author
Hurst & Blackett
A major Victorian publishing house, Hurst & Blackett helped shape what many 19th-century readers found on their shelves, from popular fiction to widely read reprint series. Its story is closely tied to the rise of commercial publishing in London.
1 Audiobook
Hurst & Blackett's Standard Library (1895)
by Hurst & Blackett
About the author
Hurst & Blackett was a London publisher founded in 1852 by Henry Blackett and Daniel William Stow Hurst. Soon after starting the firm, they took over the business of the established publisher Henry Colburn, and early books were even marked as Colburn's successors. The company later used the phrase "Publishers since 1812", a nod to Colburn's earlier publishing history.
The firm became especially associated with Victorian fiction and with making books available through named series and cheaper editions. Its list included works such as John Halifax, Gentleman by Dinah Craik, first published by Hurst and Blackett in 1856, and it also issued a range of branded libraries and novel series that helped build its public identity.
Hurst & Blackett operated in London, later from Paternoster House, Paternoster Row, and also had offices in New York and Melbourne. In time the company was taken over by Hutchinson, which later became part of Random House. There does not appear to be a single author-style portrait for the company itself, so no profile image is included.