John Murray III

John Murray III (1808–1892) was a British publisher, third of the name at the John Murray company founded in London in 1768.

The eldest son of John Murray II (1778–1843) by Anne Elliott, daughter of Charles Elliot, the Edinburgh publisher, he was born on 16 April 1808. When he was four years old his father moved the firm to 50 Albemarle Street, which became a meeting-place for men of letters. He was educated at Charterhouse School and Edinburgh University, where he graduated in 1827. He completed his education by foreign travel, in Weimar delivering the dedication of Lord Byron's Marino Faliero to Goethe.

There resulted the research for a series of books for tourists, the Murray's Handbooks for Travellers. In 1836 Murray saw through the press the first of the handbooks, his own Holland, Belgium, and the Rhine; and three more were written by himself. Subsequently he enlisted specialists: Richard Ford (A Handbook for Travellers in Spain), Sir Gardner Wilkinson (Egypt), and Sir Francis Palgrave (North Italy).

From 1830 to 1843 Murray helped his father run the firm. His own publishing projects included:

Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published by Murray in 1859. An enterprise of a different kind was The Speaker's Commentary (1871–81), prompted by John Evelyn Denison. Murray's Magazine, started in 1887, ran to 1891. The firm published numerous illustrated books of travels.

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