He was born at Wakefield in Yorkshire. In 1826 he published a volume of verse, entitled The Prospect, and other Poems, which was received favourably. In 1830 Moxon was started by Samuel Rogers as a London publisher in New Bond Street. The first volume he produced was Charles Lamb's Album Verses. Moving to Dover Street, Piccadilly, Moxon published an illustrated edition of Rogers's Italy, £10,000 being spent upon the illustrations. Wordsworth entrusted him with the publication of his works from 1835 onwards, and in 1839 he issued the first complete edition of Shelley's poems.
Some passages in Shelley's Queen Mab resulted in a charge of blasphemy being made against Moxon in 1841. The case was tried before Lord Denman. Serjeant Talfourd defended Moxon, but the jury returned a verdict of guilty, and the offensive passages were expunged. Moxon continued to publish. In 1840 be published Robert Browning's Sordello; and in succeeding years works by Richard Monckton Milnes, Tom Hood, Barry Cornwall, Lord Lytton, Browning and Alfred Tennyson appeared. On Moxon's death, his business was continued by JB Payne and Arthur Moxon, who in 1865 published Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon; in 1871 it was taken over by Ward, Lock & Tyler.
This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.