C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Robert Chambers (1802–1871)
Chambers, Robert. An eminent Scotch prose-writer and publisher; born at Peebles, July 10, 1802; died at St. Andrews, March 17, 1871. He and his brother began in poverty as small booksellers; issued penny leaflets of useful information for the people, written in a clear and simple though not infantile style, which became very popular, and at last took regular periodical form in Chambers’ Journal; and the great publishing-house which bears the name of both developed gradually. The excellent ‘Chambers’ Encyclopædia for the People’ was an outgrowth of the Journal, and edited by the brothers. Robert wrote also ‘Traditions of Edinburgh’ and works on Scotch history; but his most noted book was the anonymous ‘Vestiges of Creation,’ for years an unequaled theologic-scientific sensation.