 However, he became more interested in literature, particularly the works of Robert Burns and Thomas Carlyle, and moved to London where he managed the Thomas Laurie bookshop.In London in 1872, Ross established his own publishing company, W. Stewart & Co., and for some years primarily issued educational works and magazines.But Ross also became a leading advocate of freethought, agnosticism, rationalism and secularism, and served as president of the Lambeth Radical Association.