George Eld

Who was George Eld?

George Eld was a London printer of the Jacobean era, who produced important works of English Renaissance drama and literature, including key texts by William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, and Thomas Middleton.

Eld was the son of a carpenter from Derbyshire. He served an eight-year apprenticeship to bookseller Robert Bolton, starting in 1592, and became a "freeman" of the Stationers Company on 13 January 1600. He established himself in his own printing business in 1604, at the sign of the White Horse in Fleet Lane, by marrying the widow of not one but two master printers. His shop featured two or perhaps three presses, and four compositors – a substantial operation for the time. Eld entered into a partnership with Miles Fletcher in 1617; Fletcher took over the business once Eld died of plague in 1624.