Black calf spine with raised banding, gilt decoration and title. Red and blue marbled boards. Marbled pastedowns and all edges.

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Bound volume of Chambers Journal of popular literature, science and arts for the year 1886; this volume contains complete serializations of 3 Victorian novels and other novelettes and short stories: In All Shades. by Grant Allen and 2 quite scarce early titles by Fred M. White: ‘A Golden Argosy’. and ‘By Order of the League’. This is the true First Edition of these novels, the serializations appearing before the published book form. These two novels were the first written by White, who thus begins a long storied career writing mystery and science fiction. Very Good condition, mild overall handling wear, text clean and tight.

Fred Merrick White (1859–1935) wrote a number of novels and short stories under the name “Fred M. White” including the six “Doom of London” science-fiction stories, in which various catastrophes beset London. These include The Four Days’ Night (1903), in which London is beset by a massive killer smog; The Dust of Death (1903), in which diphtheria infects the city, spreading from refuse tips and sewers; and The Four White Days (1903), in which a sudden and deep winter paralyzes the city under snow and ice. These six stories all first appeared in Pearson’s Magazine, and were illustrated by Warwick Goble. He was also a pioneer of the spy story, and in 2003, his series The Romance of the Secret Service Fund (written in 1899) was edited by Douglas G. Greene and published by Battered Silicon Dispatch Box.

Chambers is a reference publisher formerly based in Edinburgh, Scotland, which held the property rights of W. & R. Chambers Publishers. Chambers was founded as W. & R. Chambers Publishers by the two brothers William Chambers of Glenormiston and Robert Chambers. They were born into a rich, mill-owning family in Peebles in Scotland in 1800 and 1802 respectively, during the time of the war with France. The war impoverished the family and, in 1813, the family left Peebles for Edinburgh. Robert remained at home to finish his education, but William was forced to find work to support his parents. He was a keen reader and would get up early in the morning to read by the dawn light because he was too poor to buy candles. He was apprenticed to a bookseller, at the sum of 4 shillings a week. Robert, also an avid reader, could not go to university when he finished school because his parents could not afford to pay. He too moved to Edinburgh, rented a one-roomed shop in Leith Walk, and set himself up as a bookseller when he was just 16 years old. William’s apprenticeship came to an end when he turned 18 and he joined Robert working in the shop.

Although they had had a modest beginning, the brothers began to do well. They had no training in printing and binding but together they printed, bound and published 750 copies of The Songs of Robert Burns in around 1819. This was the nearest thing to a guaranteed best-seller in 19th-century Edinburgh, and brought further profits and some fame.

In 1824, Robert wrote, and the brothers published, Traditions of Edinburgh. Education was always the main priority for William and Robert. In 1832, they published The Chambers Journal, a weekly newspaper containing articles on subjects such as history, religion, language and science, many of which were written by Robert himself. It was an immediate success and within a few years the weekly circulation had risen to 84,000 copies. This put an end to their struggle to survive although they still had to work hard.

Between 1859 and 1868 they published their most important work to date, the renowned Chambers’s Encyclopaedia (no longer published), in 520 weekly parts at three-halfpence each. The first edition was based on a translation into English of the 10th edition of the German-language Konversations-Lexikon, which became the Brockhaus Enzyklopädie. This went through several further editions, reaching a high point of quality with the 1950 edition published in 15 volumes by George Newnes which took six years to prepare, cost £500,000 and included the work of over 2,300 authors. The work was lauded by the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Jowitt, as “outstanding proof” of British scholarship, while the managing editor, M. D. Law commented that she believed the work to be the first major encyclopedia to be published in Britain since before the First World War. The encyclopedia was regarded as such a scholarly achievement that Law received the O.B.E. for her efforts.

Chambers also published an extensive list of innovative and ultra-reliable language and reference titles, covering English-language dictionaries, thesauruses, bilingual dictionaries, and specialist titles on subjects such as biography, quotations, literary characters, science and technology and world history.

In 1989, Chambers was acquired by Groupe de La Cite., part of CEP. Chambers purchased the formerly independent George G. Harrap and Co. in 1992. Harrap mainly publishes bilingual dictionaries, for instance Harrap’s Shorter French Dictionary. The Harrap list also includes study aids, slang dictionaries, phrasebooks and business dictionaries. In the UK, Harrap published bilingual titles in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German and Polish.

Havas acquired CEP in 1997; Havas was then acquired by Vivendi in 1998. Vivendi sold its European book publishing to Lagardère Group in 2002.

At the end of 2009, the parent company shut the Edinburgh premises of Chambers Harrap Publishers. The Chambers imprint was managed from London by Hodder Education, while Harrap titles were moved to Larousse in Paris. Chambers was moved to the John Murray division of Hodder in 2013.

A subsidiary, Allied Chambers, publishes the titles for the market in and around India.