Letters of Austen and Byron may be opened to public through sale of unique family archive

The private thoughts and letters of some of the world's greatest writers could soon be made public if the National Library of Scotland succeeds in buying "the most remarkable private literary archive in the world", valued at up to £40m.

Generations of the Murray publishing family have assembled letters, manuscripts and draft works by famous literary figures of the past 230 years. Last May John Murray VII reluctantly accepted that his sons, Octavius and Charlie, had no interest in the family firm and sold it to Hodder Headline, part of WH Smith. Mr Murray now wants to open the private collection to the public.

Since John Murray became a publisher in 1768, the firm's list of authors has become a compendium of English literature, featuring such names as Lord Byron, Jane Austen, Charles Darwin, David Hume, David Livingstone, William Gladstone, Arthur Conan Doyle and John Betjeman.

As the oldest independent book publisher in the world, the firm was regarded as the last survivor of more gentlemanly times when authors and publishers saw each other as friends rather than business associates. Many writers became close friends of successive generations of John Murrays – there have been seven in total – who ran the company and, in doing so, compiled a literary treasure chest.

Now with more than 150,000 items, the collection is a unique insight into the development of British intellectual, political and social activity of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries.

Martyn Wade, of the National Library in Edinburgh, said: "We are aware the archive is becoming available, and because of the uniqueness and importance of the collection we would very much like to acquire it.

"John Murray is very keen that it should become publicly available and we are trying to explore ways of ensuring that. A valuation of the archive is being carried out at the moment. It is undoubtedly the most important of its kind to become publicly available in more than a century."

With estimates valuing the collection at up to £40m, a mix of public, private and lottery funding would probably be needed to bring the collection from the firm's London headquarters to the Scottish capital.

Literary experts are excited by the prospect of the archive being opened because much of it has never been examined or indexed. Manuscripts and letters by authors such as Jane Austen, who turned to the firm in 1815 after falling out with her previous publisher, will interest academics and the public.

Mr Wade said: "In the 18th and 19th century, publishing was a much more personal relationship and many of the authors represented by the firm could be counted as personal friends of successive generations of John Murrays.

"Many of the writers, such as Byron, correspond about their personal lives while sending proofs of prose ready for publication. It is very much a personal and family archive, rather than just a business resource. Its importance is unique."

Dr Murray Simpson, director of special collections at the National Library in Edinburgh, has described the possibility of acquiring the collection as "an opportunity that occurs only once in several lifetimes".

Letters written by Darwin and amendments, annotations and comments he made on the manuscript of The Origin of the Species, or the early drafts of Livingstone's Missionary Travels or Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambezi are considered to be priceless fragments of literary history.

If the archive was broken up, individual items would fetch huge prices on the open market. However, it is understood that the present John Murray is not looking for any personal gain from selling the archive. Instead, he is said to favour setting up a charitable trust to keep the archive intact and to catalogue and maintain public access to the collection.

How the Murray clan became the centre of the publishing world

John McMurray ­ he later dropped the Mc ­ was born in Edinburgh in 1737 and became a lieutenant in the marines. He retired to London in 1768, where he bought the publishingbusiness of William Sandby in Fleet Street.

Murray became one of the 20 original proprietors of the Morning Chronicle and launched the English Review. Until his death in London in November 1793 Murray copied more than 5,000 letters and archived the replies to leave a unique record of a career which was later expanded upon by his son, who took over the business aged 15.

As John Murray II he built on the success of the business, forming a close friendship with Lord Byron, and moved to 50 Albemarle Street in London's Mayfair, which is still the headquarters of the firm today.

The house quickly became a centre of the publishing world and in 1824 was the scene of one of the most controversial episodes in English literature. Along with five associates, John Murray II threw two bound volumes of unpublished diaries by Byron into the fireplace.

The poet, a notorious philanderer, had been dead just a month but Murray and his friends believed the books should be destroyed to spare Byron's reputation and his family from shame.

Over the next 178 years, successive generations of John Murrays continued to ply the family trade from the house, building up a strong biographical, travel, historical and educational catalogue of books.

However, after years of fighting competition from bigger and richer rivals, John Murray VII last year sold the family firm, valued at £20m, to Hodder Headline ­ the fourth largest publisher in Britain.