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Edward Arnold

Cornwall, 1857 - 1942, Devon

Biographyhttp://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n81027159
Bryan Bennett, ‘Arnold, Edward Augustus (1857–1942)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008 [http://proxy.bostonathenaeum.org:2055/view/article/47453, accessed 1 Sept 2017]
Arnold, Edward Augustus (1857–1942), publisher, was born on 15 July 1857 at Lemon Street, Kenwyn, Truro, Cornwall, the only child of Edward Penrose Arnold (1827–1878), inspector of schools, and Caroline Augusta, née Orlebar (1831–1860) of Hinwick, Bedfordshire. His grandfather was Dr Thomas Arnold (1795–1842) and one of his uncles was Matthew Arnold (1822–1888). He was educated at Eton College and Hertford College, Oxford.

In 1883 Arnold joined the publishing firm of Richard Bentley, simultaneously editing the magazine Imperial Federation. In 1886 Arnold persuaded John Murray to publish a new magazine; he was appointed editor and the first issue of Murray's Magazine was published in 1887. In 1888 he married Minnie Wakefield (d. 1924), daughter of W. H. Wakefield of Sedgwick House, Kendal. They had three daughters. In 1889 he courteously rejected Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles because it contained ‘immoral situations’ and, having been declined a partnership at John Murray, he set up his own publishing business on 1 January 1890 as Mr Edward Arnold, publisher, at 18 Warwick Square, London. In April he published his first book, Lynch's Egyptian Sketches; 1500 copies were printed and a reprint was required for November.

In the first two years Arnold published fifteen general and sixteen educational books, commissioning and overseeing their production and promotion himself. In 1891 he moved to larger premises at 37 Bedford Street, and over the next two years Arnold published twenty-six general and forty educational books. His most influential book in that period was Viscount Milner's England in Egypt (1892), the thirteenth and last edition being published in 1920.

In 1894 Arnold took into partnership A. L. Mumm, who invested £7000. Although largely a sleeping partner, Mumm introduced many important exploration and mountaineering books, from D. W. Freshfield's The Exploration of the Caucasus (1896) to The Epic of Everest by Sir Francis Younghusband (1926). In 1895 Arnold established a New York office to protect his copyrights in the United States. It was closed in 1898 as Arnold then began licensing some of his titles to New York publishers.

By 1900 Arnold, working largely alone, had published some 250 general and 250 educational books. The twenty or so works of fiction included one best-seller—Mary Cholmondley's Red Pottage (1899), which had thirteen impressions in two years—and J. Meade Faulkner's classic Moonfleet (1898), followed by The Nebuly Coat (1903). Although not known in the office for his sense of humour, Arnold produced a number of humorous books, including Hilaire Belloc's More Beasts (1897), The Modern Traveller (1898), and A Moral Alphabet (1899), and Harry Graham's Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes, published in 1899 and still in print more than 100 years later.

By 1902 Arnold's business had again outgrown his premises. During 1903–4 he personally supervised the design and building of a new office and warehouse—probably the first in London built as a publishing house. The firm moved into 41–3 Maddox Street, Mayfair, in 1904. All this extra activity did not diminish Arnold's output. Up to 1914 he continued to publish over 100 books a year—mainly travel, memoirs, politics, and a number of notable works of fiction, including M. R. James's Ghost Stories of an Antiquary and More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911), and Leonard Woolf's The Village in the Jungle (1913) and The Wise Virgins (1914). In 1908 Arnold published E. M. Forster's third novel, A Room with a View. Forster was attracted to Arnold partly because of more generous royalties, in some cases up to 25 per cent, but also because Arnold showed a keen critical interest in Forster's work. At Arnold's urging, Forster wrote Howards End, published in 1910. Forster's great novel A Passage to India was published in 1924, when Arnold also took over Forster's first two novels from Blackwood, Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) and The Longest Journey (1907).

During the First World War, Arnold's output decreased, but several books concerning the war were published, such as H. Ingleby's A Zeppelin Raid in West Norfolk and H. S. Souttar's A Surgeon in Belgium, both in 1915. He also consolidated his medical list with a number of books which became standard works. Two from this period which continue today as classic texts are Comyns Berkeley's Ten Teachers: Midwifery (1917), in later editions retitled Obstetrics, and Ten Teachers: Diseases of Women (1919), now retitled Gynaecology. In 1921 Arnold took into partnership B. W. Fagan, for the university arts list and school books, and the science editor F. P. Dunn. Arnold remained in charge of memoirs, books on travel, religion, field sports, and the medicine list. In 1926 Mumm withdrew from the partnership, making a profit of £3742 on his original £7000 investment.

When Arnold retired at the end of 1930, his company had 1500 titles in print, including about 600 school books; many remained in print, often with numerous new editions, for periods from twenty to seventy years. Fagan and Dunn paid £44,000 for Arnold's share of the partnership, not including the building, which Arnold owned personally. During his forty years as a publisher, Arnold was active in trade affairs, serving for several years on the Publishers' Association council, and as president in 1928–9. Although substantial and containing many important and long-lasting titles in many fields, Arnold's list was not comparable in size with some of his contemporaries' because, according to one obituary, it was Arnold's belief that ‘a publisher should not publish more books than the number which he, like a faithful midwife, could treat as living entities’ (The Bookseller).

On 1 October 1930 Arnold married Christina Frances Azeline Burland (b. 1900/01), his first wife having died in 1924. Edward Arnold clearly followed Dr Thomas Arnold's ethic, ‘Work—not work at this or that—but Work!’ Nevertheless, he also loved travelling and outdoor pursuits, especially fishing. In 1892 he almost drowned while skating with his cousin H. O. Arnold-Foster on Virginia Water. Arnold fell through the ice. Arnold-Foster, attempting to rescue him, also fell through; he managed to get himself out but could not reach Arnold even with a ladder and ropes. Arnold-Foster offered a reward to any young lad who could get a rope to Arnold; one finally succeeded and they got him out just in time. Arnold-Foster and the boy were awarded Royal Humane Society medals for their bravery. Edward Arnold died at his home, Lilybrook, Little Knowle, Budleigh Salterton, Devon, on 6 November 1942. His wife survived him.

Bryan Bennett

Person TypeIndividual

Last Updated8/7/24

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