Henry George Bohn (4 January 179622 August 1884) was a

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. He is principally remembered for the ''Bohn's Libraries'' series which he inaugurated. These were begun in 1846, targeted the mass market, and comprised editions of standard works and translations, dealing with

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, and

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Biography

Bohn was born in

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. He was the son of a

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bookbinder who had settled in

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. In 1831, he began his career as a dealer in rare books and remainders. In 1841 he issued his ''"Guinea" Catalogue'' of books, a monumental work containing 23,208 items. Bohn was noted for his book auction sales: one held in 1848 lasted four days, the catalogue comprising twenty folio pages. Printed on this catalogue was the information: "Dinner at 2 o'clock, dessert at 4, tea at 5, and supper at 10." In 1846, he also started publishing ''The British Florist; Or, Lady's Journal of Horticulture'', which had six volumes with illustrations and plates (coloured). The name of Bohn is principally remembered by the important ''Bohn's Libraries'' which he inaugurated: these were begun in 1846 and comprised editions of standard works and translations, dealing with

, and

, consisting in all of 766 volumes. His authors included Julia Corner, who created educational books about India and China for him in the 1850s. The reasons for the success of ''Bohn's Libraries'' may have included their marketing to a general mass readership with volumes selling at low prices, their "lack of literary pretensions", and their "policy of a widespread, but restrained expurgation". One of Bohn's most useful and laborious undertakings was his revision (6 vols. 1864) of ''The Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature'' (1834) by W. T. Lowndes. The plan includes bibliographical and critical notices, particulars of prices, etc., and a considerable addition to the original work. It had been one of Bohn's ambitions to found a great publishing house, but, finding that his sons had no taste for the trade, he sold his ''Bohn's Libraries'' in 1864 to Messrs. Bell and Daldy, afterwards G. Bell & Sons. At that time the ''Bohn's Libraries'' included more than 600 titles. In subsequent years, he disposed of all his copyrights and business properties, finally realizing £73,000 overall. Bohn was a man of wide culture and many interests. He himself made considerable contributions to his ''Libraries'', he collected pictures, china and ivories, and was a famous rose-grower. He died at

Twickenham Twickenham ( ) is a suburban district of London, England, on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historic counties of England, Historically in Middlesex, since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, who ...

and was buried at

West Norwood Cemetery West Norwood Cemetery is a rural cemetery in West Norwood in London, England. It was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery. One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the " Magnificent Seven" cemeteries of ...

Works

Among his own works were: * ''The Hand-book of Games'' (1850) * ''A Hand-book of Proverbs'' (1855) * ''A Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs'' (1857) * ''The Origin and Progress of Printing'' (1857) * ''A Guide to the Knowledge of Pottery and Porcelain'' (1857) * ''Biography and Bibliography of Shakespeare'' (1863) * ''A Dictionary of Quotations From the English Poets'' (1867) Besides his edition of Lowndes' ''Bibliographer's Manual'', he developed an edition of Addison's works.

References

Sources

* *This article incorporates text from a publication now in the

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External links

* * * * * Derek Jones. . Retrieved on 7 September 2011.
Bohn's Libraries
Full list of publications as at September 1879. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bohn, Henry George 1796 births 1884 deaths Burials at West Norwood Cemetery English bibliographers Publishers (people) from London English male writers 19th-century English businesspeople

Biography

Works

References

Sources

Further reading

External links