John Bell (1745–1831) was an English publisher. Originally a bookseller and printer, he also innovated in typography, commissioning an influential typeface that omitted the long s. He drew the reading public to better literature by ordering attractive art to accompany the printed work.

Life

From 1769, Bell owned a bookshop in the Strand, London, the "British Library". His 109-volume, literature-for-the-masses The Poets of Great Britain Complete from Chaucer to Churchill, which rivalled Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1781), was published from 1777 to 1783. Each volume cost just six shillings, much less than what was commonly charged. Bell's joint-stock organisation of his publishing company defied "the trade" — forty dominant publishing companies — to establish a monopoly on top publications. In addition to the extensive Poets of Great Britain, he published book sets on Shakespeare and The British Theatre. The drawings and illustrations in these works influenced later publishers. He also ran a circulating library. In 1788-1789, he operated a type foundry called the British Letter Foundry in collaboration with punchcutter Richard Austin. Revivals of these typefaces have been made under the name of Bell and Austin. Bell died in Fulham in 1831, summed up by publisher Charles Knight as a "mischievous spirit, the very Puck of booksellers." He was the uncle of the engraver Edward Bell.

Periodicals

Bell was one of the founders of the Morning Post, a London daily newspaper, in 1772. In 1787 he launched The World, with Edward Topham. Later he set up the Sunday newspaper Bell's Weekly Messenger, the women's monthly magazine La Belle Assemblée, Bell's classical arrangement of fugitive poetry (1789-1810) and other periodicals.

Works

British Theatre

Bell's British Theatre was published in 1776–1778, and sold in sets 140 plays in 21 volumes, each with a unique choice of plays. For example, one set is arranged thus: