The Ballantyne Press and its founders, 1796-1908

THE BALLANTYNE PRESS AND ITS FOUNDERS

JAMES BALLANTYNE
From the Picture at Abbotsford.

THE BALLANTYNE PRESS AND ITS FOUNDERS 1796-1908
ENTRANCE TO OFFICES OF OLD PAUL’S WORK
EDINBURGH BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. 1909


At the Centenary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott, in the year 1871, a sketch of the Ballantyne Press was issued, setting forth its close connection with him, and giving statistics of the Novels. But the story of the Press, its rise and vicissitudes under the control of James Ballantyne and Sir Walter, its progress and development, and its collapse and new birth, as gleaned from Lockhart’s “Life of Scott” and other sources, has not been given in a succinct form. For this purpose the late Mr. W. T. Dobson, for some forty years one of the principal Readers at the Press, gathered together considerable material which it has been thought might prove to be of general interest. The Press has therefore, with the assistance of Mr. W. L. Carrie, M.A., put the story into its present book-form.