Robert Bowes

Robert Bowes (born 22 August 1835, near Stewarton, Ayrshire, Scotland – died 9 February 1919, Park Terrace, Cambridge. England) was a Scottish bookseller and publisher. He is known for A Catalogue of Books Printed at or relating to the University, Town & County of Cambridge, from 1521 to 1893 : with Bibliographical and Biographical Notes 1891–1894 (praised by David McKitterick as "monumental and still unsuperseded"). In 1851 Bowes was an apprentice living in Cambridge with his uncle Alexander in the bookshop at 1 Trinity Street, In its early years, the Macmillan business consisted mainly of academic books, with a few works of fiction — one major success was publication in 1855 of Charles Kingsley's Westward Ho! and another was publication in 1857 of Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days.

By 1881 Robert Bowes was a full partner in the Trinity Street bookshop. As a publisher, one of his noteworthy successes was James Kenneth Stephen's Lapsus Calami in 1891. After Bowes became a full partner, the bookshop was called "Macmillan & Bowes". His son George Edmund Brimley Bowes joined the Macmillan & Bowes firm in 1897 and became a partner in 1899. In 1907 the name of the business was changed from "Macmillan & Bowes" to "Bowes & Bowes". In 1953 the Bowes family sold the business to W H Smith.