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CHAMBERS, ROBERT (18oz-1871)

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 821 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHAMBERS, See also:ROBERT (18oz-1871) , Scottish author and publisher, was See also:born at See also:Peebles on the loth of See also:July 1802. He was sent to the See also:local See also:schools, and gave See also:evidence of unusual See also:literary See also:taste and ability. A small circulating library in the See also:town, and a copy of the See also:Encyclopaedia Britannica which his See also:father had See also:purchased, furnished him with stores of See also:reading of which he eagerly availed himself. See also:Long afterwards he wrote of his See also:early years—" Books, not playthings, filled my hands in childhood. At twelve I was deep, not only in See also:poetry and fiction, but in encyclopaedias." Robert had been destined for the See also:church, but this See also:design had to be abandoned for lack of means. The See also:family removed to See also:Edinburgh in 1813, and in 1818 Robert began business as a bookstall-keeper in See also:Leith Walk. He -was then only sixteen, and his whole stock consisted of a few old books belonging to his father. In 1819 his See also:elder See also:brother See also:William had begun a similar business, and the two eventually See also:united as partners in the See also:publishing See also:firm of W. & R. Chambers. Robert Chambers showed an enthusiastic See also:interest in the See also:history and antiquities of Edinburgh, and found a most congenial task in his Traditions of Edinburgh (2 vols., 1824), which secured for him the approval and the See also:personal friendship of See also:Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott. A History of the Rebellions in See also:Scotland from 1638 to 1745 (5 vols., 1828) and numerous other See also:works followed.

In the beginning of 1832 William Chambers started a weekly publication under the See also:

title of Chambers's Edinburgh See also:Journal (known since 1854 as Chambers's Journal of Literature, See also:Science and Arts), which speedily attained a large circulation. Robert was at first only a contributor. After fourteen See also:numbers had appeared, however, he was associated with his brother as See also:joint-editor, and his collaboration contributed more perhaps than anything else to the success of the Journal. Among the other numerous works of which Robert was in whole or in See also:part the author, the See also:Biographical See also:Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen (4 vols., See also:Glasgow, 1832-1835), the Cyclopaedia of See also:English Literature (1844), the See also:Life and Works of Robert See also:Burns (4 vols., 1851), See also:Ancient See also:Sea Margins (1848), the Domestic See also:Annals of Scotland (3 vols., 1859-1861) and the See also:Book of Days (2 vols., 1862–1864) were the most important. Chambers's Encyclopaedia (r859–1868), with Dr See also:Andrew See also:Findlater as editor, was carried out under the superintendence of the See also:brothers (see ENCYCLOPAEDIA). The Cyclopaedia of English Literature' contains a See also:series of admirably selected extracts from the best authors of every See also:period, " set in a biographical and See also:critical history of the literature itself." For the Life of Burns he made diligent and laborious See also:original investigations, gathering many hitherto unrecorded facts from the poet's See also:sister, Mrs Begg, to whose benefit the whole profits of the See also:work were generously devoted. Robert Chambers was a scientific geologist, and availed himself of See also:tours in Scandinavia and See also:Canada for the purpose of See also:geological exploration. The results of his travels were embodied in Tracings of the See also:North of See also:Europe (1851) and Tracings in See also:Iceland and the Faroe Islands (1856). His knowledge of See also:geology was one of the See also:principal grounds on which the authorship of the Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (2 vols., 1843–1846) was eventually assigned to him. The book was published anonymously. Robert Chambers was aware of the See also:storm that would probably be raised at the See also:time by a rational treatment of the subject, and did not wish to involve his firm in the discredit that a See also:charge of heterodoxy would bring with it. The arrangements for publication were made through See also:Alexander See also:Ireland of See also:Manchester, and the See also:secret was so well kept that such different names as those of See also:Prince See also:Albert and Sir See also:Charles See also:Lyell were coupled with the book.

Ireland in 1884 issued a 12th edition, with a See also:

preface giving an See also:account of its authorship, which there was no longer any See also:reason for concealing. The Book of Days was Chambers's last publication, and perhaps his most elaborate. It was a See also:miscellany of popular antiquities in connexion with the See also:calendar, and it is supposed that his excessive labour in connexion with this book hastened his See also:death, which took See also:place at St See also:Andrews on the 17th of See also:March 1871. Two years before, the university of St Andrews had conferred upon him the degree of See also:doctor of See also:laws, and he was elected a member of the See also:Athenaeum See also:club in See also:London. It is his highest claim to distinction that he did so much to give a healthy See also:tone to the cheap popular literature which has become so important a See also:factor in See also:modern See also:civilization. His brother, WILLIAM CHAMBERS (1800–1883) was born at Peebles, on the 16th of See also:April r800. He was the See also:financial See also:genius of the publishing firm. He laid the See also:city of Edinburgh under the greatest obligations by his public spirit and munificence. As See also:lord See also:provost he procured the passing in 1867 of the Improvement See also:Act, which led to the reconstruction of a See also:great part of the Old Town, and at a later date he proposed and carried out, largely at his own expense, the restoration of the See also:noble and then neglected church of St See also:Giles, making it in a sense " the See also:Westminster See also:Abbey of Scotland." This service was fitly acknowledged by the offer of a baronetcy, which he did not live to receive, dying on the loth of May 1883, three days before the reopening of the church. He was the author of a history of St Giles's, of a memoir of himself and his brother (1872), and of many other useful publications. On his death in 1883 Robert Chambers (1832–1888), son of Robert Chambers, succeeded as See also:head of the firm, and edited the Journal until his death. His eldest son, Charles See also:Edward See also:Stuart Chambers (b.

1859), became editor of the Journal and chairman of W. & R. Chambers, Limited. See also Memoir of Robert Chambers, with Autobiographic Reminiscences of William Chambers (1872), the 13th ed. of which (1884) has a supplementary See also:

chapter; Alexander Ireland's preface to the 12th ed. (1884) of the Vestiges of Creation; the See also:Story of a Long and Busy Life (1884), by William Chambers; and some discriminating appreciation in See also:James See also:Payn's Some Literary Recollections (1884), chapter v. The Select Writings of Robert Chambers were published in 7 vols. in 1847, and a See also:complete See also:list of the works of the brothers is added to A See also:Catalogue of Some of the Rarer Books . . . in the Collection of C. E. S. Chambers (Edinburgh, 1891).

End of Article: CHAMBERS, ROBERT (18oz-1871)

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