George Munro, 1835-1896, American publisher and brother of Norman Munro, established his reputation as a publisher with the Fireside Companion, a cheap, large-circulation family paper, first issued in 1867. He is best remembered for his series of cheaply produced novels in the Seaside Library. The novels in this series were in quarto format with two to three columns per page and sold for ten to twenty cents, according to the number of pages.
In 1889 Munro leased the Seaside Library to James Lovell's United States Book Company where it was published for two years before being returned to Munro. By this time the International Copyright Bill had put an end to the profitability of reprint libraries, and the depression of 1893 further weakened business. After Munro's death in 1896 the firm was continued by his sons as George Munro's Sons until 1906, when it ceased. A successor company, the George Munro Publishing House, published until 1908.
