Tonson, Jacob (1655-1736), publisher

Tonson served his apprenticeship to stationer Thomas Basset and was freed 7 January 1678. During the early years of his career, he published works jointly with his brother Richard Tonson. Jacob Tonson’s first major publishing success was John Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel (1681). He soon bought up the rights to Dryden’s earlier works and became his exclusive publisher. Other major writers published by Tonson include Aphra Behn and the Earl of Rochester. Tonson and Dryden collaborated on a highly successful series of anthologies, including Ovid’s Epistles (1680) and Plutarch’s Lives, but also poetry miscellanies which featured Dryden’s own poems alongside budding new writers, such as the young Alexander Pope from 1709. Tonson’s impeccable eye for literary quality was demonstrated again when he purchased the rights for Milton’s Paradise Lost. In 1686, he was promoted to Company liveryman. Publishing work aside, Tonson was engaged in political affairs and was a founding member of the Kit-Cat Club, a famed but exclusive group of Whig politicians. His nephew, Jacob Tonson the younger, worked at and inherited the Tonson business.

Jacob Tonson (father), barber surgeon; Elizabeth Walbacnke (mother); Richard Tonson (brother), publisher; Jacob Tonson (nephew), publisher

International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition - ICA 2004 ISBN 2-9521932-2-3

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Oxford Dictionary of National Biography