William Pickering (publisher)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

William Pickering (2 April 1796 – 27 April 1854) was an English publisher and bookseller known for innovations in publishing. He trained in the book trade from 1810 to 1817, then worked for several booksellers before starting his own antiquarian bookselling and publishing business in 1820.

In 1820 he began the Diamond Classics, tiny books printed in small type and bound in paper, later in cloth or leather. These are often described as the first publisher’s cloth bindings, though other publishers were moving to cloth at the time. The change to cloth bindings came from the bookbinder Archibald Leighton and had a big impact on publishing.

Pickering also published original works. From 1828 he published Samuel Taylor Coleridge and produced the first typographical edition of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience. He specialized in scholarly editions of classic authors, including Blake, Malthus, Boswell, Johnson, Marlowe, Shakespeare and Isaac Walton.

In 1833 Pickering bought a share in the Gentleman's Magazine and started a new series in January 1834, with John Mitford as editor. Mitford edited the magazine successfully until 1850. Pickering also launched a 57‑volume Aldine Edition of the British Poets, edited by Mitford and printed by Charles Whittingham.

Pickering died shortly after being declared bankrupt in 1853, and his stock and library were sold. His son Basil Montagu Pickering revived the business. After Basil’s death in 1878, it was bought by Mr. Chatto, one of the founders of Chatto and Windus, and became Pickering and Chatto. The name lives on today as two firms: the academic publisher Pickering & Chatto and the antiquarian bookseller Pickering & Chatto.