Cadell & Davies Records

The collection consists of manuscripts, correspondence and records (accounts, bills, estimates, receipts, orders to pay and promissory notes) of the London publishing firm of Cadell & Davies.

The papers consist of the following series:

1. Manuscripts (Box 1) are arranged alphabetically by author and title. The manuscripts include legal opinions and statements concerning various aspects of publishing including copyright, literary property and pirated editions of published works. This series includes manuscripts by Cadell & Davies, Sir Ilay Campbell, Charles Dunster, and John Home.

2. Correspondence (Boxes 1-10) is arranged alphabetically by author. This series consists of business correspondence and records. There is a small number of personal letters and these tend to be from the Autograph Volumes. There is one box of Cadell & Davies correspondence with their various authors, suppliers and printers; most of these letters are draft copies, though some are signed. This series also includes letters by James Stanier Clarke, William Dickinson, Nathan Drake, William Gilpin, William Parr Greswell, John Home, Daniel Lysons, John Marsh, Edward Nares, William Pengree Sherlock, and Sharon Turner.

3. Records (Box 11) are arranged alphabetically by author or company. This series includes accounts, bills, estimates, receipts, orders to pay and promissory notes. Many of the records deal with the authors, printers, and engravers and publication details of the works mentioned in Manuscripts and Correspondence.

Note to Readers and Strengths of the collection:

A note about the material in this collection. The majority of the correspondence is addressed to or concerning Cadell & Davies. While the firm did publish the likes of Blackstone, Fielding and Johnson, unfortunately, the correspondents in this collection would be considered "lesser literary lights of the late 18th and early 19th centuries." As noted by the original cataloger in 1938, L. Herman Smith, "the most important writers" have been "skimmed" from the correspondence at some point in the past.

The material from the two volumes of "Autograph Correspondence of Literary Men" was acquired by the same person who collected the Cadell & Davies correspondence. These "Autograph" letters are written by "minor literary figures" of the period and are addressed to "booksellers and antiquarians of the period," which appear to have been the reason for collecting these letters.

As noted by Smith in 1938, the mysterious person who formed the original Cadell & Davies collection remains unidentified, and only the initials "J.W." appear on an autograph note in one of the volumes. The collector was in the habit of writing explanatory notes in pencil, below many of the letters; though it is best to verify the explanatory notes as some of the information has proven to be incorrect.

Though the collection lacks the more well-known authors published by Cadell & Davies, it is a very useful collection for those researchers studying the world of British publishing in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. But, most importantly, it is also a very rich resource for studying the relationship between an author and a publisher, engraver, or printer.