subs. (journalists’).—A publisher. [Usually, but erroneously, attributed to Lord Byron, who is said to have applied it to John Murray the elder, having sent him a Bible in which the famous passage in John xviii., 40, was altered to ‘Now Barabbas was a publisher.’ The reigning John Murray (1905) writes: ‘I have it on the authority of my father, who was alive during all the time of his father’s dealings with Byron, that there is not a word of truth in any detail of the story.’ The joke was in reality made by Thomas Campbell in regard to another publisher, the Mr. Longman of his day].
1891. SMILES, John Murray, II, 336. s.v.
1901. Free Lance, 9 March, 558. 1. Occasionally, of course, BARABBAS catches a Tartar, who threatens legal proceedings, and demands to inspect the publisher’s books.
1902. Pall Mall Gazette, 10 May, 1. 3. It is a capital time for the writers of histories, works of erudition, and other books of the class to bring forward their wares. BARABBAS will be enabled to give his whole mind to their production before he leaves his splendid mansion in Parklane for his moor in Scotland.
