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Author: Moxon, Edward

Biography:

MOXON, Edward (1801-58: ODNB)

Edward Moxon, “the poet’s publisher,” as contemporary obituaries called him, was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, and baptised on 12 Dec. 1801, the eldest of nine children of Ann (Watson) and Michael Moxon, who had married on 29 Nov. 1800. His father was a wool worker. At nine Edward was apprenticed to a local bookseller and found his metier. Once out of his indentures, he went to London in 1817 where he made friends in literary circles and was employed by Longman’s from 1821 to 1830. That firm published his first collection of poetry in 1826. Dedicated to Samuel Rogers (q.v.) “in admiration of his poetical genius,” the book begs the reader’s indulgence as “the production of a very young man, unlettered, untaught, ignorant of every language except his native tongue.” Rogers became a good friend, as did Charles Lamb (q.v.), and it was Rogers who in 1830 provided start-up funds for Moxon’s first bookshop, on New Bond Street. The first title issued by Moxon’s firm was Lamb’s Album Verses (1830), followed in a steady stream by most of the great names of late Romantic and early Victorian poetry: Campbell, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Browning, Milnes, Tennyson (qq.v.). Moxon revered and cultivated poets; he won their trust. In 1833 he moved to new premises at 44 Dover Street. On 30 July in the same year he married the Lambs’ ward Emma Isola (1809-91) at St. George’s, Hanover Square. They had five children; the Moxon firm continued after his death until 1877 under the direction of his widow and their son Arthur. He died at his home, Park Side, Wandsworth, on 3 June 1858 and was buried at Wimbledon. He left an estate valued at under £16,000. (ODNB 18 July 2023; findmypast.com 18 July 2023; Leeds Intelligencer 19 June 1858)

 

Books written (4):

London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1826
London: Hurst, Chance, and Co., 1829
London: printed by [Bradbury and Evans], 1830
London: printed by [Bradbury and Evans], 1835