Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/316

276 2^6 CHAMBERS, KNIGHT, AND CASSELL In 1846, Mr. Registrar Hazlitt suggested the idea of a cheap uniform library of world-known books to David Bogue, the bookseller, who consequently com- menced his European Library. In 1846-7, fifteen works were published, edited for the most part by Mr. W. Hazlitt. Mr. Bohn, however, discovered that in many of these works copyrights, of which he was the owner, were infringed, notably in Roscoe's " Lorenzo de' Medici " and " Leo X." An injunction was ob- tained against the further issue of one of Bogue's volumes, and in defence, if not retaliation, Mr. Bohn determined to enter the field as a publisher of a similar series. In 1846 he produced the first volume of his Standard Library, which, running on for 150 volumes, was sold at the then astoundingly small price considering their size, their quality, and the care with which they were edited and printed of $s. 6d. each. In 1847, the Scientific Library was commenced, and was rapidly followed by the Anti- quarian Library, the Classical, Illustrated, and His- torical Libraries, the British Classics, &c. Bogue's small venture stood a poor chance against enterprise of this gargantuan scale, and in a short time his fifteen volumes came into Mr. Bonn's possession. Without counting the Shilling Library, or the more expensive works which were from time to time issued, Mr. Bohn continued the various libraries which are so imme- diately associated with his name, until the total num- ber of 602 volumes afforded the student a collection of such books as he might otherwise have spent a life- time and a fortune in acquiring. To few publishers, if to any, is the cheapening of the highest and rarest classes of English and foreign literature more deeply indebted than to Mr. Bohn. Strangely enough, how-