Andrew Millar

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Andrew Millar
Born1705 (1705)
Publisher

Andrew Millar (1705 – 8 June 1768) was a British publisher in the eighteenth century.[1]

Biography

In 1725, as a twenty-year-old bookseller apprentice, he evaded Edinburgh city printing restrictions by going to Leith to print, which was considered beyond Edinburgh's jurisdiction. Millar was soon to take over his apprentice master's London print shop. He was actively involved in railing against the authorities in Edinburgh.[2]

About 1729, Millar started business as a bookseller and publisher in the Strand, London. His own judgment in literary matters was small, but he collected an excellent staff of literary advisers, and did not hesitate to pay what at the time were considered large prices for good material. "I respect Millar, sir," said Dr Johnson in 1755, "he has raised the price of literature." He paid Thomson £105 for The Seasons, and Fielding a total sum of £700 for Tom Jones and £1000 for Amelia.[3]

Millar was one of the syndicate of booksellers who financed Johnson's Dictionary in 1755, and on him the work of seeing that book through the press mainly fell.[3] During the same year Millar published the first edition of the Mitchell Map.[citation needed] He also published the histories of Robertson and Hume.[3]

Millar was the

Donaldson v Beckett, whose unsuccessful plaintiff was Millar's apprentice, Thomas Becket (or Beckett).[4]

Millar died at his villa at Kew Green, near London, on 8 June 1768.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Andrew Millar Project". millar-project.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  2. ^ http://www.millar-project.ed.ac.uk/manuscripts/html_output/5.html Letter from Andrew Millar to Robert Wodrow, 15 July 1725.
  3. ^ a b c d  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Millar, Andrew". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 460.
  4. .

External links