James Samuelson was a Liverpool industrialist, magazine founder and editor, barrister of the Middle Temple and prolific British non-fiction author known for his works on the history of the Balkans and on social and philosophical topics.
Samuelson's early career was as a science teacher and writer on microscopy about which he published several books in 1860. In 1861 he founded the quarterly Popular Science Review which he sold to the medical writer Henry Lawson in 1864. He then immediately co-founded and edited with William Crookes the more academic Quarterly Journal of Science which was innovative in breaking with the tradition of anonymous content of similar journals. This he sold to Crookes in 1870. Around this time he decided to study law and became a barrister of the Middle Temple. He became increasingly involved with social and political topics and wrote books on The German Working Man and Work, Wages, and the Profits of Capital, and continued to produce works on labour and social topics such as temperance for the rest of his life. In 1869, he was the president of the Liverpool Operative Trades Hall. In 1882, he was living at Claughton, Birkenhead. Samuelson stood three times for Parliament, as a Liberal-Labour candidate: in Birkenhead at the 1874 UK general election, and in Liverpool Kirkdale at the 1885 UK general election, and in East Renfrewshire at the 1886 UK general election, taking third place on each occasion. Samuelson also ran a seed crushing business, and in the mid-1890s he started a profit sharing scheme with his employees. In 1890, he launched Subjects of the Day, which included commentary on current affairs and whose contributors included William Gladstone, but it was closed by the publishers after only four issues.
Death and legacy
Samuelson died in 1919. In 2018 it was discovered that Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, had consulted a copy of Samuelson's Roumania Past and Present in the London Library as research when writing his book.
Selected publications
1860s
The Honey-bee: its natural history, habits, anatomy, and microscopical beauties. Van Voost, 1860.
Humble Creatures. The earth worm and the common house fly. In eight letters by J. Samuelson, assisted by J. B. Hicks. London, 1860.
The Honey-Bee; its natural history, habits, anatomy, and microscopical beauties. With tinted illustrations. By J. Samuelson, assisted by J. B. Hicks. Also two chapters on Instinct and Reason; being an introduction to the study of Comparative Psychology, by the same author. London, 1860.
Continuity in Civilisation, as illustrated by the connection between our own culture and that of the ancient world. An essay read before the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society. London, 1869.
. London, 1869.
1870s
London, 1871.
Work, Wages, and the Profits of Capital: an essay on the Labour Question. London, 1872.
The Natural Foundation of Religion. London, 1876.
. 1878.
Useful information for intending Emigrants to the Western Prairies of the United States, etc.George Philip & Son, London, 1879.
1880s
National Reform Union. W. E. Gladstone, scholar, statesman, orator and financial reformer. An address... to the Liberals of Preston, etc. H. J. Infield, London, .
. Longmans & Co., London, 1882.
A Digest of the Corrupt Practices Act , its aims and chief provisions.Philip & Son, London, .
Shall Russian treachery win the day? An appeal to Englishmen. With a diagram showing the advance of Russia upon Constantinople. Trübner & Co., London, 1886.
Bulgaria Past and Present; Historical, Political, and Descriptive. Trübner, London, 1888.
1890s
India past and present historical, social and political. Trübner & Co., London, 1890.
Boards of Conciliation and Arbitration for the settlement of labour disputes. Kegan Paul & Co., London, 1891.
Boards of Conciliation in Labour Disputes... A short address to the artizans and labourers of Liverpool, etc. Rockliff Bros., Liverpool, 1892.
Labour-Saving Machinery : An Essay on the effect of Mechanical Appliances in the Displacement of Manual Labour in various Industries. Kegan Paul, London, 1893.
Greece; her present condition and recent progress &c. Sampson Low & Co., London, 1894.
The Civilisation of our Day. A series of original essays on some of its more important phases at the close of the nineteenth century. By expert writers. S. Low & Co., London, 1896.
Footsteps in Human Progress, secular and religious. A short series of letters to a friend. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London, 1898.
James Samuelson's Recollections: being some experiences and reflections mainly on subjects of the day, etc. Simpkin, Marshall & Co., London, .
The Lament of the Sweated. P. S. King & Son, London, 1908.
The Human Race; its past, present and probable future. An essay. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London, 1910.
1910s
The Children of our Slums: Their Sufferings, Protection, Rescue, Training & Afterlife. To which is added the "Children Act, 1908". Liverpool Booksellers' Co., Liverpool, and Simpkin, Marshall & Co., London.
Drink, Past, Present, & Probable Future, With Some of its Bearings on the War. An essay. Philip, Son & Nephew, Liverpool, & Day & Bath, Sidmouth.
