Longman took his nephew into partnership, the title of the firm becoming T. and T. Longman.
Upon the death of his uncle in 1755, Thomas Longman (2) (1730–1797) became sole proprietor. He greatly extended the colonial trade of the firm. He had three sons. Of these, Thomas Norton Longman (3) (1771–1842) succeeded to the business. In 1794 Owen Rees became a partner, and Thomas Brown, who was for many years after 1811 a partner, entered the house as an apprentice. Brown died in 1869 at the age of 92. In 1799 Longman purchased the copyright of Lindley Murray’s English Grammar, which had an annual sale of about 50,000 copies; he also purchased, about 1800, the copyright, from Joseph Cottle, of Bristol, of Southey’s Joan of Arc and Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads. He published the works of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey and Scott, and acted as London agent for the Edinburgh Review, which was started in 1802. In 1804 two more partners were admitted; and in 1824 the title of the firm was changed to Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green. In 1814 arrangements were made with Thomas Moore for the publication of Lalla Rookh, for which he received £3000; and when Archibald Constable failed in 1826, Longmans became the proprietors of the Edinburgh Review. They issued in 1829 Lardner’s Cabinet Encyclopaedia, and in 1832 M’Culloch’s Commercial Dictionary.
Thomas Norton Longman (3) died on the 29th of August 1842, leaving his two sons, Thomas (4) (1804–1879) and William Longman (1813–1877), in control of the business in Paternoster Row. Their first success was the publication of Macaulay’s Lays of Ancient Rome, which was followed in 1849 by the issue of the first two volumes of his History of England, which in a few years had a sale of 40,000 copies. The two brothers were well known for their literary talent; Thomas Longman edited a beautifully illustrated edition of the New Testament, and William Longman was the author of several important books, among them a History of the Three Cathedrals dedicated to St Paul (1869) and a work on the History of the Life and Times of Edward III. (1873). In 1863 the firm took over the business of Mr J. W. Parker, and with it Fraser’s Magazine, and the publication of the works of John Stuart Mill and J. A. Froude; while in 1890 they incorporated with their own all the publications of the old firm of Rivington, established in 1711. The family control of the firm (now Longmans, Green & Co.) was continued by Thomas Norton Longman (5), son of Thomas Longman (4).
LONGOMONTANUS (or Longberg), CHRISTIAN SEVERIN
(1562–1647), Danish astronomer, was born at the village of
Longberg in Jutland, Denmark, on the 4th of October 1562.
The appellation Longomontanus was a Latinized form of the
name of his birthplace. His father, a poor labourer called
Sören, or Severin, died when he was eight years old. An uncle
thereupon took charge of him, and procured him instruction
at Lemvig; but after three years sent him back to his mother,
who needed his help in field-work. She agreed, however, to
permit him to study during the winter months with the clergyman
of the parish; and this arrangement subsisted until 1577,
when the illwill of some of his relatives and his own desire for
knowledge impelled him to run away to Viborg. There he
attended the grammar-school, defraying his expenses by manual
labour, and carried with him to Copenhagen in 1588 a high
reputation for learning and ability. Engaged by Tycho Brahe
in 1589 as his assistant in his great astronomical observatory of
Uraniborg, he rendered him invaluable services there during
eight years. He quitted the island of Hveen with his master,
but obtained his discharge at Copenhagen on the 1st of June
1597, for the purpose of studying at some German universities.
He rejoined Tycho at Prague in January 1600, and having
completed the Tychonic lunar theory, turned homeward again
in August. He visited Frauenburg, where Copernicus had made
his observations, took a master’s degree at Rostock, and at Copenhagen
found a patron in Christian Friis, chancellor of Denmark,
who gave him employment in his household. Appointed in
1603 rector of the school of Viborg, he was elected two years later
to a professorship in the university of Copenhagen, and his
promotion to the chair of mathematics ensued in 1607. This
post he held till his death, on the 8th of October 1647.
Longomontanus, although an excellent astronomer, was not an advanced thinker. He adhered to Tycho’s erroneous views about refraction, held comets to be messengers of evil and imagined that he had squared the circle. He found that the circle whose diameter is 43 has for its circumference the square root of 18252—which gives 3.14185 . . . for the value of π. John Pell and others vainly endeavoured to convince him of his error. He inaugurated, at Copenhagen in 1632, the erection of a stately astronomical tower, but did not live to witness its completion. Christian IV. of Denmark, to whom he dedicated his Astronomia Danica, an exposition of the Tychonic system of the world, conferred upon him the canonry of Lunden in Schleswig.
The following is a list of his more important works in mathematics and astronomy: Systematis Mathematici, &c. (1611); Cyclometria e Lunulis reciproce demonstrata, &c. (1612); Disputatio de Eclipsibus (1616); Astronomia Danica, &c. (1622); Disputationes quatuor Astrologicae (1622); Pentas Problematum Philosophiae (1623); De Chronolabio Historico, seu de Tempore Disputationes tres (1627); Geometriae quaesita XIII. de Cyclometria rationali et vera (1631); Inventio Quadraturae Circuli (1634); Disputatio de Matheseos Indole (1636); Coronis Problematica ex Mysteriis trium Numerorum (1637); Problemata duo Geometrica (1638); Problema contra Paulum Guldinum de Circuli Mensura (1638); Introductio in Theatrum Astronomicum (1639); Rotundi in Plano, &c. (1644); Admiranda Operatio trium Numerorum 6, 7, 8, &c. (1645); Caput tertium Libri primi de absoluta Mensura Rotundi plani, &c. (1646).
See E. P. F. Vindingius, Regia Academia Havinensis, p. 212 (1665); R. Nyerup and Kraft, Almindeligt Litteraturlexikon, p. 350 (1820); Ch. G. Jöcher, Allgemeines Gelehrten-lexikon, ii. 2518, iii. 2111; Jens Worm, Forsög til et Lexikon over danske, norske og islandske laerde Maend, p. 617, 1771, &c.; P. Bayle, Hist. and Crit. Dictionary, iii. 861 (2nd ed. 1736); J. B. J. Delambre, Hist. de l’astr. moderne, i. 262; J. S. Bailly, Hist. de l’astr. moderne, ii. 141; J. L. E. Dreyer, Tycho Brahe, pp. 126, 259, 288, 299; F. Hoeffer, Hist. de l’astronomie, p. 391; J. Mädler, Geschichte der Himmelskunde, i. 195; J. F. Weidler, Hist. Astronomiae, p. 451.
LONGSTREET, JAMES (1821–1904), American soldier, lieutenant-general in the Confederate army, was born on the 8th of February 1821 in Edgefield district, South Carolina, and graduated at West Point in 1842. He served in the Mexican War, was severely wounded, and received two brevets for gallantry. In 1861, having attained the rank of major, he resigned when his state seceded, and became a brigadier-general in the Confederate army. In this rank he fought at the first battle of Bull Run, and subsequently at the head of a division in the Peninsular campaign and the Seven Days. This division subsequently became the nucleus of the I. corps, Army of Northern Virginia, which was commanded throughout the war by Longstreet. This corps took part in the battles of second Bull Run and Antietam, and held the left of Lee’s front at Fredericksburg. Most of the corps was absent in North Carolina when the battle of Chancellorsville took place, but Longstreet, now a lieutenant-general, returned to Lee in time to take part in the campaign of Gettysburg. At that battle he disapproved of the attack because of the exceptionally strong position of the Federals. He has been charged with tardiness in getting into the action, but his delay was in part authorized by Lee to await an absent brigade, and in part was the result of instructions to conceal his movements, which caused circuitous marching. The most conspicuous fighting in the battle was conducted by Longstreet. In September 1863 he took his corps to the west and bore a conspicuous part in the great battle of Chickamauga. In November he commanded the unsuccessful expedition against Knoxville. In 1864 he rejoined Lee’s army in Virginia, and on the 6th of May arrived upon the field of the Wilderness as the Confederate right had been turned and routed. His attack was a model of impetuosity and skill, and drove the enemy back until their entire force upon that flank was in confusion. At this critical moment, as Longstreet in person, at the head of fresh troops, was pushing the attack in the forest, he was fired upon by mistake by his own men and desperately wounded. This mischance stayed the Confederate assault for two hours, and enabled the enemy to provide effective means to meet it. In October 1864 he resumed command of his corps, which he
