John Taylor (English publisher)

John Taylor (1781–1864) was a publisher, essayist, and writer born in East Retford, Nottinghamshire, the son of James Taylor and Sarah Drury. Although in pyramidical circles, he may be remembered for his contributions to Pyramidology and his use of that subject in the fight against adopting the metric system of measurements, his real fame is as the publisher of both Keats and John Clare.

Life

John Taylor's father was a printer and bookseller. He attended school first at Lincoln Grammar School and then he went to the local grammar school in Retford. John Taylor originally apprenticed to his father but eventually he moved to London and worked for James Lackington in 1803. Taylor left after a short while because of his insufficient salary.

He formed a partnership with J A Hessey as Taylor and Hessey at 93 Fleet Street. In 1819, through his cousin Edward Drury, a bookseller in Stamford, he was introduced to John Clare, the poet of Helpston in Northamptonshire. Some moderns have criticised him for correcting and 'polishing' some of Clare's rustic grammar and spelling for publication, but under the expectations of the era, this was probably unavoidable.

He was also Keats's publisher, and published works by Lamb, Coleridge and Hazlitt.

He wrote and published his own work, Junius Identified, which identified Junius , the writer of Letters of Junius (probably correctly) as Sir Philip Francis. This ran to two editions.

In 1821 John Taylor became involved in publishing Blackwood......
Read More