Mudie, Charles E. (1818-1890) | Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Charles Edward Mudie was born on October 18, 1818 in Chelsea, London, to Margaret Wilson (1781-circa 1862) and Thomas Mudie (1781-1851), a bookseller and stationer. Mudie worked under his father at T. Mudie & Sons (later Mudie & Sons Ltd.) until 1840, when he opened his own shop, selling newspapers and stationery, as well as lending books.

By 1842, book-lending became his primary area of interest and he founded Mudie’s Select Library, a circulating library with modest subscription rates that made books more accessible to a middle class audience. The “Select” of this library’s naming is attributed to Mudie’s role in choosing the materials suitable for the collection, assuming the role of “unofficial protector of public morals.”

Mudie’s Select Library thrived through the 1860s, when he was able to open new branches in Birmingham and Manchester. Much of this success can be attributed to his purchases of newly-released titles from publishers in large quantities, which provided Mudie with a discounted price and eager subscribers with a shortened wait time, subscription rates starting at one guinea per year, and plentiful advertisements in popular newspapers and periodicals. At its height, Mudie’s Select Library serviced approximately 50,000 subscribers and held about one million volumes.

Mudie fully retired in 1884; his son, Arthur Oliver Mudie (1854-1936) had assumed control of the Library in 1879 after the death of his elder brother, Charles Henry Mudie (1850-1879). The Library began its slow decline in the early 1890s, when publishers began to move away from the popular three-volume novel format, and eventually closed in 1937.

Mudie married Mary Kingsford Pawling (1820-1898) on April 20, 1847; the couple shared eight children. He died on October 28, 1890 in Hampstead, London.

Bassett, Troy J. “Circulating Libraries in the Victorian Era.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature. Oxford University Press, last modified May 24, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.265.

Finkelstein, David. “Mudie, Charles Edward.” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, last modified September 23, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/19492.

Mudie, Sir Francis and Ian M.N. Mudie. The Mudies of Angus. F. Mudie and I.M.N. Mudie, 1959. https://lrd.co.nz/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/The-Mudies-Of-Angus.pdf.