He published works by authors such as Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Jane Austen and Maria Rundell.

In the same year, he became part-owner of the Edinburgh Review, although with the help of George Canning he launched in opposition the Quarterly Review in 1809, with William Gifford as its editor, and Scott, Canning, Robert Southey, John Hookham Frere and John Wilson Croker among its earliest contributors.

Literary London flocked to his house and Murray became the centre of the publishing world, regularly hosting meetings between authors and friends in his drawing-room.

A close friendship existed between Byron and his publisher, but for political reasons business relations ceased after the publication of the fifth canto of Don Juan.

[4] He is a supporting character in Susanna Clarke's novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and is played by John Sessions in its television adaptation.