Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/230

194 as well as fill his purse with " Mrs. Rundell's Cookery Book." " Called at Murray's," he writes in his "Diary" for 1831: "mentioned to him Lady Morgan's wish to contribute something to his ' Family Library,' and that she has materials ready for the lives of five or six Dutch painters. ' Pray, isn't Lady Morgan a very good cook ?' I answered I didn't know ; but why did he ask ? ' Because,' said he, ' if she would do something in that line ' Why, you don't mean,' said I, ' that she should write a cookery book for you ?' ' No,' answered John, coolly, ' not so much as that ; but that she should re-edit mine ' (Mrs. Rundell's, by which he had made heaps of money). Oh, that she could have heard this with her own ears ! Here ended my negotiations for her Ladyship." It was not merely to Englishmen that Murray ex- tended a helping and a generous hand. When the first volume of the " Sketch Book," originally published in America, made its appearance in Lon- don, it was declined by Murray, and Irving was about to publish it on his own account ; but after all arrangements had been made the printer failed. Lockhart had praised the book in Blackwood; and Scott, seeing at once its sterling worth, with his usual kindliness, pressed its merits upon Murray, who gave Irving 200 for it, afterwards more than doubling the amount. Murray's transactions with Irving exhibit a singular phase of the international copyright law. This is how their account stands

"Sketch Book" ... ... ... 467 "Bracebridge Hall" ... ... 1050 " Tales of a Traveller " ... ... 1575 "Life of Columbus" ... ... 3150 Carried forward ... .6242