Talk:Robert Chambers (publisher, born 1802)

Missing information?

What currently seems to be missing from this article (or is it hidden somewhere and just terribly hard to find?) is anything about his private life after what is titled "Early life": nothing about his wife, his children (Annie Dowie must have been his daughter/one of his daughters, and Ménie Muriel Dowie his granddaughter), nothing about his death. I think it would be worth adding that bit. <KF> 00:48, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

You are right, of course, that this biography is far from complete. The problem here is that the sources that I have mention very little about his private and family life. William Chamber's Memoirs deals mostly with Robert's public and literary life, in addition to his relationship with is brother (the exception is his 'Early Life'). Millhauser's book focuses on the creation of and reception of Vestiges. Secord's book has the same focus as Millhauser's but with more updated research and a different approach to the subject. The one exception appears to be the book Man of Letters by Layman. It contains transcriptions of letters from Robert to his first wife, Anne Kirkwood, from a span of six months sometime before they were married. I have not, however, read this book yet. It also appears that he had a second wife later in life that died after 3 years of marriage, in 1870 (according to Millhauser). I have also read that he had 14 children with Anne, although I do not know how many of those lived to adulthood. Annie Dowie is mentioned in the Memoirs as one of his daughters (I re-read the section describing his death and there she is). I added a section concerning his death, but if anyone can assist in confirming the other facts of his private life that would be helpful. Albie34423 02:32, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks a lot, and keep up the good work! <KF> 08:34, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

I used Google Books to search through the Memoirs and found two references to his first wife and their children - out of the entire book. I have added this information under "Marriage". Albie34423 19:07, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Authorship

Does anyone know if there is a record of who wrote which articles for Information for the People. In particular I'm interested in who wrote the section on logic. --ChrisSteinbach (talk) 22:16, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

There probably is, but I don't know if that information has been publicized at all. If not, then it is likely buried somewhere in the W&R Chambers' archives. Albie34423 (talk) 23:55, 3 March 2008 (UTC)