Editing Master and Commander (section)

===First US and UK publications 1969 / 70===
In the 1960s two of O'Brian's seafaring books for children, ''The Golden Ocean'' (1956) and ''The Unknown Shore'' (1959), caught the attention of a US publisher, [[J. B. Lippincott & Co.|J B Lippincott]], who were seeking an author to follow in the footsteps of [[C. S. Forester|C S Forester]], creator of the [[Horatio Hornblower|Hornblower]] series of novels.  Forester had died in 1966 and a year later, at the age of 53, O'Brian started work on ''Master and Commander''.{{sfn|Brown|2006|p=10}}{{sfn|Brown|2006|p=273}} The novel was first published in the US by Lippincott in 1969.{{sfn|Brown|2006|p=10}}

O'Brian's then UK publisher [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]], who had originally agreed to jointly commission the book,{{sfn|King|2000|p=205}} rejected it as too full of jargon. It was taken up and published by [[William Collins, Sons|Collins]] in 1970.{{sfn|Brown|2006|p=273}}

The novel did respectably in Britain ("selling a most surprising number" according to O'Brian),{{sfn|O'Brian|1994|p=20}} but was not initially successful in the US.{{sfn|Brown|2006|p=273}} O'Brian later commented, "I am sorry to say that the Americans did not like it much at its first appearance (they have changed their minds since, bless them)".{{sfn|O'Brian|1994|p=20}}

Lippincott persevered in the US with publication of the next two novels in the series, ''Post Captain'' (1972) and ''HMS Surprise'' (1973), though sales remained slow. A change of US publisher to [[Stein and Day]] for ''[[The Mauritius Command]]'' did not help, and US publications ceased with ''[[Desolation Island (novel)|Desolation Island]]'' in 1978.{{sfn|Brown|2006|p=273}}{{sfn|Bennett|1994|p=150}}