Francis Kirkman - Publisher and Bookseller

Publisher and Bookseller

Upon being apprenticed to another scrivener he installed his collection of novels and plays in his office, before selling many of them to finance the publication of his own translation of the sixth book of Amadis de Gaul (1652). It is characteristic that Kirkman’s first publication was his own extension of a work already popular. His entrepreneurial talents were always directed towards the popular, or vulgar, end of the book trade. Although he became a freeman of the Blacksmith’s Company he was never a member of the Stationers’ Company.

From 1652 he operated as a scrivener and bookseller from a small shop near the Tower of London, and continued to trade from various premises in Thames Street, Fenchurch Street and Paul's Yard until 1680. From 1657 he was publishing plays, although his partnership with Henry Marsh, Nathaniel Brook and Thomas Johnson ended after they were accused of pirating books, probably an edition of Beaumont and Fletcher's The Scornful Lady. He also claimed to have been swindled by Marsh, whose business he took over after his death in 1666. Kirkman had received a substantial inheritance on his father’s death in 1661, which he squandered, and although he had an entrepreneurial spirit he suffered continual financial problems.

Kirkman published many early novels, including many translated from French and Spanish. In 1652 he published The Loves and Adventures of Clerio and Lozia, which he also claimed was translated from French. One of his greatest successes was a novel, The English Rogue the first volume of which was written Richard Head, and published in 1665. In 1666 Kirkman re-issued this, and then wrote a second volume in his own name (1668), followed by a third and fourth (1671), claiming Head as a co-author. In 1673 Kirkman wrote and issued under his own name The Counterfeit Lady Unveiled, a fictional autobiography of Mary Carleton, an impostor and bigamist. He also published other popular romances, such as The Famous and Delectable History of Don Bellianus of Greece, (1671-1674), The Seven Wise Masters of Rome (1674).

Kirkman also became increasingly interested in theatre. In 1661 he published his own play The Presbyterian Lash, based on the notorious story of Zachary Crofton, a minister accused of whipping his maidservant. Kirkman had a penchant for the picaresque in literature, and in attributions. He also collected manuscripts, which he published, including A Cure for a Cuckold and The Thracian Wonder (both 1661), and both correctly attributed to John Webster and William Rowley. In 1662 he published The Birth of Merlin, wrongly attributed by him to William Shakespeare and William Rowley. This has been described as “a medley in which legendary history, love romance, sententious praise of virginity, rough and tumble clown-play, necromancy and all kinds of diablerie jostle each other”. He was also involved in the publication of plays pirated from other printers. For instance, Kirkman in 1661 published The Beggars Bush by John Fletcher, Francis Beaumont, and Philip Massinger, pirated from Humphrey Robinson & Anne Moseley. Their hurried second printing contains a notice; "You may speedily expect those other Playes, which Kirkman, and his Hawkers have deceived the buyers withal, selling them at treble the value, that this and the rest will be sold for, which are the onely Originall and corrected copies, as they were first purchased by us at no mean rate, and since printed by use.”