Editing Alexander Balloch Grosart

{{Short description|Scottish clergyman and literary editor (1827–1899)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

'''Alexander Balloch Grosart''' (18 June 1827{{snd}}16 March 1899) was a  [[Scotland|Scottish]] clergyman and literary [[editing|editor]]. He is chiefly remembered for reprinting much rare [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]] literature, a work which he undertook because of his interest in [[Puritan]] [[theology]].

==Life==

The son of a building contractor, he was born at [[Stirling]] and educated at the [[University of Edinburgh]]. In 1856 he became a minister of the [[United Presbyterian Church of Scotland]] at [[Kinross]], serving the congregation known as First United Presbyterian Church. In 1865 he went to [[Liverpool]], and three years later to [[Blackburn]].<ref name="EB 1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Grosart, Alexander Balloch|volume=12|page=615}}</ref>

He resigned from the ministry in 1892, and died at [[Dublin]].<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNBSupp|last=Johnstone|first=Thomas Boston|author-link=Thomas Boston Johnstone|wstitle=Grosart, Alexander Balloch|volume=2}}</ref>

==Editorial work==

Among the first writers whose works he edited were the Puritan writers, [[Richard Sibbes]], [[Thomas Brooks (writer)|Thomas Brooks]] and [[Herbert Palmer (Puritan)|Herbert Palmer]]. Editions of [[Michael Bruce (poet)|Michael Bruce]]'s ''Poems'' (1865) and [[Richard Gilpin]]'s ''Demonologia sacra'' (1867) followed. In 1868 he brought out a bibliography of the writings of [[Richard Baxter]], and from that year until 1876 he was occupied in reproducing for private subscribers the “Fuller Worthies Library,” a series of thirty-nine volumes which included the works of [[Thomas Fuller]], Sir [[John Davies (poet, born 1569)|John Davies]], [[Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke|Fulke Greville]], [[Edward de Vere]], [[Henry Vaughan]], [[Andrew Marvell]], [[George Herbert]], [[Richard Crashaw]], [[John Donne]] and Sir [[Philip Sidney]]. The last four volumes of the series were devoted to the works of many little known and otherwise inaccessible authors.<ref name="EB 1911"/> He also wrote a biography of the Scottish poet, [[Robert Fergusson]] (Edinburgh: [[Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier]], 1898)
in the [[List of books for the "Famous Scots Series"|“Famous Scots Series”]].

His ''Occasional Issues of Unique and Very Rare Books'' (1875–1881) included among other things the ''Annalia Dubrensia'' of [[Robert Dover (Cotswold Games)|Robert Dover]]. In 1876 still another series, known as the “Chertsey Worthies Library,” was begun. It included editions of the works of [[Nicholas Breton]], [[Francis Quarles]], [[Joseph Beaumont|Dr Joseph Beaumont]], [[Abraham Cowley]], [[Henry More]] and [[John Davies of Hereford]].<ref name="EB 1911"/>

The two last-named series were being produced simultaneously until 1881, and no sooner had they been completed than Grosart began the “Huth Library,” so called from the bibliophile [[Henry Huth (bibliophile)|Henry Huth]], who possessed the originals of many of the reprints. It included the works of [[Robert Greene (16th century)|Robert Greene]], [[Thomas Nashe]], [[Gabriel Harvey]], and the prose tracts of [[Thomas Dekker (poet)|Thomas Dekker]]. He also edited the complete works of [[Edmund Spenser]] and [[Samuel Daniel]]. From the Townley Hall collection he reprinted several manuscripts and edited [[John Eliot (statesman)|Sir John Eliot]]'s works, [[Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork|Sir Richard Boyle]]'s ''Lismore Papers'', and various publications for the [[Chetham Society]], the [[Camden Society]] and the [[Roxburghe Club]].<ref name="EB 1911"/>

=== Religious works ===
* ''[https://archive.org/details/jesusmightytosa00grosgoog Jesus 'mighty to save': Isaiah lxiii.1 or, Christ for all the world, and all the world for Christ]'' (1863)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/joiningchurchor02grosgoog Joining the Church, Or, Materials for Conversations Between a Minister and Intending Communicant]'' (1865)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/lambsallsafeors00grosgoog The Lambs All Safe: Or, the Salvation of Children]'' (1865)

==See also==
*[[Thomas Traherne]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikisource author}}
*{{Gutenberg author|id=6786|name=Alexander Balloch Grosart}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Alexander Balloch Grosart}}
* Works by A.B. Grosart in [https://www.tcd.ie/library/research-collections/named-collections/g.php#Grosart the Grosart Collection] at the [[Library of Trinity College Dublin]]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grosart, Alexander Balloch}}
[[Category:1827 births]]
[[Category:1899 deaths]]
[[Category:Clergy from Stirling]]
[[Category:19th-century British Presbyterian ministers]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish publishers (people)]]
[[Category:British literary editors]]
[[Category:Contributors to the Dictionary of National Biography]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish businesspeople]]
[[Category:Ministers of the United Presbyterian Church (Scotland)]]