Peter Washington
Literary Legacies
The Seven Lives of John Murray: The Story of a Publishing Dynasty
By Humphrey Carpenter
John Murray 370pp £25 order from our bookshop
At first sight, this book might seem to be a vindication of the hereditary principle in its purest form: male primogeniture. It tells the story of John Murray, a powerful publishing house for almost two hundred and fifty years, and until recently controlled by its eponymous head in an unbroken line from father to son. But as usual in the book trade, things are more complicated than that.
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