|
In 1829 Thomas launched another publishing revolution: He sent out a traveling representative to call on bookshops in southern Scotland and northern England. Despite intense initial resistance by booksellers, this unprecedented effort eventually helped the company expand distribution.
Thomas' nineteen-year-old son William joined the company in 1835. Four years later, Thomas, Jr. entered the work at age seventeen, and the management of the business passed into the hands of the two sons.
With fresh enthusiasm and great success, William traveled widely selling Nelson's publications throughout the British Empire. The brothers' energy and abilities contributed to steady growth and a move to larger offices.
In 1844, Thomas, Jr. opened a London office at 35 Paternoster Row -- the same location where his father had begun as a publisher's apprentice. After establishing the work there, he returned to Edinburgh. By then the brothers had enlarged the business so rapidly that they were forced to move again, to Hope Park on Edinburgh's south side. Here, every process of book publishing was carried out -- from writing and illustrating to printing and distribution.
Hope Park was considered a home for the hundreds of employees comprising the Thomas Nelson "family." Like his father, William made certain his employees were educated and cared for. He provided suppers for all employees, often highlighted by an inspirational sermon preached by a clergy friend of the Nelsons.
In 1850, Thomas, Jr. created one of the greatest advances in printing since Gutenberg with his invention of a rotary printing press. Using a continuous web sheet, his press printed far more rapidly than others and on both sides of the sheet simultaneously. He never patented it, and soon usage spread throughout the world. The principles behind it are still in use today.
By 1853, Thomas Nelson and Sons had become the largest printing and publishing house in Scotland, specializing in religious works, school texts, and stories of travel and adventure for younger readers. The next year Thomas, Jr. sailed to New York to open an office, making Nelson the first British publisher to establish a branch in America. Eventually they would exert a worldwide influence through offices in London, New York, Paris, Toronto, Leipzig, Sydney, Capetown, and other African cities.
By this time a Nelson imprint became, according to one observer, "the guarantee for a pure, high-toned literature, admirably adapted for the special requirements of the school library and the home circle."
In 1861, Thomas Nelson died in Edinburgh. To the end he demonstrated the faith and integrity that had guided him throughout his life. When told his death was near, he replied calmly, "I thought so; my days are wholly in God's hands. He doeth all things well. His will be done!" Then he picked up his Bible on his bedside table and said, "Now I must finish my chapter."
Thomas Nelson died having witnessed the flourishing growth of a company managed brilliantly by his two sons. It was a company whose vision for publishing affordable and wholesome Christian and classic literature for the common man was being fulfilled day after day by hundreds of dedicated employees. It was a company that would continue to bear his name for generations yet to come.
|
