Frederick Warne

Warne was born in Westminster in 1825, sixth and youngest son of the twelve children of Edmund Warne, a builder, and his wife Matilda. After being privately educated in Soho, at the age of fourteen, he joined his brother William Henry Warne (d. 1859), and his brother-in-law George Routledge, in the retail bookselling business which Routledge had founded in 1836 in Ryder's Court, Leicester Square. Routledge established a publishing business in 1843, and in 1851 Warne became a partner in the firm, which was then styled Routledge & Co.; the name was changed to Routledge, Warne & Routledge in 1858 on Routledge's son, Robert Warne Routledge, becoming a partner. From 1851 to 1865, Warne was largely identified with the success of the firm.

In 1865, on the advice of the publisher George Smith, of Smith, Elder & Co., Warne began an independent publishing career; he was joined by Edward James Dodd (a lifelong friend and colleague at Routledge's), and by A. W. Duret, who left the firm of Dalziel Brothers to join him. An American branch was established in New York in 1881.

Warne was active in the publication of coloured picture books for children. He inaugurated a new era between 1870 and 1880 by his issue of the Aunt Louisa books, which were followed by new editions of Edward Lear's A Book of Nonsense, by the children's books (1878–1885) of Randolph Caldecott, and later by the works of Kate Greenaway and Walter Crane. In the field of fiction Warne issued Benjamin Disraeli's novels before their transfer to Messrs. Longman in 1870, and published in London most of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novels, including Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886).