

John Clare John Clare (13 July 1793 – 20 May 1864) was an English poet. The son of a farm labourer, he became known for his celebrations of the English countryside and sorrows at its disruption. His work underwent major re-evaluation in the late 20th ce ...

Life

He was born in

East Retford East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

, the son of James Taylor and Sarah Drury; his father was a printer and bookseller. He attended school first at

Lincoln Grammar School Lincoln Grammar School or Lincoln Free School was formed as the result of the amalgamation of the Lincoln City Free School and the Lincoln Chapter Grammar School. The amalgamation occurred in January 1584, but the two schools may have been effec ...

and then he went to the local grammar school in Retford. He was originally apprenticed to his father, but eventually he moved to London and worked for

James Lackington James Lackington (31 August 1746, in Wellington, Somerset – 22 November 1815, in Budleigh Salterton, Devon Timperley, Charles, ''A Dictionary of Printers and Printing: with the progress of literature'', 1839:862, ''s.v.'' "1815, Nov. 22".) ...

in 1803. Taylor left after a short while because of low pay. Taylor formed a partnership with James Augustus Hessey (1785–1870), as Taylor & Hessey, at 93

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 n ...

, London. In 1819, through his cousin Edward Drury, a bookseller in Stamford, he was introduced to John Clare of

Helpston Helpston (also, formerly, "Helpstone") is an English village formerly in the Soke of Peterborough, geographically in Northamptonshire, subsequently (1965–1974) in Huntingdon and Peterborough, then in Cambridgeshire, and administered by the Cit ...

in Northamptonshire. He polished Clare's grammar and spelling for publication. He was also Keats's publisher, and published works by

Lamb Lamb or The Lamb may refer to: * A young sheep * Lamb and mutton, the meat of sheep Arts and media Film, television, and theatre * ''The Lamb'' (1915 film), a silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in his screen debut * ''The Lamb'' (1918 ...

Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake ...

and Hazlitt. In 1821 John Taylor became involved in publishing the ''

London Magazine ''The London Magazine'' is the title of six different publications that have appeared in succession since 1732. All six have focused on the arts, literature and miscellaneous topics. 1732–1785 ''The London Magazine, or, Gentleman's Monthly I ...

''. In later years he became Bookseller and Publisher to the then new

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

and, now in formal partnership with James Walton, moved to

Upper Gower Street Gower Street is a two-way street in Bloomsbury, central London, running from Euston Road at the north to Montague Place in the south. The street is continued from North Gower Street north of Euston Road. To the south, it becomes Bloomsbury St ...

. As such he developed a line in what was then the new and developing field of standard academic text books. After a long bachelor's life fraught with illness and depression, he died at 7 Leonard Place,

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensington Garden ...

, on 5 July 1864 and was buried in the churchyard at Gamston, near Retford, where his tombstone was paid for by the University of London.

Legacy

After Taylor's death, many of his manuscripts were put up for sale at

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

, but the poets of the

Regency era The Regency era of British history officially spanned the years 1811 to 1820, though the term is commonly applied to the longer period between and 1837. King George III succumbed to mental illness in late 1810 and, by the Regency Act 1811, ...

were out of fashion, and the total only fetched about £250. In contrast, when sold in 1897, the manuscripts of ''

Endymion Endymion primarily refers to: * Endymion (mythology), an Ancient Greek shepherd * ''Endymion'' (poem), by John Keats Endymion may also refer to: Fictional characters * Prince Endymion, a character in the ''Sailor Moon'' anime franchise * Raul ...

'' and ''

Lamia LaMia Corporation S.R.L., operating as LaMia (short for ''Línea Aérea Mérida Internacional de Aviación''), was a Bolivian charter airline headquartered in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, as an EcoJet subsidiary. It had its origins from the failed ...

'' fetched £695 and £305 respectively.

Publications

Taylor wrote and published his own work, ''Junius Identified'', naming the writer of ''

Letters of Junius ''Letters of Junius'' (or Junius: ''Stat nominis umbra'') is a collection of private and open letters critical of the government of King George III from an anonymous polemicist ( Junius) claimed by some to be Philip Francis (although Junius' real ...

'', probably correctly, as Sir Philip Francis. It ran to two editions, the second in 1818. * Taylor, John. ''The Great Pyramid: Why Was It Built, & Who Built It?'' Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1859 (London). * Taylor, John. ''The Battle of the Standards. The Ancient, of Four Thousand Years, Against the Modern, of the Last Fifty Years--the Less Perfect of the Two.'' Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1864 (London). In ''The Great Pyramid'' (1859), Taylor argued that the numbers pi and the

golden ratio In mathematics, two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. Expressed algebraically, for quantities a and b with a > b > 0, where the Greek letter phi ( ...

may have been deliberately incorporated into the design of the Great Pyramid of Khufu at

Giza Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah'' arz, الجيزة ' ) is the second-largest city in Egypt after Cairo and fourth-largest city in Africa after Kinshasa, Lagos and Cairo. It is the capital of Giza Governorate with a total population of 9.2 ...

. His theories in

pyramidology Pyramidology (or pyramidism) refers to various religious or pseudoscientific speculations regarding pyramids, most often the Giza pyramid complex and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. Martin Gardner, '' Fads and Fallacies in the Name of S ...

were then expanded by

Charles Piazzi Smyth Charles Piazzi Smyth (3 January 1819 – 21 February 1900) was an Italian-born British astronomer who was Astronomer Royal for Scotland from 1846 to 1888; he is known for many innovations in astronomy and, along with his wife Jessica Duncan P ...

. His 1864 book ''The Battle of the Standards'' was a campaign against the adoption of the

metric system The metric system is a system of measurement that succeeded the decimalised system based on the metre that had been introduced in France in the 1790s. The historical development of these systems culminated in the definition of the Intern ...

in Britain, and relied on results from his earlier book to show a divine origin for the British units of measure. According to Bernard Lightman, these two publications are strongly linked. He says: "Taylor and his disciples urged that the dimensions of the Pyramid showed the divine origin of the British units of length."Bernard Lightman, ''Victorian Science in Context,'' p.450, University of Chicago Press, 199

/ref>

Family

His brother, James Taylor (1788–1863), banker of

Bakewell Bakewell is a market town and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England, known also for its local Bakewell pudding. It lies on the River Wye, about 13 miles (21 km) south-west of Sheffield. In the 2011 census, t ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, published a number of articles on

bimetallism Bimetallism, also known as the bimetallic standard, is a monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit is defined as equivalent to certain quantities of two metals, typically gold and silver, creating a fixed rate of exchange betw ...

References

External links

* Stray, Chris (1996)
''John Taylor and Locke’s Classical System''
Retrieved October 19, 2005. * *
Publications by Taylor and Hessey
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

Taylor, John (1781-1864) Publisher
at the National Archives, London
John Taylor, publishers
at the National Archives, London
John Taylor and James Augustus Hessey
at the National Archives, London {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, John 1781 births 1864 deaths People from Retford Publishers (people) from London English booksellers People educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Retford People educated at Lincoln Grammar School Pyramidologists Victorian writers 19th-century English writers 19th-century writers on archaeological subjects English male writers 19th-century British businesspeople