Literature for the People: How the Pioneering Macmillan Brothers Built a Publishing Powerhouse

Harkness’s (Nelly Erichsen: A Hidden Life) skillful biography of Daniel and Alexander Macmillan tells the story of two impoverished Scottish brothers who sought to improve the lives of others through literature by building a socially responsible but also shrewdly innovative publishing business. Founding their company in 1830s Victorian England, their goal was to make inspiring, educational books available to middle- and working-class people; this group of readers was largely invisible to other publishers but became a lucrative market. Both brothers started out as apprentice booksellers, learning the ins and outs of the book trade from the ground up. They initially set up shop near Cambridge University, where they made numerous social contacts in literary circles with people they then cultivated as authors for their burgeoning business. Influenced by the liberal tenets of Christian socialism, the Macmillans aimed to publish works that would both inform and enlighten their readers in moral ways. This emphasis guided their decisions on what to publish as a higher principle over sheer profit.