William Tinsley (1830–1900) was a noted Victorian publisher whose catalogue included works by such celebrated novelists as Thomas Hardy and Wilkie Collins. This two-volume autobiography, first published in 1900, traces his life from his rural childhood to the establishment and rise of the Tinsley Brothers company in 1858, and its later collapse. Each chapter contains a series of brief sketches of authors and other contemporaries. Volume 2 charts Tinsley's later career, and features several lengthier portraits of some of the personalities he encountered. It also includes information on Victorian playwrights and actors, along with a detailed section on the history of Sadler's Wells theatre. Based on Tinsley's personal recollections, and incorporating letters as well as anecdotal information, these volumes will fascinate anyone interested in the history of publishing and the development of the nineteenth-century novel.
