Founding Grammars (8 page)

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English Grammar, Adapted to the Different Classes of Learners
quickly gained an audience far broader than Quaker schoolgirls. Although Murray had originally stipulated that the book was only for use in two schools, he apparently overcame his qualms about having it widely distributed. By 1797
English Grammar
was being printed and sold in London as well as Yorkshire. Once it hit the larger market, its success was immediate and phenomenal.

That same year Murray published a book of exercises designed to give students extra practice. It offered exercises in spelling, punctuation, and parsing, as well as syntax. He also provided an answer key, as he says in his memoirs, “for the convenience of teachers and for the use of young persons who had left school and who might be desirous, at their leisure, to improve themselves in grammatical studies.” He explains that he hopes to encourage the student by giving him “the pleasure of feeling his own powers and progress” in language learning. He also wants to “imbue his mind with sentiments of the highest importance” by “weaving principles of piety and virtue with the study of language.”
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An abridged version of the grammar for younger students and anyone just beginning grammar study also appeared in 1797. Written mostly in short declarative sentences, with a tight organization and few footnotes, it's a comparatively easy read. Eventually Murray added a reader, then an introduction and a sequel to the reader, and finally a spelling book. The schools and the public snapped up each volume as soon as it appeared.

In a 1799 letter to a friend, Murray writes, “In four years there have been printed of the Abridgment, the Grammar, the Exercises, and Key, forty-six thousand copies; [and] eight thousand of ‘The English Reader.'” He tells his friend that “an eminent” London bookseller offered him ₤1,050 for the copyrights of the grammar, exercises, and reader, which he has accepted. He sold the abridgment earlier for ₤100. Concerned that his correspondent will think he's benefiting financially from these sales, he hastens to reassure him: “I have appropriated the whole … for the benefit of others, without applying any of it to my private use.”
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Until 1800, each edition of the grammar, exercises, and abridgment consisted of about 5,000 copies. Subsequent printings were about 15,000 copies each. By 1832, fifty-two editions had been printed in England, amounting to well over half a million volumes. Over the next few decades at least 3 million copies of Murray's various language study books were printed and sold in England.
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Murray was now deeply committed to his grammar writing. Just as Webster had pulled himself out of depression by writing the
Grammatical Institute,
Murray discovered that the mental engagement involved in writing language books cheered his spirits and improved his health. Eager to see his works distributed as widely as possible, he soon sold all the copyrights to Quaker booksellers in Yorkshire and London who had the capacity to produce large print runs and who would also advertise. Although Murray did not have radical ideas about grammar, in his own way he was just as passionate as Webster about the importance of the subject. He felt he was doing good by helping as many people as possible gain grammatical skills.

Even after he sold the copyrights, Murray continued to be closely involved in the books' production. He spent much of his time meticulously revising each new edition, as well as adding new material. By the 1824 edition
English Grammar
had grown from an original 222 pages to 310. He paid careful attention to comments and criticisms and tried to respond to them by correcting and rewording the relevant parts of the next edition. He explained to a friend, “By the change of a word, a slight variation in the form of a phrase, an additional sentence, or a short note, I have, as I think, frequently removed an objection or difficulty.”
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Murray always remained humble about his work and open to suggestions even after his books became bestsellers. Such humility was a rare trait in the contentious world of grammar book writing.

Murray's modesty didn't prevent him from taking a businesslike interest in sales. Nor did the fact that he wasn't keeping what he earned on the books. He was highly skilled at marketing and put a great deal of time into it. From his sitting room sofa, he sent many letters to booksellers inquiring about the number of copies of a given edition they still had on hand, when they expected to print a new edition, and whether they had any useful suggestions for improving the work before then. When he received positive reviews, he sent them to be inserted as “characters,” or advertisements, in later editions. He made sure that announcements of his other books were also included at the back of each book.

One way to distribute his grammar books more widely was to introduce them to the country of his birth. He asked his brother John, a New York businessman, to take charge of American printing and sales. The first American edition of
English Grammar
was published in New York in 1800. Shortly afterward, publishers in Philadelphia and Boston also produced printings. As in England, both the textbook and the related volumes that followed were immediate hits. In 1800 alone, ten American editions appeared.

By 1808 the grammar had been through twenty-five American editions and the abridgment through forty. This amounted to around three-quarters of a million books in circulation, in a country with only a little over 7 million people. From 1800 until 1840, when sales gradually began to decline, Americans would purchase as many as 12 million copies of Murray's various grammar and reading books. He was even more popular in the United States than in England.

No doubt part of the reason for his booming sales was the lack of international copyright laws. American printers didn't pay royalties to British authors, so printing Murray's books was financially attractive. It was also easy to crank out pirated editions, and dozens appeared on the market.

Another reason for the book's remarkable success is surely Murray's genius for promotion. He collected positive English reviews and sent them to his brother John to use in American advertising, along with copious instructions about where they should appear. After quoting from one review of his speller, he tells his brother, “This character [advertisement], besides being circulated in the papers and periodical works, should be printed at the end or front of the American editions.” He also asked his brother to keep him informed of any positive American reviews so he could use them in England.
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Murray made sure that readers were aware of the various improvements that came with each edition. For example, in the 1797 edition of the exercise book, he explains in a notice at the front of the book that he “has felt it incumbent upon him to give the
seventh
edition every improvement in his power, without enhancing the price of the book.” Among the changes are “expunging some obscure and uninteresting sentences, inserting a number of examples adapted to the latest improvements in the grammar; and adding to the Syntax many useful exercises.”
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Murray was also expert at networking. He frequently shipped copies of his latest editions to people who might be in a position to spread the word about them. For instance, he sent a box of books to the well-known geographer and Congregationalist minister Jedidiah Morse, explaining in the accompanying letter, “The books which accompany this note lately received new editions, in which the author hopes there will be found some improvements.” He goes on to say that he has enclosed duplicates, in case Dr. Morse “should incline to promote American impressions [that is, American printings of the book], he may do it the better from having the latest editions.”
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Murray also sent books to New York state politician Samuel Latham Mitchill. In 1804, shortly after Mitchill was elected to the U.S. Senate, Murray sent him a copy of the latest edition of
English Grammar
with a note asking for Mitchill's opinion. He expressed gratification that the book had been well received in his native country, and especially that Yale and other universities had adopted it. “It would be very pleasing,” he told Mitchill, “to know that in the college of New York they were also received.”
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Aside from Murray's energetic promotional activities, the grammar itself must have had some special appeal to sell so well. Americans no doubt recognized that it was much more practical than other grammar books on the market. Although later editions were longer and more detailed than the original volume, Murray kept essentially the same clearly organized structure. Following Lowth, Murray didn't obfuscate with too much Latin. Students were not faced with long lists of verb conjugations and noun declensions to be memorized. Murray also provided material targeted to specific groups. For young children and other beginners, the abridgment was available. For those who wanted extra practice, there was the exercise book.

The overall message of
English Grammar
was also clear and straightforward, in contrast to
A Grammatical Institute, Part II.
Murray did not explore alternative theories of usage or argue that
It is me
and
Who did she speak to?
should be accepted as standard speech because everyone said those things. His stated purpose was to teach his readers to speak and write with elegance and precision. Americans eager to improve their language skills could rest assured that if they mastered Murray's grammar they would sound like educated people. That, rather than a deep understanding of the American idiom, was their goal.

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The American embrace of Murray is ironic in some respects. While it's true that he was an American and always spoke of the United States as his home, he spent the second half of his life in England. During the Revolutionary War, Murray's father was a prominent Loyalist and most likely Murray himself was sympathetic to the British. Neither Murray's Tory leanings nor his long residence in Yorkshire kept Americans from buying his books.

Murray's American roots were not very deep. When he was born on March 27, 1745, his father, Robert, had not been in the country long. Robert had immigrated to Pennsylvania as a boy, coming from Ireland in 1732 with his brother John and their father. They settled in Swatara (then known as Swetara), about eighteen miles northeast of Harrisburg. Shortly after the family's arrival, the elder Murray bought a large parcel of land along Swatara Creek and set up a successful flour mill. Robert took it over while still a young man.

Murray's mother, Mary Lindley, was also the daughter of recent immigrants. They, too, came from Ireland, but unlike the Presbyterian Murrays, they were Quakers, part of the wave of Quaker immigrants who arrived in Pennsylvania during the early eighteenth century. Mary Lindley's father, Thomas, settled in Philadelphia. He flourished, first as a blacksmith, then as the owner of an iron forge. Around 1733 he bought a large parcel of land outside Swatara, where he quickly became a prominent citizen. He served as a justice of the peace and later became a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly.

In 1744 Robert Murray and Mary Lindley married after Murray converted to Quakerism. Lindley was born a year later. He was the first of twelve children, although only five would survive to adulthood. Robert Murray had ambitions beyond the flour mill. He made several profitable trading trips to the West Indies when Lindley was still a baby. Then in 1753, after moving to North Carolina for a brief time, he settled with his family in Manhattan. Here he established a successful shipping business. By the 1760s he was one of New York's wealthiest merchants, well connected among the Quaker families of the city, and the owner of an impressive mansion overlooking the East River. (The mansion stood at what is now Park Avenue and 36th Street, a neighborhood still known as Murray Hill.)

Young Lindley's education was distinctly different from that of Noah Webster and others who attended village schools before the Revolution. Around the age of eleven, he spent a year at the prestigious Academy of Philadelphia, founded by Benjamin Franklin. In his memoirs, Murray recalls being “agreeably exercised in the business of parsing sentences.” He also remembers enjoying a book titled
The Travels of Cyrus,
which tells the story of a young Persian prince's travels through the ancient world.
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Such books would rarely have come the way of public schoolchildren.

Later Murray attended a good New York school, where he claimed to have made “the usual progress of young learners,” in spite of occasionally skipping school. Eventually he grew to love reading and scholarship, and when his father took him from school as a teenager to work in the family countinghouse, young Lindley resisted. He was not interested in being a merchant. After one unusually explosive clash with his father, he packed his bags, took the money he had saved, and ran away from home. His intention was to enroll in a well-known Quaker academy in Burlington, New Jersey, and study French.

Murray arrived at the school and signed up as a boarder, apparently covering the expenses himself. His parents discovered his whereabouts almost immediately, but allowed him to remain at the school for a time. Eventually he was coaxed back home and he and his father reconciled. After Murray's return, Robert Murray agreed to allow him a private tutor. Murray writes in his memoir, “I pursued this new career with great alacrity of mind. I sat up late, and rose early, in the prosecution of my studies.”
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He also joined a young men's debating society that met weekly.

Murray was more than ever convinced that he wanted to pursue a scholarly career. He decided that he would like to study law and, after some initial reluctance, his father agreed. Lindley became a pupil of Robert Murray's lawyer, Benjamin Kissam. In 1767, at the age of twenty-two, he was admitted to the New York bar.