Misplaced Pages

Sir Humphrey Sumner Milford (8 February 1877 – 6 September 1952) was an English publisher and editor who from 1913 to 1945 was publisher to the University of Oxford and head of the London operations of Oxford University Press (OUP).

Overview

In his work, he made OUP a major worldwide publisher of noteworthy books, music, and educational material for the general public, complementing the scholarly work of the Clarendon Press in Oxford. Milford himself edited volumes of works of Robert Browning, William Cowper, and Leigh Hunt; and was principal editor of The Oxford Book of Regency Verse (later The Oxford Book of Romantic Verse) and a moving force behind the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Upon publication of the final volume of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1928, he was among those awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the university. He was knighted in 1936.

His elder son by his first marriage was the composer Robin Milford (1903–1959); his younger son was the racket and hockey player David Milford (1905–1984). His sister Violet Alice Milford was the mother of the poet and scholar Anne Ridler (1912–2001). In summing up his work, The Times of London cited his "unfailing catholicity", "nose for a good book", and "rare sense of the practicable".

References

1. Maw, p. 140
2. "Sir Humphrey Milford"

Sources

• Chatterjee, Rimi B. Empires of the Mind: A History of the Oxford University Press in India under the Raj. New Delhi: OUP (ISBN 978-0-19-567474-3), 2006.
• Maw, Martin. "Milford, Sir Humphrey Sumner". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Volume 38. Oxford: OUP (ISBN 0-19-861388-1), 2004.
• Norrington, A. L. P. “Milford, Sir Humphrey Sumner”. Dictionary of National Biography. Seventh Supplement. London: OUP, 1971.
• "Sir Humphrey Milford" . The Times . No. 52,411 (September 8, 1952), p. 6.
• Sutcliffe, Peter. The Oxford University Press: An Informal History. Oxford: Clarendon Press (ISBN 978-0-19-951084-9), 1978.

v t e Sumner family tree
This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message) John Sumner Provost of King's College, Cambridge (d. 1772) Humphrey Sumner Provost of King's College, Cambridge (1743–1814) Robert Sumner (1748–1802) Hannah Bird (1757–1846) Marianne Robertson (1779–1829) John Bird Sumner Archbishop of Canterbury (1780–1862) Charles Richard Sumner Bishop of Winchester (1790–1874) Jennie Barnabine Maunoir (1794–1849) Antonetta Maria Edwards (1825–1852) John Henry Sumner (1821–1910) Eliza Maria Sumner (c.1808–1836) William Gibson (1804–1862) Louisanna Sumner (1817–1899) Sophia Albertina Sumner (1823–1884) William Henry Ridley priest and author (1816–1882) George Henry Sumner Bishop suffragan of Guildford (1824–1909) Mary Heywood Mothers' Union founder (1828–1921) Emily Sumner (1832–1926) Robert Newman Milford (1829–1913) John Robert Sumner footballer (1850–1933) John Sumner Gibson cricketer (1833–1892) Arthur Sumner Gibson rugby union player (1844–1927) Edgar Sumner Gibson Bishop of Gloucester (1848–1924) Alan Sumner Gibson Coadjutor Bishop of Cape Town (1856–1922) Charles Coleridge Mackarness Archdeacon of the East Riding (1850–1918) Grace Emily Milford (1856–1944) Humphrey Sumner Milford publisher and editor (1877–1952)
Notes:
Family tree of the Sumner family

This biographical article about a print editor is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• 1877 births
• 1952 deaths
• Oxford University Press people
• English editors
• Publishers (people) from London
• Editor stubs