Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Southgate, Henry
SOUTHGATE, HENRY (1818–1888), anthologist, born in 1818, a native of London, entered his father's business, and from 1840 to 1866 carried on his practice as an auctioneer of prints and engravings at 22 Fleet Street. The firm was known as Southgate & Barrett until about 1860 (when the partnership was dissolved), after which Southgate's affairs became gradually involved. In the meantime he had made a considerable reputation as a compiler of selections in prose and verse from English classics. He moved about 1870 to South Devon, where he resided at Salcombe, and afterwards at Sidmouth; thence he moved to Ramsgate, where he died on 5 Dec. 1888.
His works comprise: 1. ‘Many Thoughts of Many Things, being a Treasury of Reference … analytically arranged,’ London, 1857, 4to; the third edition, thoroughly revised and enlarged under the altered title ‘Many Thoughts of Many Minds’ (1861, 8vo), had a great circulation, and has frequently been reprinted. The first edition was denounced by the ‘Athenæum’ (1857, p. 1550) as ‘an enormous book, an enormous blunder;’ but, along with Bartlett's ‘Familiar Quotations,’ it has established a reputation as one of the best compilations of the kind. A second series was issued in 1871, London, 8vo. 2. ‘What Men have said about Women: a Collection of Choice Sentences,’ London, 1864, 8vo; 1865 and 1866. 3. ‘Musings about Men, compiled and analytically arranged from the Writings of the Good and Great,’ illustrated by Birket Foster and Sir John Gilbert, 1866, 8vo, and 1868. 4. ‘Noble Thoughts in Noble Language: a Collection of Wise and Virtuous Utterances in Prose and Verse’ [1871], 8vo; 1880. Arranged alphabetically from ‘Ability’ to ‘Zeal,’ and, after No. 1, the most popular of Southgate's compilations. 5. ‘The Bridal Bouquet, culled in the Garden of Literature,’ London, 1873, 4to. 6. ‘Christus Redemptor, being the Life, Character, and Teachings of our Blessed Lord, … illustrated from the Writings of Ancient and Modern Authors,’ London [1874], 4to; another edition, ‘Christ our Redeemer’ [1880], 8vo. 7. ‘Things a Lady would like to know,’ a book of domestic management, 1874 and 1875, 8vo; dedicated to his daughter Julia. 8. ‘The Way to Woo and Win a Wife,’ choice extracts, dedicated to his wife, London, 1876, 12mo. During the last fifteen years of his life a collection of plates, cuttings, and extracts, printed and manuscript, was compiled by Southgate for publication as ‘The Wealth and Wisdom of Literature’ or ‘A Dictionary of Suggestive Thought.’ He had a title-page printed, but sought in vain to find a publisher for this colossus of anthologies, which eventually extended to forty bulky volumes (with an alphabet from ‘Abandoned’ to ‘Zymotic’), now in the British Museum.
[Southgate's Works in British Museum Library; Allibone's Dict. of English Literature; Bookseller, February 1889, p. 129; note kindly supplied by Mr. F. Boase.]