Introduction

Biography

Taking af­ter his fa­ther, a book­shop own­er, Mu­die es­tab­lished his own book­shop in 1840, and in 1842 start­ed his Se­lect Lib­ra­ry, which pio­neered in mak­ing li­te­ra­ture ac­ces­si­ble to the Brit­ish pub­lic. He be­lieved his mis­sion was to dis­sem­in­ate books that in­creased know­ledge and in­cul­cat­ed sound ideas.

Mudie was al­so a suc­cess­ful bu­si­ness­man, ac­tive in pub­lic life and phi­lan­thro­pic and re­li­gious work: he worked in the West­min­ster slums and preached in a small cha­pel.

Works

• Stray Leaves, 1872, a book of verse