User:Uamaol/sandbox/Routledge

The firm originated in 1836, when when Camden bookseller George Routledge published an unsuccessful guidebook, The Beauties of Gilsand with his brother-in-law W H (William Henry) Warne as assistant. In 1848 the pair entered booming market for selling inexpensive imprints of works of fiction to rail travellers, in the style of the German Tauchnitz family, which became known as the “Railway Library”.

The venture was a success which was mainly due to the mass hysteria in the 1840's due to Railway Mania and it eventually led to Routledge, along with W H Warne’s Brother Frederick Warne, to found the company, George Routledge & Co. in 1851. The following year in 1852, the company gained lucrative business though selling pirated reprints of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which allowed for it to be able to pay author Edward Bulwer-Lytton £20,000 for a 10 year lease allowing sole rights to print all 35 of his works

The company was restyled as 1858 as Routledge, Warne & Routledge when George Routledge’s son, Robert Warne Routledge, entered the partnership. Frederick Warne eventually left the company after the death of his brother W H Warne in May 1859 (died aged 37). Gaining rights to some titles, he founded Frederick Warne & Co in 1865, which became known for its Beatrix Potter books.