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John Cassell (23 January 1817 – 2 April 1865) was an England publisher, printer, writer and editor, who founded the firm Cassell & Co, famous for its educational books and periodicals, and which pioneered the serial publication of novels.Cassell & Co., 1922, p157. He was also a well-known tea and coffee merchant and a general business entrepreneur who supposedly sold and coined the term Cazeline which mutated into the word gasoline, though dictionaries do not support this etymology. gasoline". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 2024. A fervent Christians,Ehland, Christopher. Thinking northern: textures of identity in the north of England (Rodopi, 2007) p144. he campaigned throughout his life for the temperance movement in United Kingdom, and for the reduction of taxes on publishing. He was a social reformer who recognised the importance of education in improving the life of the working class, and whose many publications, both magazines and books, brought learning and culture to the masses.
In 1836, having spent several months lecturing on teetotalism in the Manchester area, Cassell set off by foot for London, stopping on the way to speak about temperance to any audience that he could find, and supporting himself by doing carpentry odd-jobs. In October 1836, after 16 days of walking, he finally arrived in London with the princely sum of 3 pence in his pocket, unable even to afford lodgings for the night. That same evening, he spoke at a temperance meeting at the New Jerusalem Schoolroom near Westminster Bridge Road, and for the next 6 months was involved in temperance campaigning in the capital.Cassell & Co., 1922, pp. 7-9
In April 1837, Cassell was enrolled as a recognised agent of the "National Temperance Society", and toured around England and Wales, lecturing and taking total abstinence "pledges". In 1841, while on a temperance tour of the eastern counties, he met a Lincolnshire woman, Mary Abbott, whom he married the same year. Mary inherited a sum of money from her father which enabled the couple to settle in St. John's Wood, London, and gave John the capital he needed to invest in a business. Their home became a meeting place for writers, artists and reformers - people such as George Cruikshank, William Howitt and Mary Howitt, and Ellen Wood.Cassell & Co., 1922, pp. 9-12.
In 1850, he started the Working Man's Friend, a weekly magazine aiming to educate its readers without patronising them or playing to the lowest common denominator, and sympathetic to the life of working-class people. Its readers sent in hundreds of letters and articles for publication, and the magazine drew praise from figures such as Richard Cobden, politician and social reformer, and the Earl of Carlisle. In 1851, in order to expand the business, Cassell purchased William Cathrell's printing plant in The Strand, London, bringing the printing of the Working Man's Friend in-house.Cassell & Co., 1922, pp. 15-16.
Around this time the Cassell's Library series started to appear; 26 volumes were eventually published including books on history, biography and science. In April 1852, the weekly Popular Educator started publication, achieving both popular success and critical acclaim - "a school, a library and a university" was how one commentator described it. The magazine inspired readers to continue their education in local classes, with Cassell offering practical and financial help where needed. It became something an institution, helping to improve the education, prospects and employment opportunities of the nation; even Lloyd George, future Prime Minister of Britain, credited the Popular Educator with bolstering his meagre childhood education and helping him to better himself. This was followed in 1852 with the Popular Biblical Educator, which hoped to do for religion what its predecessor had done for general knowledge.Cassell & Co., 1922, pp. 25-29.
In 1853, the Illustrated Family Paper started publication, aiming to provide literary recreation for a family audience. It included not just educational articles but serialisations of novels as well. One of these, The Warp and the Weft, a tale about Lancashire mill workers by John Frederick Smith, appeared during the Lancashire Cotton Famine, and inspired readers of the paper to contribute a large sum to a relief fund for cotton workers. At the time of the Crimean War he procured from Paris the used in L'Illustration, and by printing them secured a large circulation for the Paper. In 1867, after Cassell's death, the magazine was reduced in size and changed its name to Cassell's Magazine.Cassell & Co., 1922, pp. 29-30 & 114.
Other periodicals included The Illustrated Magazine of Art (1853–54, later revived as The Magazine of Art to greater success some years after Cassell's death), The Freeholder (monthly magazine of the "free land" movement), and the religious magazines The Pathwayand The Quiver (first edition 7 September 1861). Cassell also conceived the idea of daily paper but this did not come to fruition until three years after his death; The Echo, as it was called, lasted only a few years from 1868 to 1875, when it was sold off, continuing, under various management, until 1905.Cassell & Co., 1922, pp. 120-124 & 147-153.
Cassell visited the United States in 1853 to attend the World Temperance Convention in New York, and again in 1854 and 1859 on publishing business. He met the author Harriet Beecher Stowe and arranged for the publication of an illustrated edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin in Britain - to great success. Cassell strongly supported the cause of the slavery abolitionists.Cassell & Co., 1922, 45-46.
In 1859, on his return from the US, he went into full partnership with Petter & Galpin, the company becoming Cassell, Petter & Galpin. The company was particularly successful in its production of illustrated editions of classic literature such as Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's travels, The Vicar of Wakefield and others. The great French artist Gustave Doré provided illustrations for Dante's Inferno (1861), Dante's inferno. Don Quixote, Don Quixote. and a special edition of the Holy Bible. Masterpieces from the works of Gustave Doré. The company's premises at La Belle Sauvage yard also gained the distinction of a visit from the French Emperor Napoleon III himself, as it was publishing the English edition of his book, The History of Julius Caesar.Napoleon III. History of Julius Caesar: Volume 1, Volume 2.Cassell & Co., 1922, 54-7.
Cassell played an important part in lobbying government to reduce the burden of taxation on paper and periodical publications - the "tax on knowledge" as it was called - and his endeavours in the 1850s helped to repeal Newspaper Advertisement Duty, Newspaper Stamp Duty and Paper Duty (the latter in 1861).Cassell & Co., 1922, p43.
Cassell died, aged only 48, of an internal tumour, on 2 April 1865 at his home at 25 Avenue Road, Regent's Park, London; the same day as his friend Richard Cobden. He was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery. He was survived by his widow Mary, who died in Brighton on 6 July 1885. He also left a daughter, Sophia (d. 1912). The company, Cassell, Petter & Galpin, which at the time of his death, employed 500 people, continued under the management of the remaining partners, Petter and Galpin.Cassell & Co., 1922, pp. 57-9.
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