John Murray (Publisher)

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John Murray
legal form
founding 1768
Seat London
Branch Publishing bookstore
Website johnmurray.co.uk

John Murray is a London-based publishing bookstore founded in 1768. The publisher was best known for its handbooks for travelers , which it published from 1836 to 1901. He also brought out Charles Darwin's work The Origin of Species for the first time (and later in further editions) in 1859 . The works of Samuel Smiles and David Livingstone were also published by the publisher under the direction of John Murray III. , the grandson of the publisher's founder.

Because of the color of their cover, the Murray handbooks were nicknamed Red Books and became a kind of "bible" for travelers. The first Red Book from 1836 recorded the sights of Holland , Belgium and the Rhineland and recommended the most picturesque and romantic routes to tourists . The sights were rated with a star system that John Murray III. had invented.

The concept of what is worth seeing was coined by Murray, who, together with the German Karl Baedeker, can be considered "one of the prophets of tourism " ( Hans Magnus Enzensberger ).

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