User:Levenevens/Simms & McIntyre

Simms & McIntyre Founded in 1807, Simms and McIntyre played an important role publishing contemporary literature by both emerging and established Irish authors, and as one of the few Irish publishers that printed and bound their own books in-house. David Simms entered into partnership with George McIntyre. Simms, a former compositor at the Northern Star who had begun a printing business in 1797 with the remains salvaged from its destroyed offices, and George McIntyre, a printer from the house of Warrin had set up a business of printing, bookselling and stationery in December 1806. By 1809 they acquired the Ballyclare mill to manufacture paper. Simms and McIntyre specialised, very early in schoolbooks, a specialisation that was to stay with them until the final guttering out of the imprint around 1870.

The grammatical works of Lindley Murray were among their earliest productions, but the author whose works they made peculiarly their own was James Thompson, whose mathematical and geographical texts were re-printed in edition after edition. This is not to say that other works were neglected; indeed the output of the press covered the whole gamut of local book production. One of the earliest books they printed was John Mulholland’s Collection of Irish Airs, issued in 1810, and in 1827 they published Thomson's Atlas adapted to a treatise on modern geography. The maps in this atlas, the only one ever published in Belfast, were drawn locally by Robert Pattison, and engraved in London by Edward K. Proctor, better known here for engraving Belfast scenery for J. Molloy in 1832. The maps themselves are dated January 1828, and the Altlas was reissued several times.

THE PARLOUR LIBRARY

But by 1820 the firm had embarked on a project, which, although small in itself, has significance in view of later developments. This was the issuing of a series of little paper covered works in a uniform style, all of a literary nature. By 1821 there were twenty-six literary reprints in the series, priced at between sixpence-halfpenny and four shillings and four pence per volume. The vast majority were priced at under three shillings, and included such stalwarts as Thomson’s Seasons and The Vicar of Wakefield. These books were by willingness of the firm to involve itself in a series. Incidentally, like many of the works published by Simms and McIntyre at this time, they were printed for them by the Belfast printer 'Thomas Mairs. For the next decade or so the firm concentrated on the production of schoolbooks, but by the early 1830s they set their sights on a different market, continuing, of course, to reissue the lucrative educational works. Their attention was drawn to the possibilities of this market by the success of another Belfast printer, Joseph Smyth. Smyth had emerged as a painter in the closing years of the eighteenth century, and it was Soon clear that the mantle of the late James Magee, as a supplier of popular material for the masses in the north of Ireland had fallen on him. He printed many books of all kinds, but specialised in such material as chapbooks.

Smyth’s own input, in a house style consisting of paper covers with a list of available works at the end and sometimes with a woodcut on the cover, ranged from literary works of great popularity such as Allan Ramsay’s Gentle Shepherd to such chapbook favourites as the Seven Champions of Christendom and Valentine and Orson.

The series produced by Simms and McIntyre as a rival to this are almost identical in house style. However, their brand The Parlour Library is more literary in tone and stronger in the field of reprinted novels. Like Smyth, they sold the works produced by the Kildare Place Society alongside their own, advertising them on the rear covers without distinguishing them. Unlike Smyth, they had the advantage of being the official Belfast agents for these books, as can be seen from the few surviving such volumes produced with printed paper covers. The Parlour Library, printed on platen machines with frisket, a hand press, and not much faster than a hand press, was a series of cheap paperbacks by which their business came to flourish. For the next decade or so the firm concentrated on the production of schoolbooks, but by the early 1830s they set their sights on a different market, continuing, of course, to reissue the lucrative educational works. Their attention was drawn to the possibilities of this market by the success of another Belfast printer, Joseph Smyth. Smyth had emerged as a painter in the closing years of the eighteenth century, and it was soon clear that the mantle of the late James Magee, as a supplier of popular material for the masses in the north of Ireland had fallen on him. He printed many books of all kinds, but specialised in such material as chapbooks. Between the later eighteen-twenties and 1850 he was issuing a uniform series of little paper-covered books, priced at six-pence, and was selling them alongside the similarly sized and priced books of the Kildare Place Society and those printed by the Dublin-based C.M. Warren, with whom he had a close business relationship. Smyth’s own input, in a house style consisting of paper covers with a list of available works at the end and sometimes with a woodcut on the cover, ranged from literary works of great popularity such as Allan Ramsay’s Gentle Shepherd to such chapbook favourites as the Seven Champions of Christendom and Valentine and Orson. The series produced by Simms and McIntyre as a rival to this are almost identical in house style. However, their brand The Parlour Library is more literary in tone and stronger in the field of reprinted novels. Like Smyth, they sold the works produced by the Kildare Place Society alongside their own, advertising them on the rear covers without distinguishing them. Unlike Smith, they had the advantage of being the official Belfast agents for these books, as can be seen from the few surviving such volumes produced with printed paper covers. The Parlour Library, printed on platen machines with frisket, a hand press, and not much faster than a hand press, was a series of cheap paperbacks by which their business came to flourish.

In the 1830s Simms and McIntyre were also involved in Catholic publishing, printing the Douay Bibleby authority of Bishop Denvir. And actually advertising lists of Catholic books sold by them, ranging from such works as the Grounds of the Catholic doctrine to a Stations of the Cross with wood engravings and various Missals. These would have mostly been retailed by them as booksellers, not actually printed by them. The first half of the 1840s were spent in issuing general literature. School books and the sixpenny paper-covered series. But by 1844 no doubt due to their educational stable, they had opened a London office. Simms and McIntyre's Douay Bible, plates of Bible, "Parlour Library," business, etc., were sold to Messrs. Dobson, London in 1870. Dobson republished them for many years after.