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Was born at Glasgow,
Scotland, in 1825. When four years of age his parents took him to Dublin
where subsequently he became apprenticed to a firm of publishers. He
worked for a time with Currey and Company, booksellers and afterwards in
Scotland. In Dublin he had become friendly with Samuel Mullen (q.v.) and
the two young men decided to emigrate to Australia. They reached Melbourne
on the Great Britain in 1852, bringing with them a collection of
books. Robertson opened first in Russell-street but soon moved to Collins
street, and about 1861 built a three storey building at 69
Elizabeth-street. The business was developing fast, principally on the
wholesale side. In those days there were no publishers' representatives in
Australia, and the great problem for the bookseller was to forecast what
would be popular, and order a sufficient number of copies to meet the
demand. About 1873 large premises were built in Little Collins-treet, with
provision for stationery, book-binding, lithography, etc., and branches
were opened in Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Auckland. In 1890 Robertson
retired and the business was carried on by his son, Charles Robertson. It
was eventually formed into a company which in 1922 was amalgamated with
Melville and Mullens under the name of Robertson and Mullens Ltd.
George Robertson died on 23
March 1898. He was married twice and left a large family. He was purely a
business man and did not enter much into the life of Melbourne, though
generous to hospitals and charities. His personality remains elusive, but
he did great service to the public by bringing much good literature to a
young colony whose culture had of necessity to be imported. The need for
encouraging local literature was not then fully appreciated, but Robertson
published some interesting Australian books, including Kendall's Leaves
from Australian Forests, Gordon's Sea Spray and Smoke Drift,
and J. Brunton Stephens's The Black Gin and other Poems. |
