AustLit

George Robertson was an apprentice to a bookseller in Glasgow before migrating to New Zealand in 1879 and moving to Sydney in 1882. He found employment in the Sydney business branch of Melbourne publisher and bookseller George Robertson (1825-1898), another important bookman by the same name, but they were not related. There he met D. M. Angus with whom he formed the Australian publishing and bookselling firm Angus & Robertson in 1886. After Angus's retirement he went into partnership with another employee, Frederick Victor Wymark, who had bought Angus's share of the business. The partnership was converted into a public company in 1907. Robertson assisted and supported many Australian writers and was highly regarded by them. Some of Robertson's correspondence is published in the collection Dear Robertson : Letters to an Australian Publisher (1982).