EDWARD DILLY; THOMAS DAVIES; PETER ELMSLEY; THOMAS EVANS; THOMAS PAYNE; SHADOWS, ETC. 玲 CHAPTER I. THOMAS GUY. N commencing this volume with the story of one who was more remarkable as a great public benefactor than as a bookseller, I have to bear in mind the especial object of these Shadows, which I have stated to be this, to give something like a connected view of literary progress, in its commercial relations, for about a century. I have felt that there was some apparent reason for what has been said of the founder of Guy's Hospital, that "though claimed by booksellers as one of their body, his property was acquired by stockjobbing rather than by literature." * Nearly all the popular accounts of Thomas Guy appear to touch slightly upon his bookselling operations. In Mr. Cunningham's excellent Handbook of London,' he is mentioned as "a bookseller in Lombard Street, who is said to have made his fortune ostensibly by the sale of Bibles, but more, it is thought, by purchasing seamen's tickets, and by his great success in the sale and transfer of stock in the memorable * Knight's 'London,' vol. v. p. 372. |