John Gabriel Stedman (1744 – March 7,1797) was a Dutch-Scottish soldier who fought in the Dutch army against groups of escaped slaves (maroons) in Suriname (Dutch Guyana) in the mid-1770s, the basis for a popular book The Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam. The book was published in London by Joseph Johnson, and greatly influenced the early abolitionist movement, especially when illustrations by William Blake were added depicting the horrific punishments meted out to slaves. More by this mapmaker...

Thomas Conder (1747 - June 1831) was an English map engraver and bookseller active in London during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. From his shop at 30 Bucklersbury, London, Conder produced a large corpus of maps and charts, usually in conjunction with other publishers of his day, including Wilkinson, Moore, Kitchin, and Walpole. Unfortunately few biographical facts regarding Conder's life have survived. Thomas Conder was succeeded by his son Josiah Conder who, despite being severely blinded by smallpox, followed in his father's footsteps as a bookseller and author of some renown. Learn More...

Joseph Johnson (November 15, 1738 – December 20, 1809) was a bookseller and publisher in London with a reputation for publishing controversial works by radical thinkers, including supporters of women's rights, abolitionists, and Dissenters. He also hosted weekly dinners at his house with unconventional thinkers that became a sort of salon for philosophical discussion, known as the 'Johnson Circle'. Johnson's embrace of radical ideas led him to publish works in support of the French Revolution (including critical appraisals of Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France), which caused him to come under great pressure from the authorities. He was imprisoned in 1799 for seditious libel, after which he published less controversial works. Nevertheless, Johnson remained a very prominent publisher, perhaps the most prominent in London, for having recognized early the value of publishing inexpensive works for a wide readership. He is remembered particularly for promoting women writers, including Mary Wollstonecraft, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, and Priscilla Wakefield, at a time when they were generally neglected by the reading public. Learn More...