MACMILLAN (COMPANY)

a reference to Macmillan & Co., a British bookselling and publishing company, founded in England in 1843 by two Scottish brothers, Daniel (1813-1857) and Alexander Macmillan (1818-1896). Macmillan & Co. started as a bookshop and within a few years the company was publishing textbooks and novels. After Daniel's death, Alexander continued to run the company and expanded it, establishing new offices in the United States and later Canada, Australia and India. He started a literary periodical known as Macmillan's Magazine (1859) and a leading scientific journal known as Nature (1869). The company's expansion continued and it became one of the largest publishing firms in the world.