Portrait of Sir Richard Phillips by James Saxon, (1806), oil on canvas
Phillips' grave in the western extension of St Nicholas' Church burial ground, Brighton.

Sir Richard Phillips (13 December 1767 – 2 April 1840) was an English schoolteacher, author, publisher and vegetarianism activist.

Life

Phillips was born in London on 13 December 1767.[1] Following some political difficulties in Leicester where he was a schoolteacher and bookseller (being imprisoned in 1792 for selling Thomas Paine's Rights of Man), he returned to London, established premises in Paternoster Row, St. Paul's Churchyard, and founded The Monthly Magazine in 1796;[2] its editor was Dr. John Aikin, and among its early contributors were fellow radicals William Godwin and Thomas Holcroft.[3]

Phillips built up a prominent fortune based on the speculative commission of newly revised textbooks and their publication, in a competitive market that had been freed by the House of Lords' decision in 1777 to strike down the perpetual copyright asserted by a small group of London booksellers to standard introductory works.[4] His Juvenile Library published in 1800–03 provided the steady returns of all successful children's books.[5] By 1807 he was in sufficient standing to serve as a Sheriff of London, at which time he was knighted on the occasion of presenting an address.[6]

Another of the contributors to Phillips' Monthly Magazine was the Scottish novelist John Galt. Angela Esterhammer has suggested that the character Masano, an irascible Italian printer in Galt's Andrew of Padua, the Improvisatore (1820), is based on Phillips.[7]

Phillips overextended himself and was declared bankrupt in the Bank Panic; he died in Brighton on 2 April 1840,[1] and is buried in the western extension of St Nicholas' Churchyard.[8]

Vegetarianism

Phillips was a vegetarian.[9][10] He published Joseph Ritson's An Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, as a Moral Duty in 1802. In the Medical Journal for 27 July 1811, Phillips listed sixteen reasons for adopting a vegetarian diet.[10] His book Golden Rules of Social Philosophy (1814) contained the essay The Author's Reasons for not Eating Animal Food.[11]

Works

Phillips was the author, under his own name, of On the Powers and Duties of Juries, and on the Criminal Laws of England, 1811; A Morning's Walk from London to Kew, 1817; A Personal Tour Through the United Kingdom, 1828.

Many of his further works were published under at least five pseudonyms including David Blair. His own political leanings, evinced in Golden Rules of Social Philosophy, Or, A New System of Practical Ethics (1826) encouraged him to publish works by the radical jobbing writer of educational texts, Jeremiah Joyce, though often under pseudonymous disguises;[12] Rees and Britten asserted in their Reminiscences of Literary London that many works were written by Phillips and attributed to well-known writers, who oversaw the proofs and put their names to the manuscripts, for remuneration.[13] Joyce was the actual author of Gregory's Encyclopedia published by Phillips.

Selected Works Published by Phillips

References

  1. 1 2 Clemit, Pamela; McAuley, Jenny (23 September 2004), "Phillips, Sir Richard (1767–1840), author and publisher", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22167, ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8, retrieved 8 January 2024
  2. ↑ John Issitt (1853). "Reminiscences of Literary London from 1779-1853". Thomas Rees and John Britton, London. p. 79ff. Archived from the original on 26 March 2009.
  3. ↑ Rees and Britten, p. 79f.
  4. ↑ Marina Frasca-Spada and Nicholas Jardine, Books and the Sciences in History (Cambridge University Press, 2000) "A Textbook revolution", p. 319.
  5. ↑ A Rauch, "Preparing “The rising generation”: Romanticism and Richard Phillips's Juvenile library 1800–1803" Nineteenth-Century Contexts, 1991.
  6. ↑ He published his Letter to the Livery of London, on the Office of Sheriff in 1808.
  7. ↑ Esterhammer, Angela (2020), Introduction to John Galt:Three Short Novels, Edinburgh University Press, pp. xv & xxvi - xxvii
  8. ↑ Historic England. "Burial vaults and tomb in western part of St Nicholas' graveyard, Dyke Road (west side), Brighton (Grade II) (1380455)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  9. ↑ "History of Vegetarianism - The Ethics of Diet - Sir Richard Phillips 1767-1840". International Vegetarian Union. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
  10. 1 2 Forward, Charles W. (1898). Fifty Years of Food Reform: A History of the Vegetarian Movement in England. London: The Ideal Publishing Union. p. 8
  11. ↑ Dabundo, Laura. (2010). Encyclopedia of Romanticism: Culture in Britain, 1780s-1830s. Routledge. p. 595. ISBN 978-0-415-56330-7
  12. ↑ J. R. Issitt, "Jeremiah Joyce: science educationist", Endeavour 26.3 (September 2002) pp 97-101.
  13. ↑ Rees and Britten, p. 80.
  14. ↑ Mavor, William Fordyce (1798). The British Nepos: or, youth's mirror: being select lives of illustrious Britons, ... By William Mavor, ... London: printed for R. Phillips; and sold by C. Law; Vernor and Hood; Carpenter and Co. OL 16844974M.
  15. ↑ OpenLibrary.org. "Pizarro (1799 edition) | Open Library". Open Library. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  16. ↑ OpenLibrary.org. "The virgin of the sun. (1799 edition) | Open Library". Open Library. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  17. ↑ OpenLibrary.org. "An Historical Account of the Discovery and Education of a Savage Man, Or of the First ... (1802 edition) | Open Library". Open Library. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  18. ↑ OpenLibrary.org. "A tale of mystery (1802 edition) | Open Library". Open Library. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  19. ↑ OpenLibrary.org. "Hear both sides (1803 edition) | Open Library". Open Library. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  20. ↑ Temple, Laura Sophia (1998). Poems.
  21. ↑ OpenLibrary.org. "Virtuous poverty (1804 edition) | Open Library". Open Library. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  22. ↑ OpenLibrary.org. "The maid, wife, and widow (1806 edition) | Open Library". Open Library. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  23. ↑ OpenLibrary.org. "The farmer's calendar (1809 edition) | Open Library". Open Library. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  24. ↑ OpenLibrary.org. "A voyage of discovery to the Strait of Magellan (1820 edition) | Open Library". Open Library. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  25. ↑ OpenLibrary.org. "A voyage round the world, between the years 1816-1819 (1823 edition) | Open Library". Open Library. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
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