Description
Book SynopsisThe first biography of the business brain behind Burroughs Wellcome & Co.
Trade ReviewFor too long, Silas Burroughs has stood in the shadows of his partner, Henry Wellcome. In this insightful and revealing book Julia Sheppard does a superb job of redressing the balance, revealing Burroughs's childhood and education, and his increasingly difficult relationship with Wellcome. Based on extensive original research, this is a beautifully written and entertaining biography. Stuart Anderson, Emeritus Professor of Pharmacy History, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Besides a thoroughly engaging story of the American-born entrepreneur, manufacturer and advertising innovator, Julia Sheppard has also given us an important and fascinating insight into the history of the British drug industry and the making of a global pharmaceutical market. This is biography at its very best. John Harley Warner, Avalon Professor of the History of Medicine, Yale University Julia Sheppard has written the definitive biography of Silas Burroughs, the dynamic young American behind one of Victorian Britain's most successful (yet fraught) business partnerships, a major forerunner of today's Big Pharma. Christine Macleod, Professor Emerita of History, University of Bristol Julia Sheppard sets the record straight with an enlightening account of Silas Burroughs's life and the importance of the part he played in the creation of an extraordinarily successful institution. Anne Hardy, Honorary Professor, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine There's much in this book for the business historian. For one thing, it reveals how marketing was done through feet on the ground and knocks on doors. For another, it gives insight into complex partnership dynamics. John Orbell, Business Archivist and Business Historian Silas Burroughs' early death, and his bitter feud with his partner Henry Wellcome, has relegated him to a minor role in the story of their pharmaceutical empire. Julia Sheppard's absorbing biography recovers his vital contribution to their joint enterprise, and sets it in the context of a vigorous life of commercial success, globetrotting travels and excursions into radical politics. Mike Jay, Author and Cultural Historian
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Abbreviations Burroughs Family Tree Foreword: Sir Jeremy Farrar Acknowledgements and Sources Introduction 1. Father and Son 2. On the Road 3. London and S.M. Burroughs & Co. 4. Brotherly Love and Henry Wellcome 5. 'A Little Excursion' 6. 'A Superficial Jaunt'? India and Ceylon 7. The Antipodes 8. 'This Lovely Opposite Sex' 9. 'Bones of Contention' and Brotherly Strains 10. Atlantic Crossings and Divided Lives 11. Partnership in Crisis: The High Court 12. Henry George and the Phoenix Mills Philosopher 13. Citizen of the World 14. Partnership in Peril 15. 'Service to the Cause of People': Philanthropy and the Livingstone Hospital 16. From London to Monte Carlo 17. Olive versus Wellcome Postscript Appendix: Pharmacy and Change Notes References and Bibliography Index
