Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/481

439 ROUTLEDGE AND SONS. 439 many hundred volumes of standard works, afforded the chief business at Smith's bookstalls, and were, through Mr. Routledge's complete network of agents and connections, scattered broadcast over the country. Among the first books they brought out at a shilling were the works of Fenimore Cooper, Captain Marryat, Washington Irving, and Mrs. Stowe. Of " Uncle Tom's Cabin" half-a-million copies are said to have been sold. Of Russell's " Narrative of the Crimean War," 20,000; of Soyer's " Shilling Cookery," 250,000 ; and of " Rarey on Horse Training," 150,000 copies were disposed of in a very few weeks. As an example of the energy and enterprise of the firm, it is stated that when the copy of " Queechy" was received upon one Monday morning, it was at once placed in the printer's hands ; on Thursday the sheets were at the binder's, and on the Monday following 20,000 copies had been disposed of to the trade. Besides these cheap works, Mr. Routledge has issued a multitude of more expensive volumes, illustrated by the best artists, and "got up" in the most luxurious styles. Among these it will be enough here to mention his numerous Shakespeares, Wood's " Natural His- tory " and Wood's " Natural History of Man," and Routledge's " English Poets." How extensive the Fine Art business of the firm must have been may be gathered from the fact that before 1855 they had paid one engraving house the Messrs. Dalziel Brothers upwards of ^50,000. In 1854, Mr. Routledge established a branch house at New York, and in 1865, Mr. F. Warne his brother had previously died on the termination of the part- nership, established a fresh business in Bedford Street, Covent Garden. With his two sons Mr. Robert and