The Ballantyne Press and its founders, 1796-1908

The History of the Art of Printing in Edinburgh shows periods of fluctuating progress—times of decadence and revival—at recurring intervals. These are found in the sixteenth and...

The “Apology” having proved thoroughly satisfactory to Scott, he wrote to Ballantyne: “I have been for years collecting old Border ballads, and I think I could, with little trou...

The business of Paul’s Work was immediately prosperous, and rapidly increased. James Ballantyne was an excellent man of business. He was also an artist in his profession, as is...

For many years after its institution the Ballantyne Press was in continuous action, and the number of volumes that issued from it can hardly be reckoned. Besides work for publis...

The business at Paul’s Work continuing to prosper, about 1808 or 1809 a new venture was made by John Ballantyne commencing as publisher, with Scott as a “silent” partner. He too...

“Waverley,” the first of a series of novels unsurpassed for power, picturesqueness, and variety, as well as healthy sentiment and morality, was published anonymously in three vo...

The Waverley Novels long continued to be spoken of as the works of the “Great Unknown,”—the titles of the successive novels simply showing that they were by the “Author of ‘Wave...

Sir Walter Scott in his eagerness to purchase land for his Abbotsford estate, and to fill the mansion with antiquarian and historical curios, brought together with persevering i...

On the 21st September 1832 Sir Walter Scott died, and four months later James Ballantyne followed him to that bourne “where the petty politics of terrestrial powers no longer in...

Into the merits of the disputes which arose over the disastrous business transactions it is not necessary, perhaps, to enter at length. What is brought together here is mainly d...

In the early years of last century, when the New Town of Edinburgh was beginning to show itself along the northern slopes of the valley of the Nor’ Loch, beneath the Castle and...

James Ballantyne was not in good health for some years before his death in 1833. During that time, as we have seen, he was assisted by his brother Alexander and by John Hughes,...

Various causes render a bibliographical chapter a difficult matter. Lapse of time, enlargements of premises, removals, and changes of several kinds incident to an old business,...

[17] “The book was among the most unfortunate that James Ballantyne printed, and his brother published, in deference to the personal feelings of their partner.”—Lockhart’s “Life...