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Frederic Chapman (1823 – 1 March 1895) was a publisher of the Victorian era who became a partner in Chapman & Hall, who published the works of Charles Dickens and Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, among others.
Percy Fitzgerald, who was also published by him, later wrote of Chapman: "An excellent fellow he was somewhat blunt and bluff, but straightforward and good-natured. On his shoulders, even when Edward Chapman was alive, lay the burden. He was a tall, burly, rubicund man, and had good business instinct. He had a small but delightful house in Ovington Square, to which some one had added a billiard-room, which he turned into a charming dining-room."
Chapman was on intimate terms with numerous men of letters of his day. He was a keen sportsman — a hunting man in his earlier days, and to the last an expert shot.
Becomes a Partner
In 1860 Frederic Chapman projected The Fortnightly Review, which was eventually published twice a month in 1865 and was first edited by George Henry Lewes. When John Morley was appointed editor in 1867 it became a monthly periodical. When Morley retired from the editorship in 1883 he was succeeded in turn by T. H. S. Escott, Frank Harris, and W. L. Courtney. The Fortnightly Review was not a commercial success and in 1869 to attempt to raise new capital Frederic Chapman sold a third of the company to Anthony Trollope, who passed it on to his son, Henry Merivale Trollope, who remained a partner for three and a half years.Robert L. Patten, ‘Chapman, Frederic (1823–1895)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 27 Jan 2017 On the retirement of Edward Chapman from Chapman & Hall in 1866 Frederic Chapman became the head of the firm. His biographer, Robert L. Patten, wrote: "Chapman, backed by several wealthy friends, arranged for a multi-year buy-out and became chief proprietor. In this position he embarked upon a pushing and successful policy of bulk sales to large distributors for railway and overseas markets. Such transactions moved a great deal of paper for comparatively little administrative effort." For a time he published the works of William Makepeace Thackeray, Thomas Carlyle, Harrison Ainsworth, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Arthur Hugh Clough, Charles Lever, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Kingsley, Anthony Trollope and George Meredith were all clients of the firm. In 1880 Chapman turned his business into a limited company, at the head of which he remained until the time of his death. On 28 March 1870, three months before his death, Charles Dickens signed an agreement with Frederic Chapman and Henry Trollope confirming their shared ownership of Dickens's copyrights. Chapman bought the remainder of those copyrights after Dickens's death; he also carefully cultivated Dickens' relatives Georgina Hogarth and Mary Dickens when they proposed to edit Dickens's letters. Dickens, in fact, made Chapman & Hall rich.
Personal life
Frederic Chapman died of influenza on 1 March 1895 at his house at 10 Ovington Square, London. He was twice married; in 1861 he married Clara, eldest daughter of Joseph Woodin of Petersham, Surrey. Frederic Chapman in the England, Select Marriages, 1538–1973 - Ancestry.com By her he left a son, Frederic Hamilton Chapman, an officer in the Duke of Cornwall's light infantry. In the winter of 1866 she lost a child, and a few weeks later she herself died. Robert Browning was surprised to meet Chapman at a dinner a fortnight after his wife's death. Chapman explained that it was better than moping at home, and that the death of his child seemed to prepare him for the second bereavement.Robert Browning, Dearest Isa, ed. E. C. McAleer (1951) 232–3 His second wife, who survived him, was Annie Marion, daughter of Sir Robert Harding, chief commissioner in bankruptcy. He married her in 1867 Surrey, England, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1937 for Frederic Chapman - Upper Norwood, All Saints with St Margaret 1865 Feb-1869 Apr - Ancestry.com and by her he left a daughter, Reine, married to Harold Brooke Alder.
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