Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/453

SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO. 413 trade is executed by the old-established firm of Simpkin, Marshall, and Company, and though they by no means confine their attention solely to the com- mission-paying business of middlemen for they are themselves publishers of educational and other widely- circulating works yet their name has long, through- out the length and breadth of the land, been held synonymous with this wholesale supply of the require- ments of other houses. The real founder of this enormous traffic was, Benjamin Crosby. The son of a Yorkshire grazier, he came to London to seek his fortunes, and was apprenticed to James Nunn, a bookseller in Great Queen Street. As soon as his indentures had ex- pired, he obtained a situation under George Robinson the " King of the Booksellers " and, in a few years after this, succeeded to the business of Mr. Stalker, of Stationers' Hall Court. Crosby was one of the first London booksellers who travelled regularly through the country, soliciting orders for the purpose of effect- ing sales and extending his connections. In a short time he acquired a pre-eminence as a supplier of the country houses, and also as one of the largest pur- chasers at trade sales, especially when publishers' stocks were sold off. The extension of the business had been very materially assisted by the unremitting exertions of two assistants Simpkin and Marshall and when, in 1814, he was stricken by a sudden attack of paralysis, he made over a certain portion of his stock and the whole of his country connection to Robert Baldwin, and Cradock and Joy, he left the remainder, with the premises and the London connec- tion, to Simpkin and Marshall. Soon after this, a second attack deprived him of his speech, and for a