Edward Moxon

In 1826 he published a volume of verse, entitled The Prospect, and other Poems, which was received with some favour. In 1830 Moxon was started by Samuel Rogers as a London publisher in New Bond Street. The first volume he issued was Charles Lamb's Album Verses. Removing to Dover Street, Piccadilly, Moxon published an illustrated edition of Rogers's Italy, £10,000 being spent upon the illustrations. Wordsworth entrusted him with the publication of his works from 1835 onwards, and in 1839 he issued the first complete edition of Shelley's poems.

Some passages in Queen Mab were the cause of a charge of blasphemy being made against Moxon in 1841. The case was tried before Lord Denman. Serjeant Talfourd defended Moxon, but the jury returned a verdict of guilty, and the offensive passages were for a time eliminated. In 1840 be published Browning's Sordello; and in succeeding years works by Lord Houghton, Tom Hood, Barry Cornwall[?], Lord Lytton, Browning and Tennyson appeared. Edward Moxon died on the 3rd of June 1858, his business being continued by Mr JB Payne and Mr Arthur Moxon, who in 1865 published Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon; but in 1871 it was taken over by Messrs Ward, Lock & Tyler.

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.