Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/75

55 THE BOOKSELLERS OF OLDEN TIMES. 55 Wilde, of Stationers' Hall, but his master, though styling him the "pillar of his house," grudged him, he says, " every hour that tended not to his profit." So Richardson used to sit up half the night over his books, careful at that time to burn only his own candles. On the termination of his apprenticeship, he became a journeyman and corrector of the press, and six years later commenced business in an obscure court in Fleet-street, where he filled up his leisure hours by compiling indices, and writing prefaces and what he terms "honest dedications" for the book- sellers. Through his industry and perseverance his business became much extended, and he was selected by Wharton to print the True Briton; but, after the publication of the sixth number, he would not allow his name to appear, and consequently escaped the results of the ensuing prosecution. Through the friendly interest of Mr. Speaker Onslow he printed the first edition of the Journal of the House of Com- mons, completed in twenty-six folio volumes, for which, after long and vexatious delays, he received upwards of 3000. He also printed from 1736 to 1737 the Daily Journal, and in 1738 the Daily Gazette. In 1740 Mr. Rivington and Mr. Osborne proposed that he should write for them a little volume of letters, which resulted in his first novel Pamela, the publica- tion of which will be treated in our account of the Rivingtons. This was followed by Clarissa, one of the few books from which it is absolutely impossible to steal away, when once the dread of its size has been overcome. Though famous now as the first great novelist who had written in the English tongue,