Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/131

THE L ONGMAN FAMIL K 99 work once more this time as a biographer. The lives of Sheridan, Fitzgerald, and many others, bear testi- mony to his industry ; but in spite, perhaps because, of their pleasant gossiping tone, they are far from accurate. At one time he had so many lives upon his hands together, that he suggested the feasibility of publishing a work to be called the Cat, which should contain nine of them. His Life of Byron we have already alluded to, but we must again call attention to Longman's generosity in allowing him to transfer the work to Murray. Longman was not less eager in his kindness to his clients in private than in business relations. His Saturday "Weekly Literary Meet- ings" were about the pleasantest and most sociable in London. As early as 1804 we find Southey writing to Coleridge : " I wish you had called on Longman ; that man has a kind heart of his own, and I wish you to think so ; the letter he sent me was a proof of it. Go to one of his Saturday evenings, you will see a coxcomb or two, and a dull fellow or two ; but you will, perhaps, meet Turner and Duppa, arjd Duppa is worth knowing." Throughout the day the new pub- lications were displayed in a separate department for the use of the literary men, and house dinners were of frequent occurrence ; the whole of the " Lake School" were steady recipients of Longman's hospitality when- ever they came to town. As, perhaps, the strongest proof of a man's kindli- ness of heart, Longman is invariably represented as being " almost adored by his domestics, from his uniform attention to the comforts of those who have grown gray in his service," He was a liberal patron of the " Association for the Relief of Decayed Book- sellers," and was also one of the " Court of Assistants