![]() His widow survived him barely a month, dying on 7 Aug. to the Stationers' Company, of which he had been master in 1774. Like his old friend Bowyer, he bequeathed 1,000 l. Towards the end of his life Strahan's old friend Franklin wrote him from Passy (August 1784), ‘I remember your observing to me that no two journeymen printers had met with such success in the world as ourselves.’ He died at New Street, aged 70, on 9 July 1785. Johnson was gratified at being able to get a young man he wished to befriend into Strahan's printing-house, ‘the best in London ’ he once in Strahan's company fell into a passion over a proof and sent for the compositor, but on being convinced that he himself was to blame made a handsome apology. ‘I employ Strahan,’ he said, ‘to frank my letters that he may have the consequence of appearing as a parliament man.’ A difference of two months was healed by a letter from Johnson and a friendly call from Strahan. Johnson was disposed to gibe at Strahan's political ambition. He sat for Wootton-Bassett in the next parliament, but supported the coalition and lost his seat in 1784. The attempt happily failed but Strahan himself was successful in entering parliament for Malmesbury at the general election of 1774, when he had Charles James Fox for his colleague. Strahan was rather an advanced whig, and was extremely fond, says Boswell, of ‘political negotiation.’ He tried on one occasion to approach Lord North with the idea of procuring a seat in parliament for Johnson. Birkbeck Hill in 1888 ( Letters of David Hume to William Strahan, Oxford, 8vo). These highly interesting letters were purchased by Lord Rosebery in 1887, and edited by Dr. ![]() But Smith put his foot down on this proposal decisively, on the ground that it was most improper to publish anything his friend had written without express permission either by will or otherwise. 1776 he wrote to Adam Smith proposing that the series of letters from Hume to himself should be published along with Hume's letters to Smith, Robertson, and some others. Strahan was Hume's literary executor, and on 26 Nov. In 1776 Adam Smith addressed to Strahan the famous ‘Letter,’ dated 9 Dec., in which he describes the death of David Hume ‘in such a happy composure of mind that nothing could exceed it,’ and which provoked a long reverberation of angry criticisms. Strahan.’ Other notable ventures of the firm were Cook's ‘Voyages’ and Mackenzie's ‘Man of Feeling.’ Strahan made large sums out of the histories of Robertson and Hume, and set up a coach, which Johnson denominated ‘a credit to literature.’Īt Strahan's house the unsuccessful meeting between Dr. In the case of Gibbon's ‘Decline and Fall,’ which had been refused elsewhere, when Gibbon and Cadell thought that five hundred would probably be enough for a first impression, ‘the number was doubled by the prophetic taste of Mr. Johnson, Gibbon, Robertson, Blackstone, Blair, and many other writers. for his ‘History of William III.’ Besides Hume, Strahan was publisher, and either banker and agent or confidential adviser, to Adam Smith, Dr. The publisher recommended him to stay in London, and gave him 300 l. ![]() Thomas Somerville (1741–1830) went to dine with him in New Street in 1769, and met at his house David Hume, Sir John Pringle, Benjamin Franklin, and Mrs. Strahan was progressively prosperous, and his dealings with his authors were marked by more amenity than had hitherto characterised such relations. After serving an apprenticeship in Edinburgh as a journeyman printer, he ‘took the high road to England’ and found a place in a London firm, probably that of Andrew Millar He married, 20 July 1738, Margaret Penelope, daughter of William Elphinston, an episcopalian clergyman of Edinburgh, and sister of James Elphinston About 1739 he was admitted a junior partner of Millar, with whom he was responsible for the production of Johnson's ‘Dictionary,’ and upon his death in 1768 he continued in partnership with Thomas Cadell the elder In 1769 he was able to purchase from George Eyre a share of the patent as king's printer, and immediately afterwards, in February 1770, the king's printing-house was removed from Blackfriars to New Street, near Gough Square, Fleet Street. STRAHAN, WILLIAM (1715–1785), printer and publisher, was born in April 1715 at Edinburgh, where his father, Alexander Strahan, had a small post in the customs.
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