author
Henry S. King (Publisher)
A Victorian banker and India agent who moved into publishing, he founded Henry S. King & Co. and helped shape a well-known London imprint of the 1870s. Though not widely remembered today, his name remains closely tied to the world of 19th-century British books.
1 Audiobook
A Classified Catalogue of Henry S. King & Co.'s Publications, November, 1873
by Henry S. King (Publisher)
About the author
Born in 1817, Henry Samuel King was a British bookseller, publisher, banker, and India agent. Sources agree that he became connected with the firm of Smith, Elder & Co., and that in the late 1860s he took over its banking and India agency side before establishing the publishing firm Henry S. King & Co. in 1871.
His business sat at the crossroads of finance and print, which was not unusual in Victorian publishing but still makes his career stand out. Reference works on the period describe him as a successful banker and India agent, and later publishers traced their roots through his firm after the business passed into other hands.
King died in 1878. Some sources also identify him as the husband of the poet Harriet Eleanor King and the father of Henry Seymour King, who later continued in the family banking business.