First edition. Contents: Preface: Who Was Henry Colburn?; Henry Colburn: The Charge Sheet; The Case for the Defense; Colburn's Origins; Colburn's Age and Birth: A Puzzle with Some Importance; The Rise of Henry Colburn; The 1812 Break into Independence; Fully Fledged; Magazinery; Colburn's Business Practices Examined; Colburn among the Vampyres; The Literary Gazette; Magazinery without the Drama; The Prince of Puffers: A Defense; Crisis; The First Decade: Summary; Colburn's Heyday; Saunders and Otley; The Great Crash: A Perverse Opportunity for Colburn; Disraeli; Loyalty and Friendship; Jewels among the Silver Forks; A Digression; Upcott and Colburn; Pepys; Richard Bentley, Publisher; 'One of the Best Businesses in London'; Love and Business: A Digression; The Partnership; Puff, Puff Together; What the Partnership Achieved; The Standard Novels: The Partnership's Sole Monument; Dissolution; Breaking the Chain; Independence Regained; Old Publisher, Young England; Colburn's Married Ladies; Colburn's Married Lady: At Home in Bryanston Square; Losing the Battle; Bacon and Bungay; Winding Up; Short Retirement: Death and Legacy; Bibliometric Conclusion: What the Numbers Tell Us; Afterword: 'Henry Colburn, Esq., The Eminent Publisher'; Appendix (1. Bentley's Unpublished Obituary; 2. Colburn's Will; 3. The Colburn-Bentley Indenture; 4. Colburn Chronology); Bibliography; Index.