Andrew Millar

Who was Andrew Millar?

Andrew Millar was a British publisher.

About 1729, he started business as a bookseller and publisher in the Strand, London. His own judgment in literary matters was small, but he collected an excellent staff of literary advisers, and did not hesitate to pay what at the time were considered large prices for good material. "I respect Millar, sir," said Dr Johnson in 1755, "he has raised the price of literature." He paid Thomson £105 for The Seasons, and Fielding a total sum of £700 for Tom Jones and £1000 for Amelia.

He was one of the syndicate of booksellers who financed Johnson's Dictionary in 1755, and on him the work of seeing that book through the press mainly fell. During the same year Millar published the first edition of the Mitchell Map. He also published the histories of Robertson and Hume.

His apprentice, Thomas Becket, was one of the parties involved in the copyright lawsuit of Donaldson v Beckett.

He died at his villa at Kew Green, near London, on 8 June 1768.