This and other works by Murray added to a sizeable backlist of widely used Longman educational books – soon to appear regularly in separate catalogues – most of them regarded as textbooks.
It has sometimes been suggested that this line of business was the result of the marriage of his father in 1760 to the sister of Thomas Harris, who for many years was the proprietor and manager of Covent Garden, one of the three licensed theatres in London at that time.
He published the works of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey and Scott, and acted as London agent for the Edinburgh Review, which was started in 1802.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, Longman began to consolidate the business and moved to buying the works outright, for a one time down payment.
[8] This amount was later surpassed when Longmans paid Thomas Macaulay £20,000 on account of the profits for the third and fourth edition of History of England in 1856.