Andrew Melrose

Andrew Melrose (5 February 1860 - 6 November 1928) was a British publisher. Although he was noted for publishing theological works, he was also active in promoting new fiction, and offered a substantial cash prize for the best first novel submitted to his firm.

Melrose was born in Midlothian, Edinburgh. Much of his early career was spent at the London Ludgate Hill offices of the Sunday School Union, where from 1893 he published the Sunday School Chronicle.

He began publishing under his own name around 1899 in York Street, Covent Garden, finally moving to an address next door to Macmillan in St. Martin Street, Leicester Square. Among the early writers he encouraged and published was W.E. Cule, a friend and colleague from the Sunday School Union.

Between 1900 and 1903 Melrose published and contributed to a weekly paper Boys of the Empire, the official organ of the Boys Empire League. The League's stated purpose was" to promote and strengthen a worthy Imperial Spirit in British-born boys". The paper was edited by Howard Spicer (later Sir Howard).

In 1911, Melrose was living at 68 Southwood Lane, Highgate, with his wife Margaret and their children Ernest (20), Douglas (17), Allan (14), Kenneth (11) and Marjorie (9).

Melrose gained a reputation for publishing distinctive books of a theological kind. He was described as "an extremely shrewd, somewhat dour Scotsman, possessing a keen sense of literary values". He was one of the pioneers of offering substantial money prizes to aspiring authors. Two early winners of the 250-guinea prize were Agnes E.Jacomb for her first novel The Faith of His Fathers (1909) and Patricia Wentworth for A Marriage Under The Terror (1910). In 1913, Margaret Peterson won the prize for her novel The Lure of the Little Drum. A notable winner was Catherine Carswell for her novel Open the Door (1920). Melrose also had a keen sense of book design, commissioning illustrations from some of the leading illustrators of his day such as Charles Robinson, Florence Meyerheim, Amelia Bauerle and William Gordon Mein.

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