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 Computational
Physics

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 LICENSE, DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY, AND LIMITED WARRANTY

By purchasing or using this book (the “Work”), you agree that this license
grants permission to use the contents contained herein, but does not give
you the right of ownership to any of the textual content in the book or own-
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does not permit uploading of the Work onto the Internet or on a network
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permission must be obtained from the Publisher or the owner of the con-
tent, etc., in order to reproduce or network any portion of the textual mate-
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and any accompanying Web site or software of the Work, cannot and do
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Computational Physics.FM.2pp.indd 2 1/4/2022 11:31:59 AM

 Computational
Physics
Second Edition

Darren J. Walker

MERCURY LEARNING AND INFORMATION

Dulles, Virginia
Boston, Massachusetts
New Delhi

Computational Physics.FM.2pp.indd 3 1/4/2022 11:31:59 AM

 Copyright ©2022 by Mercury Learning And Information LLC. All rights reserved.

Original title and copyright: Computational Physics: An Undergraduate’s Guide,

2/E. Copyright ©2021 by D.J. Walker. All rights reserved. Published by Pantaneto
Press.

This publication, portions of it, or any accompanying software may not be r­ eproduced
in any way, stored in a retrieval system of any type, or transmitted by any means,
media, electronic display or mechanical display, including, but not limited to,
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writing from the publisher.

Publisher: David Pallai

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(800) 232-0223

D. J. Walker. Computational Physics, Second Edition.

ISBN: 978-1-68392-832-4

The publisher recognizes and respects all marks used by companies, m ­ anufacturers,
and developers as a means to distinguish their products. All brand names and p
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Computational Physics.FM.2pp.indd 4 1/4/2022 11:31:59 AM

 To Charlotte

Computational Physics.FM.2pp.indd 5 1/4/2022 11:31:59 AM

Computational Physics.FM.2pp.indd 6 1/4/2022 11:31:59 AM
 Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction1
1.1 Getting Started with Coding 1
1.2 Getting To Know The Linux Command Line 3
1.3 Bonjour Tout Le Monde 6
1.4 The Rest of the Book  12

Chapter 2: Getting Comfortable 15

2.1 Computers: What You Should Know 15
2.1.1 Hardware 15
2.1.2 Software 17
2.1.3 Number Representation and
Precision19
2.2 Some Important Mathematics 24
2.2.1 Taylor Series 25
2.2.2 Matrices: A Brief Overview 27
Exercises32

Chapter 3: Interpolation and Data Fitting 35

3.1 Interpolation 35
3.1.1 Linear Interpolation 35
3.1.2 Polynomial Interpolation 38
3.1.2 Cubic Spline 43
3.2 Data Fitting 45
3.2.1 Regression: Illustrative Example 45
3.2.2 Linear Least Squares: Matrix Form 48
3.2.3 Realistic Example: Millikan’s
Experiment50
Exercises53

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 viii • Contents

Chapter 4: Searching for Roots 55

4.1 Finding Roots 55
4.1.1 Bisection 56
4.1.2 Newton–Raphson 58
4.1.3 Secant 60
4.2 Hybrid Methods 62
4.2.1 Bisection–Newton–Raphson 62
4.2.2 Brute Force Search 64
4.3 What’s The Point of Root Searching? 65
4.3.1 The Infinite Square Well 65
4.3.2 The Finite Square Well 69
4.3.3 Programming the Root Finder 72
Exercises77

Chapter 5: Numerical Quadrature 81

5.1 Simple Quadrature 82
5.1.1 The Mid-Ordinate Rule 82
5.1.2 The Trapezoidal Rule 83
5.1.3 Simpson’s Rule 84
5.2. Advanced Quadrature 85
5.2.1 Euler–Maclaurin Integration 85
5.2.2 Adaptive Quadrature 86
5.2.3 Multidimensional Integration 90
Exercises93

Chapter 6: Ordinary Differential Equations 95

6.1 Classification of Differential Equations 96
6.1.1 Types of Differential Equations 96
6.1.2 Types of Solution and Initial
Conditions98
6.2 Solving First-Order ODEs  99
6.2.1 Simple Euler Method 99
6.2.2 Modified and Improved Euler
Methods102
6.2.3 The Runge–Kutta Method 104
6.2.4 Adaptive Runge–Kutta 107
6.3 Solving Second-Ordered ODEs 108
6.3.1 Coupled 1st Order ODEs 108
6.3.2 Oscillatory Motion 110
6.3.3 More Than One Dimension 116
Exercises117

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 Contents • ix

Chapter 7: Fourier Analysis 119

7.1 The Fourier Series 120
7.2 Fourier Transforms 124
7.3 The Discrete Fourier Transform 127
7.4 The Fast Fourier Transform 129
7.4.1 Brief History and Development 129
7.4.2 Implementation and Sampling 130
Exercises135

Chapter 8: Monte Carlo Methods 137

8.1 Monte Carlo Integration  137
8.1.1 Dart Throwing 137
8.1.2 General Integration Using
Monte Carlo 143
8.1.3 Importance Sampling 146
8.2 Monte Carlo Simulations 148
8.2.1 Random Walk 148
8.2.2 Radioactive Decay 154
Exercises156

Chapter 9: Partial Differential Equations 159

9.1 Classes, Boundary Values, and
Initial Conditions 160
9.2 Finite Difference Methods 164
9.2.1 Difference Formulas 165
9.2.2 Application of Difference
Formulas168
9.3 Richardson Extrapolation 174
9.4 Numerical Methods to Solve PDEs 178
9.4.1 The Heat Equation with Dirichlet
Boundaries178
9.4.2 The Heat Equation with
Neumann Boundaries 190
9.4.3 The Steady-State Heat Equation 193
9.4.4 The Wave Equation 196
9.5 Pointers To The Finite Element Method 199
Exercises200

Chapter 10: Advanced Numerical Quadrature 203

10.1 General Quadrature 203
10.2 Orthogonal Polynomials 207
10.3 Gauss–Legendre Quadrature 210

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 x • Contents

10.4 Programming Gauss–Legendre  214

10.5 Gauss–Laguerre Quadrature 217
Exercises219

Chapter 11: Advanced ODE Solver and

Applications221
11.1 Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg 221
11.2 Phase Space 225
11.3 Van Der Pol Oscillator 227
11.3.1 Van der Pol in Phase Space 227
11.3.2 Van der Pol FFT 228
11.4 The “Simple” Pendulum 230
11.4.1 Finite Amplitude 231
11.4.2 Utter Chaos? 233
11.5 Halley’s Comet 235
11.6 To Infinity and Beyond 237
11.7 To The Infinitesimal and Below 242
Exercises247

Chapter 12: High-Performance Computing 251

12.1 Indexing and Blocking 252
12.1.1 Heap and Stack 252
12.1.2 Computer Memory 255
12.1.3 Loopy Indexing 257
12.1.4 Blocking 259
12.1.5 Loop Unrolling 262
12.2 Parallel Programming 263
12.2.1 Many (Hello) Worlds 264
12.2.2 Vector Summation 266
12.2.3 Overheads: Amdahl versus
Gustafson  268
Exercises272

Bibliography275

Appendix: A Crash Course in C++ Programming 279

Index333

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 CHAPTER

1
INTRODUCTION

Computational physics sits at the juncture of arguably three of

the cornerstone subjects of modern times, physics, mathematics,
and computer science. Many see it as sitting between theoretical
physics, where there is a focus on mathematics and rigorous proof,
and experimental physics, which is based on taking observations and
quantitative measurements. The computational physicist performs
numerical experimentation within the confines of the computer
environment, applying mathematics to both simulate and examine
complex models of physical systems. Just as the theoretician needs to
master analytical mathematics, the experimentalist requires a work-
ing knowledge of laboratory apparatus, so does the computational
physicist need to know about numerical analysis and computer pro-
gramming. Any of these skills require (significant) practice to master
but it is up to the physicist to know how to use them to interpret and,
ultimately, understand the physical universe.

1.1 GETTING STARTED WITH CODING

You need two things to produce a computer program:

1. A text editor in which to write all your code in whatever

language you choose.
2. A compiler to convert the code you have written into
machine language (binary executable).

Computational Physics.Ch1.2pp.indd 1 12/30/2021 9:48:24 AM

 2 • Computational Physics, 2/E

There are two methods by which you can write computer

­ rograms. The first method is via command-line control whereby
p
you explicitly type in commands to compile a source code file written
in a text editor. The second method uses what is called an Integrated
Development Environment (IDE) that is essentially a compiler
and text editor wrapped up into one neat application, for example,
Microsoft’s Visual Studio. I would suggest trying out different text
editors and IDEs to discover what suits you best. If your university
uses Unix-based operating systems and you find it easier to code on
those machines but do not want to splash out either on a Unix based
machine (though the Raspberry Pi is reasonably priced) at home or
make your Windows PC dual-booting (it can run either a Unix OS
or Windows OS on one machine) an alternative is Cygwin. Cygwin
creates a Unix type feel on a Windows PC and it’s free to download
and install. Cygwin also comes with many different optional libraries
and programs that are extremely useful to scientific programming,
including the linear algebra package (LAPACK) library and Octave,
a free alternative to MATLAB. If you can get your hands on a stu-
dent version of MATLAB, I recommend you use it as it is a power-
ful programming tool and can be used to find quick programming
solutions to problems, or as a first step towards a solution. A further
alternative is to use a Virtual Machine.
For a list of freely available text editors just use your favorite
search engine. Emacs is a popular programming text editor and is
the default editor on most Unix-based machines; Cygwin also con-
tains the GNU version of Emacs. On Windows you could use Note-
pad, however, it does not have any of the functionality of text editors
specifically designed for coding. For example, programming lan-
guages have certain keywords reserved that have special meaning,
for example, if, for, and while to name but a few. Once written these
keywords are automatically distinguished from the rest of the text in
some way, different color, different font, bolded, and so on. In Note-
pad all you will get is the same black text on a white background,
which is not useful for reading and debugging the code you have
written. Notepad++ is a good (and free) programming text editor for
Windows that supports multiple languages.
If you prefer to use IDEs, there are a number available that are
free to use. Some of these only support one language, for example,

Computational Physics.Ch1.2pp.indd 2 12/30/2021 9:48:24 AM

 Introduction • 3

Dev C++, whereas others support multiple languages, for example,

NetBeans, Code::Blocks or Eclipse. Microsoft do a “Community”
version of their Visual Studio IDE which is free to use, as is the argu-
ably more powerful Visual Studio Code.
Most of the code that accompanies this book has been written
using the C++ programming language (C++ 11 onwards), using the
Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers. I will not review the merits of
the different programming languages here as the differences only
really come into their own once you start to consider high-perfor-
mance computing, Web applications, game programming, or other
more specific applications. The basics of programming are suffi-
ciently covered using just one language. That said, please be aware
of different programming languages and how they can be used to
produce different applications. For a challenge, you could convert
the programs in this book into another language.
The next section gives a crash course in using the Linux com-
mand line.

1.2 GETTING TO KNOW THE LINUX

COMMAND LINE

On modern operating systems a terminal emulator is a program

that allows the use of the terminal in a graphical interface. In a Linux
system, the shell is a command-line interface that interprets the
user’s commands and passes them on to the underlying operating
system. There are several shells in current use, such as the Bourne-
Again shell (bash) or The C shell (tcsh), and each has its own set of
features and operations, but all provide a means to interact with the
machine.
When you open a new terminal emulator window the command
prompt will be at the home directory (synonymous with “Folder”
on Windows) of the current user. The information displayed in the
command prompt is customizable by the user but typically consist of
the user’s username, the host machine name, the current directory,
and is ended by the prompt symbol. For an example of what this
looks like please see Figure 1.1 that shows a macOS terminal.

Computational Physics.Ch1.2pp.indd 3 12/30/2021 9:48:24 AM

 4 • Computational Physics, 2/E

FIGURE 1.1: Example of a Linux terminal emulator.

Commands can be issued after the command prompt by typing

the name of an executable file, which can be a binary program or
a script. There are many standard commands that are installed as
default with the operating system that allows for system configu-
ration, file system navigation, creation of new directories and files,
installing third party programs, among other operations.
A useful command to start off with is pwd. It displays the full
path to the current, working directory and can be useful if we ever
get lost in the directory structure. The ls command will list, on the
terminal, all the files and subdirectories of the current directory.
Commands can also take arguments and options (or flags) that can
affect their behavior. For instance, ls -l will nicely format the files
and subdirectories with additional information such as attributes,
permissions, sizes, and modification dates. The cd command is typi-
cally passed an argument of the directory to which we would like
to navigate. For example, cd foo/bar will navigate to the subdirec-
tory bar of the directory foo, assuming foo is a subdirectory of the
current directory. The command cd alone will navigate us back to
the user’s home directory. The Linux file system has two symbols
reserved to represent the current directory and the parent directory

Computational Physics.Ch1.2pp.indd 4 12/30/2021 9:48:24 AM

Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
Lords decided in his favour, thereby settling finally the vulgar and
traditional theory that copyright was the interminable possession of
the purchaser. To follow this interesting question for a moment. In
Anne’s reign it was decided that copyright was to last for fourteen
years, with an additional term of fourteen years, provided that the
author was alive at the expiry of the first. In 1773–4, following upon
Donaldson’s prosecution, a bill to render copyright perpetual passed
through the Commons, but was thrown out in the Lords, and in 1814
the term of fourteen years and a conditional fourteen was extended
to a definite and invariable period of twenty-eight years. Finally in
1842, the present law was passed, by which the term was prolonged
to forty-two years, but the copyright was not to expire in any case
before seven years after the author’s death.
Donaldson left a very large fortune, which was greatly
augmented by his son, who bequeathed the total amount, a quarter
of a million, to found an educational hospital for poor children in
Edinburgh, under the title of “Donaldson’s Hospital.”
During the period under review the localities affected by the
bookselling and publishing trade had greatly changed and altered.
The stalls of the “Chap. Book” venders had disappeared from
London Bridge and the Exchange, and even Little Britain had been
entirely vacated. Little Britain, from the time of the first Charles to
Mary and William, was as famous for books as Paternoster Row
afterwards became. But, even in 1731, a writer in the Gentleman’s
Magazine says, “The race of booksellers in Little Britain is now
almost extinct; honest Ballard, well known for his curious divinity
catalogues (he was said to have been the first to print a catalogue),
being then the only genuine representative ... it was, in the middle
of the last century, a plentiful and learned emporium of learned
authors, and men went thither as to a market. This drew to the
place a mighty trade, the rather because the shops were spacious
and the learned gladly resorted to them, where they seldom failed to
meet with agreeable conversations.” The son of this Ballard died in
1796, and was by far the best of the Little Britain booksellers. When
the “trade” deserted Little Britain, about the reign of Queen Anne,
they took up their abode in Paternoster Row, then principally in the
hands of mercers, haberdashers, and lace-men—a periodical in 1705
mentioning even the “semptresses of Paternoster Row;” for the old
manuscript venders, who had christened the whole neighbourhood,
had died out centuries before. It now became the headquarters of
publishers and more especially of old booksellers, but with the
introduction of magazines and “copy” books, that latter portion of
the trade migrated elsewhere, and the street assumed its present
appearance of wholesale warehouses, and general and periodical
publishing houses. It was not long indeed before the tide of fashion
carried many of the eminent firms westward, and the movement in
that direction is still apparent.
 THE LONGMAN FAMILY.
CLASSICAL AND EDUCATIONAL LITERATURE.

T HE family of Longman can trace a publishing pedigree back to

a date anterior to that of any other house still represented
amongst us—the Rivingtons only excepted. As in the
previous chapter, we shall select one member—necessarily that one
to whom most public interest is attached—as the typical
representative of the firm, touching lightly, however, upon all. And,
in accordance with the scheme of the present volume, our remarks
will primarily be devoted to a narrative of their business connections
with that branch of literature—classical and educational works—with
which the name of Longman is more immediately associated.

For the whole of the seventeenth century the Longman family

occupied the position of thriving citizens in the busy seaport town of
Bristol, then the Liverpool of the day, and acquired some
considerable wealth in the manufacture of soap and sugar, achieving
in many instances the highest honours in civic authority. Ezekiel
Longman, who is described as “of Bristol, gentleman,” died in the
year 1708, leaving, by a second marriage, a little boy only nine years
of age, who, as Thomas Longman, is afterwards to be the founder of
the great Paternoster Row firm.
By a provision of his father’s will, Thomas was to be “well and
handsomely bred and educated according to his fortune;” this, we
presume, was duly accomplished, and in June, 1716, we find that he
was bound apprentice for seven years to Mr. John Osborn,
bookseller, of Lombard Street, London—a man in a good, substantial
way of business, but not to be confused with the other Osbornes of
the time. Unlike Jacob, Longman served his seven years, and reaped
a due reward in the person of his master’s daughter; and, as at the
expiry of his time, the house of William Taylor (known to fame as the
publisher of Robinson Crusoe) had lost its chief, Osborn being
appointed executor for the family, we find that in August, 1824 “all
the household goods and books bound in sheets” according to
valuation were purchased by Longman for £2,282 9s. 6d.—a very
considerable sum in those days, and, towards the end of the month,
£230 18s. was further paid for part shares in several profitable
copyrights.
In acquiring this business Longman took possession of two
houses, both ancient in the trade, the Black Swan and the Ship,
which, through the profitable returns of Robinson Crusoe, Taylor had
amalgamated into one; and here on the self-same freehold ground,
the immense publishing establishment of the modern Longmans is
still standing.
The first trade mention we find of his name occurs in a
prospectus dated Oct., 1724, of a proposal to publish, by
subscription, The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. (the
father of chemistry, and brother of the Earl of Cork), “to be printed
for W. and J. Innes, at the West End of St. Paul’s Churchyard, J.
Osborn, at the Oxford Arms, in Lombard Street, and T. Longman, at
the Ship and Black Swan, in Paternoster Row.” In a few months after
this Osborn followed his daughter to the Row, and, adding his capital
to that of his son-in-law, remained in partnership with him until the
end of his days.
In 1726, we find their names conjointly prefixed to the first
edition of Sherlock’s Voyages, and between that date and 1730 to a
great variety of school books.
All the works of importance, many even of the minor books,
were, at that time, published not only by subscription in the first
instance, but the remaining risk, and the trouble of a pretty certain
venture, were divided amongst a number of booksellers: and the
share system was so general that in the books of the Stationers’
Company there is a column ruled off, before the entries of the titles
of works and marked “Shares,” and subdivided into halves, eight-
twelfths, sixteenths, twenty-fourths, and even sixty-fourths. Much of
the speculative portion of a bookseller’s business in those days
consisted, therefore, not in the original publication of books, but in
the purchase and sale of their shares, and to this business we find
that Thomas Longman was especially addicted. As early as
November, 1724, he bought one-third of the Delphin Virgil from
Jacob Tonson, junior; in 1728 a twentieth of Ainsworth’s Latin
Dictionary, one of the most profitable books of the last century, for
forty pounds, and, much later on, one-fourth part of the Arabian
Nights’ Entertainment for the small sum of twelve pounds.
The chief interest of the career of the house at this period lies in
their connection with the Cyclopædia of Ephraim Chambers, which
was not only the parent of all our English encyclopædias, but also
the direct cause of the famous Encyclopédie of the French
philosophers. Longman’s share in this work, first published in 1728,
cost but fifty pounds, and consisted, probably, only of one sixty-
fourth portion; as, however, the proprietors died off, Longman
steadily purchased all the shares that were thrown on the book-
market, until, in the year 1740, the Stationers’ book assigns him
eleven out of the sixty-four—a larger number than was ever held by
any other proprietor.
One of the few direct allusions to Longman’s personal character
relates to his kindness to Ephraim Chambers. A contemporary writes
in the Gentleman’s Magazine:—“Mr. Longman used him with the
liberality of a prince, and the kindness of a father; even his natural
absence of mind was consulted, and during his illness jellies and
other proper refreshments were industriously left for him at those
places where it was least likely that he should avoid seeing them.”
Chambers had received £500 over and above the stipulated price for
this great work, and towards the latter end of his life was never
absolutely in want of money; yet from forgetfulness, perhaps from
custom, he was parsimonious in the extreme. A friend called one day
at his chambers in Gray’s Inn, and was pressed to stay dinner. “And
what will you give me, Ephraim?” asked the guest; “I dare engage
you have nothing for dinner!” To which Mr. Chambers calmly replied,
“Yes, I have a fritter, and if you’ll stay with me I’ll have two.”
After the death of his partner and father-in-law, who bequeathed
him all his books and property, Thomas Longman seems to have
prospered amazingly. In 1746 he took into partnership one Thomas
Shenrell; but, except for the fact that this name figures in
conjunction with his for the two following years, then to disappear
for ever, little more is known. In 1754, however, he took a nephew
into partnership, after which the title-pages of their works ran:
—“Printed for T. and T. Longman at the Ship in Pater-Noster-Row.”
Before this, however, he is to be found acting in unison with Dodsley,
Millar, and other great publishers of the day, in the issue of such
important works as Dr. Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English
Language. On the 10th of June, 1855, only two months after the
publication of the dictionary, he died, and Johnson is obliged to put
off his well-earned holiday-trip to Oxford. “Since my promise two of
our partners are dead (Paul Knapton was the second) and I was
solicited to suspend my excursion till we could recover from our
confusion. Thomas Longman the first had no children, and left half
the partnership stock to his nephew and namesake, the rest of the
property going to his widow.”
Thomas Longman, the nephew, was born in 1731, and, at the
age of fifteen, entered the publishing firm as an apprentice, and at
the date of his uncle’s death was only five-and-twenty.
Under his management the old traditions were kept up—more
copyrights of standard books were purchased, the country trade
extended, and more than this the business relations of the house
were very vastly increased in the American colonies. One of Osborn’s
earliest books, by-the-way, had been entered at Stationers’ Hall in
1712 as Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Old and New
Testament. For the edification and comfort of the Saints in Public
and Private, more especially in New England. The nephew probably
followed up the colonial trade of his uncle and master, for at the first
commencement of hostilities in that country he had a very large sum
engaged in that particular business, and, to the honour of the
succeeding colonists, several of his correspondents behaved very
handsomely in liquidating their debts in full, even subsequent to
amicable arrangements and to the peace of 1783.
As in the case of the founder of the house, the folio Cyclopædia,
still the only one in the field, occupied the chief attention of the firm.
Already in 1746 it had reached a fifth edition; “and whilst,” adds
Alexander Chalmers, “a sixth edition was in question the proprietors
thought that the work might admit of a supplement in two additional
folio volumes. This supplement, which was published in the joint
names of Mr. Scott and Dr. Hill, though containing a number of
valuable articles, was far from being uniformly conspicuous for its
exact judgment and due selection, a small part of it only being
executed by Mr. Scott, Dr. Hill’s task having been discharged with his
usual rapidity.” There the matter stood for some years, when the
proprietors determined to convert the whole into one work. Several
editions were tried and found wanting, and finally Dr. John Calder,
the friend of Dr. Percy, was engaged, but provisionally only, for the
duty. He drew up an elaborate programme, containing no less than
twenty-six propositions. The agreement, as it illustrates, in some
degree, the relative positions of authors and publishers, may be
quoted. Dr. Calder agreed to prepare a new edition of Chambers’s
Cyclopædia to be completed in two years. He received £50 as a
retaining fee upon signing the agreement, and £50 a quarter until
the work was finally out of the printer’s hands. In spite of this
retaining fee the proprietors appear to have been smitten with fear,
perhaps dreading a repetition of Dr. Hill’s inaccuracies, and sent
round a specimen sheet to the eminent literati of the day, asking
their opinions upon the matter and the style. All the verdicts were
unfavourable, one contemptuous critic complaining that the author
had twice referred favourably to the Encyclopædia Britannica, “a
Scots rival publication in little esteem.” Dr. Johnson cut away a large
portion of his sheet as worthless; but, at poor Calder’s request, who
began to be perplexedly alarmed by all these adverse reviews,
explained this superfluity as arising simply from trôp de zèle. “I
consider the residuum which I lopped away, not as the consequence
of negligence or inability, but as the result of superfluous business,
naturally exerted in the first article. He that does too much soon
learns to do less.” Then apologizing for Calder’s turbulence and
impatience, the kindly doctor prays “that he may stand where he
stood before, and be permitted to proceed with the work with which
he is engaged. Do not refuse this request, sir, to your most humble
servant, Samuel Johnson.” Again and again the doctor interposed his
influence, but in vain, and Abraham Rees, a young professor in a
dissenting college near town, was engaged, and a new issue of the
Cyclopædia (still Chambers’s), in weekly parts, was commenced in
1778, running on till 1786, attaining a circulation of four or five
thousand, then a large one, for each number; and Longman, as
chief proprietor, must have profited exceedingly by the work.
In the books of the Stationers’ Company we find repeated entry
of Longman as publisher or shareholder in such miscellaneous works
as Gil Blas, Humphrey Clinker, and Rasselas; and, true to the old
traditions of the firm, educational works were by no means
neglected. Among others we note a record of Cocker’s Arithmetic,
since proverbially and bibliographically famous.
Cocker was an unruly master of St. Paul’s School, twice deposed
for his extreme opinions, but twice restored for his marvellous
talents of teaching. “He was the first to reduce arithmetic to a purely
mechanical art.” The first edition, however, was published only after
his death by his friend “John Hawkins, writing master”—a copy sold
by Puttick and Simpson, in 1851, realized £8 10s. The fifty-second
edition was published in 1748, and the last reprint, though at that
time the work was in Longman’s hands, bears “Glasgow, 1777,” on
the title-page.
“Ingenious Cocker now to rest thou’rt gone,
No art can show thee fully, but thy own,
Thy rare arithmetic alone can show
The vast sums of thanks we for thy labour owe.”
 In those days the publishers clave together in a manner
undreamt of in these latter times of keener competition. Nichols, in
speaking of James Robson (a Bond-street bookseller), and a literary
club of booksellers, observes that Mr. Longman, with the late
Alderman Cadell, James Dodsley, Lockyer, Davies, Peter Elmsley,
Honest Tom Payne of the Mew’s Gate, and Thomas Evans of the
Strand, were all members of this society. They met first at the
“Devil’s Tavern,” Temple-bar, then moved to the “Grecian,” and finally
from a weekly gathering, became a monthly meeting at the
“Shakspeare.” Here was originated the germ of many a valuable
production. Under their auspices Davies (in whose shop Boswell first
met Johnson) produced his only valuable work, the Life of Garrick.
Poor Davies had been an actor till Churchill’s satire drove him off the
stage—
“He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone.”
From this he fled to the refuge of a bookselling shop in Russell-
street, Covent-garden. He is described variously as “not a bookseller,
but a gentleman dealing in books,” and as “learned enough for a
clergyman.” Here he strived indifferently well till we come upon his
epitaph—
“Here lies the author, actor Thomas Davies,
Living he shone a very rara avis;
The scenes he played life’s audience must commend—
He honour’d Garrick, Johnson was his friend.”

At this club meeting, too, Johnson’s Lives of the Poets were first
resolved on, and by the club clique the work was ultimately
produced.
William West, a bookseller’s assistant, who died at a great age at
the Charter House, in 1855, has left in his Fifty Years’
Reminiscences, and in the pages of the Aldine Magazine, a number
of garrulous, amusing, but sometimes incoherent stories of the old
booksellers. West says he knew all the members of the club, and
bears witness that “Longman was a man of the most exemplary
character both in his profession and in his private life, and as
universally esteemed for his benevolence as for his integrity.” He
mentions in particular Longman’s generosity in offering George
Robinson any sum he wished on credit, when his business was in a
critical condition.
West adds, “I was in the habit of going to Mr. Longman’s almost
daily from the years 1785 to 1787 or 1788, for various books for
country orders, being what is termed in all wholesale booksellers’
shops ‘a collector.’ Mr. Norton Longman had been caused by his
father wisely to go through this same wholesome routine of his
profession; and I am informed that the present Mr. L. (Thomas
Norton Longman), although at the very head of the book trade, has
pursued a similar course with his sons.”
Longman—and this brings us to the subject—had married a
sister of Harris, the patentee, and long the manager of Covent
Garden Theatre. By her he had three sons, and of these Thomas
Norton Longman, born in 1771, about 1792 began to take his
father’s place in the publishing establishment; and about this time
Thomas Brown entered the office as an apprentice. In 1794, Mr.
Owen Rees was admitted a member, and the firm’s title was altered
to “Longman and Co.;” and at this time, too, the younger Evans,
“rating,” we are told, “only as third wholesale bookseller in England,”
became bankrupt, and the whole of his picked stock was transferred
to 39, Paternoster Row. The stock was further increased by a legacy
from the elder Evans to Brown’s father in 1803. This elder Evans, as
the publisher of the Morning Chronicle, had incurred the displeasure
of Goldsmith, who, mindful of Johnson’s former valour, “went to the
shop,” says Nichols, “cane in hand, and fell upon him in a most
unmerciful manner. This Mr. Evans resented in a truly pugilistic
method, and in a few moments the author of the Vicar of Wakefield
was disarmed and stretched on the floor, to the no small diversion of
the bystanders.”
 Thomas Longman.
1771–1842.

Seven years, however, before this, Thomas Longman the second

died, on the 5th February, 1797. Of the position to which he had
attained it is sufficient to mention that when the Government were
about to impose an additional duty on paper, subsequent to that of
1794, the firm of Longman urged such strong and unanswerable
arguments against it and its impolicy that the idea was relinquished;
and at this time the house had nearly £100,000 embarked in various
publications.
Longman left his business to his eldest son, and to his second
son, George, he bequeathed a handsome fortune, which enabled
him to become a very extensive paper manufacturer at Maidstone, in
Kent, and for some years he represented that borough in Parliament.
As a further honour, he was drawn for Sheriff of London, but did not
serve the office.
Edward Longman, the third son, was drowned at an early age in
a voyage to India, whither he was proceeding to a naval station in
the East India Company’s service.
At the time of Thomas Norton Longman’s accession to the
chiefdom of the Paternoster Row firm, the literary world was
undergoing a seething revolution. Genius was again let loose upon
the earth to charm all men by her beauty, and to scare them for a
while by her utter contempt for precedent. The torpor in which
England had been wrapped during the whole of the foregone
Hanoverian dynasty was changing into an eager feeling of unrest,
and, later on, to a burning desire to do something, no matter what,
and to do it thoroughly in one’s own best manner, and at one’s own
truest promptings. No man saw the coming change more clearly
than Longman; and anxious to profit by the first-fruits of the future,
yet careful not to cast away in his hurry that ponderous ballast of
dictionary and compilation, he soon gathered all the young writers of
the day within the precincts of his publishing fold.
Down at Bristol, the ancestral town of both Longman and Rees,
Joseph Cottle had been doing honest service—without, we fear,
much profit—in issuing the earliest works of young men who were to
take the highest rank among their fellows. Cottle had published
Southey’s Joan of Arc in 1796, and in 1798 had issued the Lyrical
Ballads, the joint composition of Coleridge and Wordsworth. When,
in 1800, Longman purchased the entire copyrights of the Bristol
firm, at a fair and individual valuation, the Lyrical Ballads were set
down in the bill at exactly nothing, and Cottle obtained leave to
present the copyright to the authors. In connection with Cottle and
Longman, we must here mention a story that does infinite credit to
both. At the very close of the eighteenth century, Southey and Cottle
in conjunction prepared an edition of Chatterton’s works, to be
published by subscription for the benefit of his sister, whose sight
was now beginning to fail her. Hitherto, though much money had
been made from the works of the “boy poet,” they had been printed
only for the emolument of speculators.
The edition unfortunately proved a failure, but Longman and
Rees entered into a friendly arrangement with Southey, and he was
able to report in 1804 that Mrs. Newton lived to receive £184 15s.
from the profits, when, as she expressed it, she would otherwise
have wanted bread. Ultimately, Mary Ann Newton, the poet’s niece,
received about £600, the fruits of the generous exertion of a brother
poet, and of the good feeling of a kind-hearted publisher.
The first edition of the Lyrical Ballads did eventually sell out, and
then Wordsworth, detaching his own poems from the others, and
adding several new ones thereto, obtained £100 from Longman for
the use of two editions, but the sale was so very slow that the
bargain was probably unprofitable.
In this same year 1800 the house of Longman also published
Coleridge’s translation of Schiller’s Wallenstein, written in the short
space of six weeks. Very few copies were sold, but after remaining
on hand for sixteen years, the remainder was sold off rapidly at a
double price.
Southey (a Bristol man himself) met, too, with much kindness
from the firm, but after his first poem with but little, as a poet, from
the public. We have seen before that “the profits” on Madoc
“amounted to exactly three pounds seventeen shillings and a penny.”
No wonder that he writes to a friend, “Books are now so dear that
they are becoming articles of fashionable furniture more than
anything else; they who do buy them do not read, and they who
read them do not buy them. I have seen a Wiltshire clothier who
gives his bookseller no other instructions than the dimensions of his
shelves; and have just heard of a Liverpool merchant who is fitting
up a library, and has told his bibliopole to send him Shakespeare,
Milton, and Pope, and if any of those fellows should publish anything
new to let him have it immediately. If Madoc obtains any celebrity,
its size and cost will recommend it to those gentry libros consumere
nati, born to buy octavos and help the revenue.” Southey’s prose,
however, proved infinitely more profitable, and for some years he
was the chief contributor to Longman’s Annual Review started in
1802, the same year as the Edinburgh Review. About this time
Longman first went to Scotland, paid a visit to Walter Scott, and
purchased the copyright of the Minstrelsy then publishing; and in the
following year Rees crossed the borders, and returned with an
arrangement to publish the Lay of the Last Minstrel on the half-profit
system, Constable having, however, a very small share in it. Scott’s
moiety of profits was £169 6s., and success being then ensured,
Longman offered £500 for the copyright, which was at once
accepted. They afterwards added £100, “handsomely given to supply
the loss of a fine horse which broke down suddenly while the author
was riding with one of the worthy publishers” (Owen Rees).
Already in the first few years of the century we find the house
connected with Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, and Scott, but it
was by no means entirely to poetry that Longman and Rees trusted.
In 1799 they purchased the copyright of Lindley Murray’s English
Grammar, one of the most profitable school books ever issued from
the press—for many years the annual sale of the Abridgment in
England alone was from 48,000 to 50,000 copies. Chambers’
Cyclopædia was entirely re-written, re-cast, and re-christened, and
again, under the management of Abraham Rees, after whom it was
named, came out in quarto form in parts, but at a total cost of £85.
The ablest scientific and technical writers of the day were retained,
and among them we find the names of Humphry Davy, John
Abernethy, Sharon Turner, John Flaxman, and Henry Brougham. For
the first twenty years of this century Rees’ New Cyclopædia filled the
place that the Encyclopædia Britannica—“a Scots rival in little
esteem”—was afterwards to occupy.
In 1803, we find the trade catalogue has extended so much in
bulk and character that it is divided into no less than twenty-two
classes. Among their books we note Paley’s Natural Theology (ten
editions published in seven years), Sharon Turner’s Anglo-Saxon
History, Pinkerton’s Geography, Cowper’s Homer, and Gifford’s
Juvenal.
About this time too, they engaged very extensively in the old
book trade, a branch of the business discarded about the year 1840.
In a catalogue of the year 1811 we find some very curious books.
Here are the celebrated Roxburgh Ballads, now in the British
Museum; a Pennant’s London, marked £300; a Granger’s
Biographical Dictionary, £750; Pilkington’s Dictionary of Painters,
£420; two volumes of Cromwelliana, £250; an extraordinary
assemblage of Caxtons, Wynkyn de Wordes, and other early printed
books, one supposed to date from 1446; a unique assemblage of
9
Garrickiana, and many other articles of a matchless character.
Longman was himself indefatigable in business, for fifty years
unremittingly he came from and returned to Hampstead on
horseback; but as the rious branches of the trade clearly prove, the
superintendence of so vast a business was altogether beyond the
power of any single man; and perhaps nothing tended more to raise
the firm to the eminent position it soon attained than the plan of
introducing fresh blood from time to time;—the new members being
often chosen on account of the zeal and talent they had displayed as
servants of the house. In 1804 Thomas Hurst, with the whole of his
trade and connection, and Cosmo Orme (the founder of the hospital
for decayed booksellers) were admitted. In 1811, Thomas Brown,
whom we have already noticed as an apprentice, became a member
of the firm, and until his retirement in 1859, took the sole
management of the cash department, with so regular and just a
system that an author could always learn what was coming to him,
and when he was to receive it—a plan not invariably adopted in a
publisher’s counting-house. The firm was in 1824 further
strengthened by the admission of Bevis Green, who had been
apprenticed to Hurst in 1807. The title of the firm at this, its best
known, period was, therefore, “Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown,
and Green.” When, however, Thomas Roberts entered, the title was
changed to “Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green;” but
we are anticipating, for Roberts died as recently as 1865, having
acquired some distinction in private life as a Numismatist. For the
sake of convenience, and for the sequence of the story, it will,
perhaps, be as well to consider the firm as represented, as in fact
from his leading position it was by Thomas Norton Longman,
touching only upon the others individually when some directly
personal interest arises. Before all these partnerships, however, were
accomplished facts Longman had taken a much more precious, and
even more zealous partner in the person of Miss Mary Slater of
Horsham, Sussex, whom he had married as far back as the 2nd July,
1799.
Wordsworth of course continued his connection with the firm,
though his profits were absolutely nil. Though a poetic philosopher
he was not quite proof against the indifference of the public. In the
edition of the Lyrical Ballads published in 1805 we find the significant
epigraph, Quam nihil ad genium, Papinique tuum. In 1807, he
published two new volumes, in which appeared many of his choicest
pieces, and among them his first sonnets. Jeffrey, however,
maintained that they were miserably inferior, and his article put an
absolute stop to the sale. Wordsworth had, perhaps deprived himself
of all right to complain, for his harshest reviewer did him far more
justice than he was wont to deal out to his greatest contemporaries.
In 1814, we find Longman announcing, “Just published, the
Excursion, being a portion of the Recluse, by William Wordsworth, in
4to., price £2 2s., boards.” Jeffrey used the famous expression
—“This will never do;” and Hogg wrote to Southey that Jeffrey had
crushed the poem. “What!” retorted Southey, “Jeffrey crush the
Excursion! Tell him he might as easily crush Skiddaw!” Wordsworth,
who had invariably a high value of his own works, even of his
weakest ones, writes also,—“I am delighted to learn that the
Edinburgh Aristarch has declared against the Excursion, as he will
have the mortification of seeing a book enjoy a high reputation to
which he has not contributed.” For a while, however, Jeffrey’s curse
was potent, and it took six years to exhaust an edition of only 500
copies. We need scarcely follow Wordsworth’s various publications
(do their dates not lie on every table of every drawing-room in the
land?), but the whole returns from his literary labours up to 1819
had not amounted to £140; and even in 1829 he remarks that he
had worked hard through a long life for less pecuniary emolument
than a public performer earns for two or three songs.
Longman had at one time an opportunity of becoming Byron’s
publisher, but declined the English Bards and Scotch Reviewers on
account of the violent attacks it contained upon his own poets—
those of the Lake school. With Scott we have seen that he had had
dealings, and in these, at all events, Sir Walter’s joke, that
Longmanum est errare, did not hold good. Before the collective
edition of 1830, 44,000 copies of the Lay of the Last Minstrel were
sold. Though Longman was inclined to believe that Scott was not the
author of Waverley, he was equally anxious to secure the publication
of some of that extraordinary series of romances; and at a time
when the Ballantynes were in trouble, purchased Guy Mannering by
granting bills in advance for £1500, and taking a portion of their
stock, to the extent of about £600 more. The Monastery was also
published by him in 1820, and he is said, though the authority is
more than dubious, to have paid Scott upwards of £20,000 in about
fifteen years.
What Scott was to Constable, and Byron to Murray, that was
Moore to Longman. “Anacreon Moore,” as he loved to be called, had
gained a naughty reputation from Mr. Thomas Little’s Poems, and, in
1811, we find him writing to Longman—“I am at last come to a
determination to bind myself to your service, if you hold the same
favourable disposition towards me as at our last conversation upon
business. To-morrow I shall be very glad to be allowed half-an-hour’s
conversation with you, and as I dare say I shall be up all night at
Carlton House, I do not think I could reach your house before four
o’clock. I told you before that I never could work without a retainer.
It will not, however, be of that exorbitant nature which your liberality
placed at my disposal the first time.” Soon after this the Prince
Regent threw over his old Whig friend, but Moore was so successful
in his political warfare that he more than gained as a poet what he
lost as a courtier, and his Two-penny Post Bag went through
fourteen editions. He was, however, anxious to apply his genius to
the creation of some work more likely to raise his reputation than
the singing of lascivious songs, or the jerking off of political squibs.
Accordingly Perry, the editor of the Morning Chronicle, was sent to
discuss preliminary matters with Longman. “I am of opinion,” said
Perry, “that Mr. Moore ought to receive for his poem the largest price
that has been given in our day for such a work.” “That,” replied
Longman promptly, “was £3000.” “Exactly so,” rejoined the editor,
“and no smaller a sum ought he to receive.” Longman insisted upon
a perusal beforehand:—
“Longman has communicated his readiness to terms, on the
basis of the three thousand guineas, but requires a perusal
beforehand; this I have refused. I shall have no ifs.”
Again Moore writes, “To the honour and glory of romance, as
well on the publisher’s side as on the poet’s, this very generous view
of the transaction was without any difficulty acceded to;” and again,
“There has seldom occurred any transaction in which trade and
poetry have shone so satisfactorily in each other’s eyes.” So Moore
left London to find a quiet resting-place “in a lone cottage among
the fields in Derbyshire,” and there Lalla Rookh was written; the
snows of two or three Derbyshire winters aiding, he avers, his
imagination, by contrast, to paint the everlasting summers and
glowing scenery of the East. The arrangement had hitherto been
verbal, but on going up to town, in the winter of 1814, he received
the following agreement from Longman.

“COPY OF TERMS WRITTEN TO MR. MOORE.

“That upon your giving into our hands a poem of yours of
the length of Rokeby, you shall receive from us the sum of
£3000. We also agree to the stipulation that the few songs
which you may introduce into the work shall be considered as
reserved for your own setting.”
 Soon Moore writes to say that about 4000 lines are perfectly
finished, but he is unwilling to show any portion of the work until the
6000 are completed, for fear of disheartenment. He requests
Longman, however, “to tell our friends that they are done, a poetic
licence to prevent the teasing wonderment of the literary quidnuncs
at my being so long about it.” Longman replies that “we are certainly
impatient for the perusal of your poem, but solely for our
gratification. Your sentiments are always honourable.” At length,
after very considerable delays on the part of the author, the poem
appeared, and its wonderful success fully justified the publisher’s
extraordinary liberality. Moore drew a thousand pounds for the
discharge of his debts, and left, temporarily only, we fear, £2000 in
Longman’s hands, the interest of which was to be paid quarterly to
his father.
This was Moore’s greatest effort; nor did he attempt to surpass
it. One substantial proof of admiration of the poet’s performance
should not be overlooked: “The young Bristol lady,” says Moore in his
diary, Dec. 23rd, 1818, “who inclosed me three pounds after reading
Lalla Rookh had very laudable ideas on the subject; and if every
reader of Lalla Rookh had done the same I need never have written
again.”
As it was, however, he was soon obliged to set to work once
more—this time as a biographer. The lives of Sheridan, Fitzgerald,
and many others, bear testimony 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 Meetings” 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, and Duppa is
worth knowing.” Throughout the day the new publications 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
whenever they came to town.
As, perhaps, the strongest proof of a man’s kindliness 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 Booksellers,” and was also one
of the “Court of Assistants of the Company of Stationers,” but, with
the characteristic modesty of his disposition, paid the customary fine
to be allowed to decline the offices of warden and master of the
company.
For many years the “House” had been London agents and part
proprietors of the Edinburgh Review, and when the commercial
crash of 1826 destroyed Constable’s huge establishment, the
property was virtually in their own hands, and the number for
December, 1826, is printed for “Longman, Rees, Orme, Browne, and
Green, London, and Adam Black, Edinburgh;” and if we “read
between the lines” of the new designation we learn that Hurst had
been concerned in some bill transactions, and had been this year
compelled to retire (he died an inmate of the Charter House, in
1847), and we may also gather something of the strong connection
that was to be formed with the house of Adam Black.
Jeffrey retired from the editorial chair in 1829, but Macney
Napier, the editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica was appointed in
his stead, and the literary management of the journal was still
continued in Edinburgh. Sydney Smith ceased to write for the
Review in 1827; but in 1825 an article was contributed on Milton, by
a young man of five-and-twenty; and Mr. Thomas Babington
Macaulay, who, as Moore said, could do any mortal thing but forget,
was destined to be, not only the most brilliant of the daring and
talented band of Edinburgh Reviewers, but eventually, one of the
10
most powerful contributors to Longman’s fortune and reputation.
To return again to educational works, we find that in Mangnall’s
Questions a property had been acquired that fully rivalled Murray’s
Mrs. Markham. A type now of a hideously painful and parrot-like
system of teaching (what negations of talent our sisters and mothers
owe to this encyclopædic volume we shudder to sum up!) it was
imitated and printed in every direction. Poor Miss Mangnall! who
recollects now-a-days that in 1806 she commenced her literary life
with a volume of poems? A very similar book, but on scientific
questions, was Mrs. Marcet’s Conversations, which was not only
profitable to Longman, but American booksellers, up to the year
1853, had reaped an abundant harvest from the sale of 160,000
copies.
The attempts already made by Constable and Murray to promote
the sale of cheap and yet excellent books, led Longman to establish
his Cabinet Encyclopædia. The management was given to Dr.
Lardner, then a professor at the London University, and all, or nearly
all, Longman’s literary connections were pressed into service on his
staff of contributors. In the prospectus we see the names of Scott,
Moore, Mackintosh, Coleridge, Miss Edgeworth, Herschell, Long,
Brewster, De Morgan, Thirlwall, and, of course, Southey. The Times
gave more than a broad hint that some of the names were put
forward as lures, and nothing else. Southey was anxious that this
“insinuation” should be brought before a court of law, where the
writer may be “taught that not every kind of slander may be
published with impunity.” The proprietors, however, contented
themselves with publishing books, most indubitably written by the
authors whose names they bore. The first volume was published in
1829, and at the close of the series, in 1846, one hundred and
thirty-three volumes had been issued, the whole of which were
eminently successful, and some few of them, such as Sir John
Herschell’s Astronomy, in particular, have since been expanded into
recognised and standard works.
Another valuable work which has been a constant source of
wealth to the firm, somewhat similar in scope to the preceding, was
McCulloch’s Commercial Dictionary, first published in 1832; in which
year the present Mr. Thomas Longman was admitted a partner, being
joined by his brother, Mr. William Longman, in 1839. With young Mr.
Thomas Longman, Moore appears to have been particularly friendly,
addressing him always as “Dear Tom.” As far back as 1829, we see
the poet requesting that some one might be sent over to have “poor
Barbara’s” grave made tidy, for fear that his wife Bessy, who was
about to make a loving pilgrimage thither, might be shocked, and we
read afterwards that “young Longman kindly rode over twice to
Hornsey for the purpose.” In Moore’s diary, too, for 1837, we find
many regrets for the loss of Rees—a man “who may be classed
among those solemn business-ties, the breaking of which by death
cannot but be felt solemnly, if not deeply.” And again, later on, in
1840: “Indeed, I will venture to say that there are few tributes from
authors to publishers more honourable (or I will fairly say more
deserved) than those which will be found among my papers relative
to the transactions for many years between myself and my friends of
the ‘Row.’”
Thomas Longman the third was now an old man, but still
constantly attentive to business. In his time he had seen many
changes, but none more striking than those that occupied his latter
days. Madoc was still lying on his shelves, but Southey was poet-
laureate. Scott and Byron had in succession entranced the world.
They had now withdrawn, and no third king arose to demand
recognition. It was in the calm that followed that Wordsworth
obtained a hearing. In 1839, the University of Oxford conferred upon
him the degree of Doctor of Laws, amid the enthusiastic applause of
a crowded theatre. Younger men were coming to the fore, and
though his contemporaries were fast dying off, still Longman was as
eager for business as ever, and as ready, when it was over, for his
chief pleasure—the enjoyments of domestic life; for his favourite
pursuits—the love of music and the culture of fruits and flowers. As
far as health and activity went, though in his 72nd year, he was still
in the prime of life, when, on his usual ride to town, his horse fell,
near the Small-pox Hospital, St. Pancras, and he was thrown over
the animal’s head and struck the ground with such violence as to
fracture his skull and injure his spine; and in a few days afterwards
he died at his residence, Greenhill House, Hampstead, on 28th
August, 1842—leaving a blank, not only in his own family circle, but
in the hearts of all who had known him as a master, or had reaped a
benefit from the uniform generosity of his business dealings.
Mr. McCulloch and many of his literary clients erected a
monument, the bust of which, by Mr. Moore, is said to be a good
likeness, to his memory—an affectionate tribute seldom paid by
men-of-letters to a publisher—now standing in Hampstead church.
His personalty was sworn under £200,000, and was principally
left to his widow and family. The former, however, did not long
survive her sorrow, but died some ten weeks after her husband.
Their second son, Mr. Charles Longman, of Two Waters, joined
Mr. Dickenson, in the trade of wholesale stationers and paper-
makers, in which they have since then attained a pre-eminence.
Their eldest daughter married Mr. Spottiswoode, the Queen’s printer,
and the third daughter is the wife of Reginald Bray, Esq., of Shere.
The succession of a Thomas Longman to the chiefdom of the
house is, Mr. Knight says somewhere, as certain as the accession of
a George was in the Hanoverian dynasty: and the present Mr.
Longman, aided by his brother William, took command of the
gigantic firm in Paternoster Row. The very year of their father’s
death was a year to be long remembered in the annals of the firm
for an unusually successful “hit,” in the production of the Lays of
Ancient Rome. Not even in the palmy days of Scott and Byron was
such an immediate and enormous circulation attained. In 1844,
Macaulay ceased to contribute to the Edinburgh Review—nearly
twenty years from the date of his first contributions; receiving
latterly, we believe, £100 as a minimum price for an article. A
collective edition of these essays was published in America; and
within five years sixty thousand volumes were sold, and, as many of
these were imported into England, Macaulay authorised the
proprietors of the Review to issue an English edition, which certainly
proved the most remunerative collection of essays ever published in
this or any other country. The English edition contains twenty-seven
essays, in some editions twenty-six. The Philadelphia edition
11
contains eleven additional essays.
These essays were all very excellent, but Macaulay’s admirers
regretted with Tom Moore, “that his great powers should not be
concentrated upon one great work, instead of being scattered in
Sibyl’s leaves,” and great was the satisfaction in 1841, when it was
known that he was engaged upon a History of England, and the
publication of the work was looked forward to with the greatest
eagerness; and in 1849 the first two volumes appeared. Success was
immediate—“Within six months,” says the Edinburgh Review, “the
book has run through five editions, involving an issue of above
18,000 copies.” By 1856, the sale of these two volumes had reached
nearly 40,000 copies, and in the United States 125,000 copies were
sold in five years. For the privilege of publication for ten years, it is
said that Mr. Longman allowed the author £600 per annum; the
copyright remaining in Macaulay’s possession.
This success, however, was nothing to that achieved by the third
and fourth volumes; and the day of their publication, 17th Dec.,
1855, will be long remembered in the annals of Paternoster Row. It
was presumed that 25,000 copies would be quite sufficient to meet
the first public demand; but this enormous pile of books, weighing
fifty-six tons, was exhausted the first day, and eleven thousand
applicants were still unsatisfied. In New York one house sold 73,000
volumes (three different styles and prices) in ten days, and 25,000
more were immediately issued in Philadelphia—10,000 were
stereotyped, printed, and in the hands of the publishers within fifty
working hours. The aggregate sale in England and America, within
four weeks of publication, is said to have exceeded 150,000 copies.
Macaulay is also stated to have received £16,000 from Mr. Longman
12
for the copyright of the third and fourth volumes.
Upon the death of Mr. Macney Napier, the editorship of the
Review was transferred to Mr. Empson, Jeffrey’s son-in-law; while he
in turn was succeeded by Sir George Cornewall Lewis, who finally
gave place to Mr. H. Reeve.
In the way of cheap literature the “Travellers’ Library,”
commenced in 1851, is deservedly worthy of notice. In this year
occurred the unusual phenomenon of a pamphlet, bearing on its
title-page the joint names of Mr. Longman and Mr. Murray. This was
a reprint of some correspondence with Earl Russell, in his official
capacity, as to the injustice of the State undertaking the publication
of school-books at the national expense, and compelling the
government schools to adopt them—thus creating a perfect
monopoly and interfering with private enterprise. The books in
question were published by the Irish Educational Commissioners, but
more than three-quarters of them were eventually sold in England—
many of them, especially the collection of poetry, were, it was
further urged, pirated from copyright works. The correspondence
was long and protracted on the side of the publishers; and as is
often the case in an important public question, Earl Russell’s replies
consisted of the merest acknowledgment. Mr. Longman had,
however, an opportunity of a pleasant revenge. Tom Moore had left
all his papers, letters, and journals to the care of his friend, Earl
Russell—a man who, as Sydney Smith said, thought he could do
anything—“build St. Paul’s, cut for the stone, or command the
Channel Fleet.” The one thing apparently he could not do was the
editorship or composition of a Poet’s Life. The material, indeed, was
ample, and seems to have been printed pretty much as it came to
hand. However, the sum which Mr. Longman gave for the papers
appeared, together with the pension, an ample provision for the
devoted “Bessy.”
Among the later efforts of the firm we may here mention the
issue of many finely illustrated works, and we must also chronicle
the fact that in 1863—the business connections and stock of the
Parkers were added to the enormous trade of the leviathan firm.
Giving a glance at the changes that have taken place in the
members of the firm, we have merely space to note that at Cosmo
Orme’s death in 1859 Mr. Brown retired, and at his decease on the
24th of March, 1869, left an immense fortune, more than £100,000
going in various legacies, of which the Booksellers’ Provident Retreat
and Institution each received £10,000, the Royal Literary Fund
£3000, and the Stationers’ Company in all £10,000, the balance after
the various legacies, and there were no less than sixty-eight
legatees, going to the grandchildren of Thomas Norton Longman.
The personalty of Mr. B. E. Green, who died about the same date,
was sworn under £200,000. Two of the former assistants, Mr. Dyer
and Mr. Reader, have, on the good old system, been admitted to the
firm, which now stands “Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer.” Mr.
Roberts, as before stated, died in 1865.
Both the Messrs. Longman are well known for their literary
talents—Mr. Thomas Longman as editor of a magnificent edition of
the New Testament; and Mr. William as an historical author. The first
of his works was, we believe, privately printed, A Tour in the Alps, by
W. L. Mr. William Longman has always been an enthusiastic Alpine
traveller. He has, however, more recently published a History of the
Life and Times of Edward III., in two volumes, and at our present
writing a new work has just appeared in which he says playfully, “I
trust authors will forgive me, and not revenge themselves by turning
publishers;” and he adds heartily and generously, “There is,
nevertheless, some advantage in a publisher dabbling in literature,
for it shows him the difficulties with which an author has to contend
—the labour which is indispensable to produce a work which may be
relied on—and it increases the sympathy which should, and which in
these days does, exist between author and publisher.” These latter
lines surely form a very fitting sentence with which to conclude our
short history of the house of Longman.