Bibliographic Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature

Chapter VII: Part 7

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The publication of the second number was delayed by the
suicide of Seymour, whose mind gave way from overwork. This
sad event was announced to the public in a note, and an
apology was offered for the reduction of the number of plates
from four to three. "When we state that they comprise Mr.
Seymour's last efforts, and that on one of them, in particular
(the embellishment of the Stroller's Tale), he was engaged
up to a late hour of the night preceding his death, we feel
confident that the excuse will be deemed a sufficient one."

The third and succeeding numbers contained two plates each.
Those in the third part were originally executed by Robert
Buss, who learned to etch in order to produce them. But he
gave up the work, and his plates were replaced in later
issues by others by Hablot K. Browne, or "Phiz," who did the
remaining plates. The last or double part contained three
plates and an engraved title-page. With it subscribers
received also the printed title-page, dedication, preface,
contents, Directions to the Binder and Table of Errata.

In the eighteenth number, dated September 29, 1837, the
following important announcement appears:

"The subscribers to this work and the trade are respectfully
informed that Nos. XIX. and XX. (with titles, contents, &c.)
will be published together on 1^{st} of November; and that the
complete volume, neatly bound in cloth, price one guinea, will
be ready for delivery by the 14^{th} of that month, and for
which country producers are requested to send early orders to
their respective agents."

The venture was almost a failure at first, and it was not
until the appearance of Sam Weller, with the fifth number,
that the bookbinder, who had prepared four hundred copies of
the first number, was obliged to increase the supply. From
this time on, the demand grew until the enormous output of
forty thousand was reached with the fifteenth number.

There are differences in the various accounts of the amount
Dickens was to receive for his work. A letter from the
publishers to him mentions their terms as nine guineas a
sheet for each part consisting of a sheet and a half; fifteen
guineas a number was the sum as stated by Mr. Edward Chapman
to Mr. Forster; and Dickens himself, in a letter to Miss
Hogarth, afterwards his wife, says, fourteen pounds a month.
During publication, he received in checks from the publishers
£3000. In 1837 Chapman & Hall agreed that after five years he
should have a share in the copyright, on consideration that
he write a similar book for which he was to receive £3000,
besides having the whole copyright after five years. Forster
thinks the author received, in all, £25,000, while the
publishers' profits during the three years from 1836 to 1839
are said to have amounted to £14,000 on the sale of the work
in numbers alone.

Chapman & Hall issued the book in volume form in 1837, at
twenty-one shillings.

Mr. Frederic G. Kitton says:

"There are probably not more than a dozen copies of the first
edition of "Pickwick" in existence. An examination of a number
of impressions presumably of this edition results in the
discovery of slight variations both in plates and text. These
are especially noticeable in the illustrations, for, owing to
the enormous demand, the plates were re-etched directly they
showed signs of deterioration in the printing, and "Phiz," in
reproducing his designs, sometimes altered them slightly. The
earliest impressions of the work may be distinguished by
the absence of engraved titles on the plates, and by their
containing the _original_ etchings by Seymour and Buss, not
"Phiz's" _replicas_ of them."

Octavo.

COLLATION: _xiv pp., 1 l., 609 pp. Forty-five plates, including
engraved title-page._

THOMAS CARLYLE

(1795-1881)

Carlyle went up to London with _Teufelsdröckh_ in his satchel,
to find a publisher for it. He put much confidence in the help
of his friend Francis Jeffrey, the lord advocate, who exerted
himself chiefly to establish relations between the author and
John Murray.

Mrs. Carlyle, at home in Craigenputtoch, received the
following letter from her husband, August 11, 1831:

"... After a time by some movements, I got the company
dispersed, and the Advocate by himself, and began to take
counsel with him about 'Teufelsdröckh.' He thought Murray, in
spite of the Radicalism, would be the better publisher; to him
accordingly he gave me a line, saying that I was a genius and
would likely become eminent;... I directly set off with this
to Albemarle Street; found Murray out; returned afterwards
and found him in, gave an outline of the book, at which the
Arimaspian smiled, stated also that I had nothing else to
do here but the getting of it published, and was above all
anxious that his decision should be given soon...."

On the 22d he wrote again:

"On Saturday morning I set out for Albemarle Street. Murray,
as usual, was not in; but an answer lay for me--my poor
'Teufelsdröckh,' wrapped in new paper, with a letter stuck
under the packthread. I took it with a silent fury, and walked
off. The letter said he regretted exceedingly, etc.; all his
literary friends were out of town; he himself occupied with a
sick family in the country; that he had conceived the finest
hope, etc. In short, that 'Teufelsdröckh' had never been
looked into; but that if I would let him keep it for a month,
he would _then_ be able to say a word, and by God's blessing a
favorable one.

"I walked on through Regent Street and looked in upon James
Fraser, the bookseller. We got to talk about 'Teufelsdröckh,'
when, after much hithering and thithering about the black
state of trade, &c., it turned out that honest James would
publish the book for me on this principle: if I would give
_him_ a sum not exceeding 150 l. sterling! 'I think you had
better wait a little,' said an Edinburgh advocate to me since,
when he heard of this proposal. 'Yes,' I answered, 'it is
my purpose to wait to the end of eternity for it.' 'But the
public will not buy books.' 'The public has done the wisest
thing it could, and ought never more to buy what they call
books.'

"Spurning at destiny, yet in the mildest terms taking leave of
Fraser, I strode through the street carrying 'Teufelsdröckh'
openly in my hand.... Having rested a little, I set out again
to the Longmans, to hear what they had to say."

The Longmans, "honest, rugged, punctual-looking people," said
little to the point, however, and then, through Lord Jeffrey's
efforts in his behalf, Murray offered as follows: "The short
of it is this: Murray will print an edition (750 copies) of
Dreck on the half-profit system (that is, I getting _nothing_,
but also giving nothing); after which the sole copyright of
the book is to be mine...."

Carlyle then tried Colburn & Bentley, but with his mind made
up "unless they say about 100 l. I will prefer Murray." These
negotiations came to nothing, and back he went to Murray,
whose offer "is not so bad: 750 copies for the task of
publishing poor Dreck, and the rest of him _our own_." The
terms were accepted, the manuscript was sent to the printer,
and a page set up, when Murray repented his bargain, which had
never pleased him, and, having heard that Carlyle had carried
his MS. elsewhere, he seized the opportunity to send the
author a note saying that since he had, unbeknown to him,
carried his book to "the greatest publishers in London, who
had declined to engage in it," he must ask to have it read by
some literary friend, before he could in justice to himself
engage in the printing of it. The upshot was that the
manuscript was returned to its author.

"The printing of 'Teufelsdröckh,'" Carlyle says to his wife,
"which I announced as commencing, and even sent you a specimen
of, has altogether stopped, and Murray's bargain with me has
burst into air. The man behaved like a pig, and was speared,
but perhaps without art; Jack and I at least laughed that
night _à gorge déployée_ at the answer I wrote his base
_glare_ of a letter: he has written again in much politer
style, and I shall answer him, as McLeod advised my
grandfather's people, 'sharp but mannerly.' The truth of the
matter is now clear enough; Dreck cannot be disposed of
in London at this time. Whether he lie in my trunk or in a
bookseller's coffer seems partly indifferent. Neither, on the
whole, do I know whether it is not better that we have stopped
for the present. Money I was to have none; author's vanity
embarked on that bottom I have almost none; nay, some time
or other that the book can be _so_ disposed of it is certain
enough."

Nearly two years later, in 1833, the unlucky Dreck was
published "piecemeal," in ten parts of ten pages each, in
_Fraser's Magazine_, beginning with November and running
until August, 1834. With the shrewdness of his tribe, Fraser,
fearing failure, paid only twelve guineas a sheet for the
work, though he had been paying its author twenty guineas
a sheet, five guineas more than he paid to any other
contributor. It turned out, however, that he was wise, for the
great essay was not a success, even in the magazine.

"'Magazine Fraser' writes that 'Teufelsdröckh' excites the
most unqualified disapprobation--_à la bonne heure_," said
Carlyle; and again: "--Literature still all a mystery; nothing
'paying;' 'Teufelsdröckh' beyond measure unpopular; an oldest
subscriber came into him and said, 'If there is any more of
that d----d stuff, I will,' &c., &c.; on the other hand an
order from America (Boston or Philadelphia) to send a copy of
the magazine '_so long_ as there was anything of Carlyle's in
it.' 'One spake up and the other spake down.'"

After the work had run its course in the magazine, about fifty
copies were struck off from the types and stitched together
for distribution among friends.

It remained to the honor of America, to print the book in
1836, through the energetic efforts of Dr. LeBaron Russell.
Emerson furnished the copy and a preface; and before the end
of the year he was able to announce to Carlyle the sale of the
whole edition. Another edition of over a thousand copies was
sold before the first English edition, "a dingy, ill-managed
edition" of a thousand copies, was published anonymously by
Saunders and Otley in 1838.

Octavo.

COLLATION: _1 l., 107 pp._

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

(1803-1882)

80. Nature. | [Quotation] Boston: | James Munroe And Company. | MDCCCXXXVI.

"My little book is nearly done. Its title is 'Nature.' Its
contents will not exceed in bulk Sampson Reed's 'Growth of the
Mind.' My design is to follow it by another essay, 'Spirit,'
and the two shall make a decent volume." Thus Emerson wrote to
his brother William, from Concord, June 28, 1836.

_Nature_ was, however, published alone in September by
Metcalf, Torry and Ballou of the Cambridge Press. It received
little attention except from "the representatives of orthodox
opinion," who violently attacked it. Only a few hundred copies
were sold, and it was twelve years before a second edition was
called for.

Duodecimo.

COLLATION: _95 pp._

WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT

(1796-1859)

George Ticknor, in his life of Prescott, gives the story of
the production of the _History_ in the following words:

"The composition of the 'Conquest of Peru' was, therefore,
finished within the time he had set for it a year previously,
and the work being put to press without delay, the printing
was completed in the latter part of March, 1847; about two
years and nine months from the day when he first put pen
to paper. It made just a thousand pages, exclusive of the
Appendix, and was stereotyped under the careful correction and
supervision of his friend Mr. Folsom of Cambridge.

"While it was passing through the press, or just as the
stereotyping was fairly begun, he made a contract with the
Messrs. Harper to pay for seven thousand five hundred copies
on the day of publication at the rate of one dollar per copy,
to be sold within two years, and to continue to publish at
the same rate afterwards, or to surrender the contract to the
author at his pleasure; terms, I suppose, more liberal than
had ever been offered for a work of grave history on this side
of the Atlantic. In London it was published by Mr. Bentley,
who purchased the copyright for eight hundred pounds, under
the kind auspices of Colonel Aspinwall; again a large sum, as
it was already doubtful whether an exclusive privilege could
be legally maintained in Great Britain by a foreigner."

The demand for the book was large: in five months five
thousand copies were sold in America, and an edition of half
that number sold in England. By January 1, 1860, there had
been sold of the American and English editions together,
16,965 copies. It was translated into Spanish, French, German,
and Dutch.

Octavo.

COLLATION: _Two volumes._ Volume I: _xl, 527 pp._ Volume II:
_xix, 547 pp._

EDGAR ALLAN POE

(1809-1849)

The poem first appeared in print in the columns of the _New
York Evening Mirror_ for January 29, 1845, where N. P. Willis,
its editor, says in a note: "We are permitted to copy,
(in advance of publication,) from the second number of the
_American Review_, the following remarkable poem by Edgar
Poe." Willis issued the poem again in the weekly edition of
the _Mirror_, dated February 8, and Charles F. Briggs, with
whom Poe afterward became associated, also published it in the
_Broadway Journal_ of the same date, crediting it to "Edgar A.
Poe." Both of these weeklies seem to have appeared before the
_American Review_ came out. We are not told the reason for
Mr. George H. Colton's editorial courtesy in permitting this
advance publication when the second, or February number of
his paper, _The American Review: A Whig Journal Of Politics,
Literature, Art And Science_, was so soon to appear. It is a
curious circumstance that Willis and Briggs gave the author's
name freely, while Colton's issue, as originally intended,
appeared with the pseudonym of "---- Quarles."

The poem was an immense success, and was copied far and wide
in all the newspapers of the country. Writing to F. W. Thomas,
May 4, Poe says:

"'The Raven' has had a great run, Thomas--but I wrote it for
the express purpose of running--just as I did the 'Gold Bug,'
you know. The bird beat the bug, though, all hollow."

This popularity was the poet's greatest reward, for we learn
that the actual money remuneration was only ten dollars. Poe
makes us think of the early writers, like Bacon and Browne,
whom we have seen take to printing their books to save them
from the errors of the unlicensed publisher. In a preface to
this volume he writes:

"These trifles are collected and republished chiefly with a
view to their redemption from the many improvements to which
they have been subjected while going at random 'the rounds of
the press.' If what I have written is to circulate at all,
I am naturally anxious that it should circulate as I wrote
it...."

From the original straw-colored paper covers in which it
appeared, about December, we learn that the book was issued
as one of a series, _Wiley And Putnam's Library Of American
Books. No. VIII._, and that its price was the unusual sum of
thirty-one cents. Among the other volumes, its companions
in the set, were _Journal of an African Cruiser_, edited by
Nathaniel Hawthorne; _Tales_ of Edgar A. Poe; _Letters from
Italy_, by J. T. Headley; _The Wigwam and the Cabin_, by W.
Gilmore Simms; and _Big Abel_, by Cornelius Mathews.

Duodecimo.

COLLATION: _4 ll., 91 pp._

CHARLOTTE BRONTË

(1816-1855)

Under date of August 24, 1847, Miss Brontë wrote a letter to
Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., in which she said: "I now send you
per rail a MS. entitled 'Jane Eyre,' a novel in three volumes,
by Currer Bell." The novel was accepted, was printed and
published by October sixteenth, and on the nineteenth the
publishers received the following:

"Gentlemen,--The six copies of 'Jane Eyre' reached me this
morning. You have given the work every advantage which good
paper, clear type, and a seemly outside can supply;--if it
fails, the fault will be with the author,--you are exempt.
I now await the judgment of the press and the public. I am,
Gentlemen, yours respectfully, C. Bell."

Their judgment was decisive, and the book was so great a
success that a second edition, dedicated to Thackeray, was
issued January 18, 1848.

Octavo.

COLLATION: _Three volumes._

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

(1807-1882)

Writing in his journal under date of October 2, 1847,
Longfellow says: "Why does not Ticknor publish Evangeline? I
am going to town to ask him that very question. And his answer
was that he should do so without further delay." An entry,
dated October 30, says, "Evangeline published." On November 8,
he says: "Evangeline goes on bravely. I have received greater
and warmer commendations than on any previous volume. The
public takes more kindly to hexameters than I could have
imagined." On November 13, a third thousand is recorded, and
on April 8 of the following year we learn: "Next week Ticknor
prints the sixth thousand of Evangeline, making one thousand a
month since its publication."

In 1857 the following entry sums up the successful career of
the poem:

"Allibone wants to get from the publishers the number of
copies of my book sold up to date, the editions in this
country only," and _Evangeline_ is set down as 35,850 copies.

The poem was translated into German, Swedish, Danish, Italian,
Portuguese, Spanish, Polish, and French, and was made a
school-book in Italy.

Sextodecimo.

COLLATION: _163 pp._

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

(1806-1861)

85. Sonnets. | By | E. B. B. | Reading: | [Not For Publication.] 1847.

This is the first appearance in print of the _Sonnets from
the Portuguese_ which were not published until 1850, when they
were issued under the title _Sonnets from the Portuguese_, as
a part of the _Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning_.

Mr. Browning told the story of the Portuguese Sonnets to Mr.
Edmund Gosse, who printed the account in _Critical Kit-Kats_,
1896:

"The Sonnets were intended for her husband's eyes alone; in
the first instance, not even for his.... Fortunately for all
those who love true poetry, Mr. Browning judged rightly of the
obligation laid upon him by the possession of these poems.
'I dared not,' he said, 'reserve to myself the finest sonnets
written in any language since Shakespeare's.' Accordingly
he persuaded his wife to commit the printing of them to
her friend Miss Mitford; and in the course of the year they
appeared in a slender volume entitled 'Sonnets, by E. B.
B.,' with the imprint 'Reading, 1847,' and marked 'Not for
publication.'"

Duodecimo.

COLLATION: _47 pp._

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

(1819-1891)

Writing to Thomas Hughes on September 13, 1859, Lowell says:
"I tried my first "Biglow Papers" in a newspaper, and found
that it had a great run. So I wrote the others from time to
time during the year which followed, always very rapidly, and
sometimes (as "What Mr. Robinson thinks") at one sitting.

"When I came to collect them and publish them in a volume, I
conceived my parson-editor with his pedantry and verbosity,
his amiable vanity and superiority to the verses he was
editing, as a fitting artistic background and foil."

The following extracts from letters show, in detail, the
evolution of the work.

"You will find a squib of mine in this week's _Courier_," said
he to Sidney H. Gay, on June 16, 1846, "I wish it to continue
anonymous, for I wish Slavery to think it has as many enemies
as possible. If I may judge from the number of persons who
have asked me if I wrote it, I have struck the old hulk of
the Public between wind and water...." On the last day of
December, 1847, he says to C. F. Briggs:

"I am going to indulge all my fun in a volume of H. Biglow's
verses which I am preparing, and which I shall edit under the
character of the Rev. Mr. Wilbur.... I am going to include in
the volume an essay of the reverend gentleman on the Yankee
dialect, and on dialects in general, and on every thing else,
and also an attempt at a complete natural history of the
Humbug--which I think I shall write in Latin. The book will
purport to be published at Jaalam (Mr. B's native place), and
will be printed on brownish paper with those little head and
tail-pieces which used to adorn our earlier publications--such
as hives, scrolls, urns, and the like."

The latter part of 1848 found the poet busily engaged in
getting out the book, and he wrote to Gay in September:

"This having to do with printers is dreadful business. There
was a Mr. Melville who, I believe, enjoyed it, but, for my
part, I am heartily sick of Typee."

In October he says:

"I should have sent you this yesterday, but it was not
written, and I was working like a dog all day, preparing a
glossary and an _index_. If I ever make another glossary or
index--!"....

"... Hosea is done with," he says in November, "and will soon
be out. It made fifty pages more than I expected and so took
longer." The volume appeared on the 10th, and on the 25th he
again writes to Gay: "... The first edition of Hosea is nearly
exhausted already."

The following retrospect, sent to the same friend on February
26, 1849, contains the lesson of experience:

"There were a great many alterations of spelling made in
the plates of the "Biglow Papers," which added much to the
expense. I ought not to have stereotyped at all. But we are
never done with cutting eye-teeth."

George Nichols, who published the book, was at one time an
owner of the University Book-store, and, later, one of the
proprietors of the University Press. He was noted for his
skill in proof-reading.

The printing was done by Metcalf and Company, printers to
the University; and the little book came out from their hands
innocent of hives, scrolls, urns, or any other ornament.
Something changed the author's mind, too, regarding _Jaalam_
as the purporting place of publication.

Duodecimo.

COLLATION: _12, xxxii, 163 pp._

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY

(1811-1863)

The name of the book, as we see it in the delightful and
altogether characteristic drawing on the engraved title-page,
reminds us of what Miss Kate Perry says in her reminiscences
of Thackeray:

"He told me, some time afterward, that, after ransacking his
brain for a name for his novel, it came upon him unawares, in
the middle of the night, as if a voice had whispered, 'Vanity
Fair.' He said, 'I jumped out of bed, and ran three times
round my room, uttering as I went, 'Vanity Fair, Vanity Fair,
Vanity Fair.'"

It has been repeated, more than once, that _Vanity Fair_ was
refused by _Colburn's Magazine_, and various other publishers,
before Bradbury and Evans undertook it, but Vizetelly, in his
_Glances Back Through Seventy Years_, thinks that this could
not have been the case, since Thackeray did not finish the
story until long after it had been accepted, and, in fact, was
well along in the printer's hands. If refused, therefore, it
was refused before it was finished. "I know perfectly well
that after the publication commenced much of the remainder of
the work was written under pressure for and from the printer,
and not infrequently the first instalment of 'copy' needed
to fill the customary thirty-two pages was penned while the
printer's boy was waiting in the hall at Young Street."

Vizetelly also gives the following account of the final
arrangements for the publication of the book:

"One afternoon, when he called in Peterborough Court he had
a small brown paper parcel with him, and opened it to show
me his two careful drawings for the page plates to the first
number of _Vanity Fair_. Tied up with them was the manuscript
of the earlier part of the book, of which he had several times
spoken to me, referring to the quaint character that Chiswick
Mall--within a stone's throw of which I was then living--still
retained. His present intention, he told me, was to see
Bradbury & Evans, and offer the work to them.... In little
more than half an hour Thackeray again made his appearance,
and, with a beaming face, gleefully informed me that he had
settled the business. 'Bradbury & Evans,' he said, 'accepted
so readily that I am deuced sorry I didn't ask them for
another tenner. I am certain they would have given it.' He
then explained that he had named fifty guineas per part,
including the two sheets of letterpress, a couple of etchings,
and the initials at the commencement of the chapters. He
reckoned the text, I remember, at no more than five-and-twenty
shillings a page, the two etchings at six guineas each, while
as for the few initials at the beginnings of the chapters, he
threw those in."

Following the plan of Chapman and Hall, who issued Dickens's
works in monthly parts in green covers, and of Charles James
Lever's publishers, who brought him out in pink, Bradbury and
Evans published _Vanity Fair_ in yellow-covered numbers dated
January, 1847, to July, 1848, and costing one shilling a part.
The title on these paper covers ran: _Vanity Fair: Pen And
Pencil Sketches Of English Society. By W. M. Thackeray [Two
lines] London: Published At The Punch Office, 85, Fleet
Street. [One line] 1847._, and there was a woodcut vignette.

There are numerous illustrations in the text, and each part
has two plates, etchings, except the last, which has three and
the engraved title-page. The last part as published contained
the title-page, dedication, "Before the Curtain," a preface,
table of contents, and list of plates.

The earliest issues contain, on page 336, a woodcut of the
Marquis of Steyne, which was afterward suppressed, the type
from pages 336 to 440 being shifted to fill the vacancy. In
the first edition, too, the title at the head of Chapter I is
in rustic type.

At first the novel did not sell well; it was even questioned
whether it might not be best to stop its publication. But
later in the year, owing to some cause, perhaps the eulogistic
mention in Miss Brontë's preface to _Jane Eyre_, or, perhaps,
a favorable review in the _Edinburgh Review_, its success
became assured.

Mrs. Carlyle, writing to her husband, says: "Very good indeed,
beats Dickens out of the World."

Octavo.

COLLATION: _xvi, 624 pp. Forty plates, including the engraved
title-page._

THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY,

FIRST BARON MACAULAY

(1800-1859)

Trevelyan, in his _Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay_, tells
us there was no end to the trouble that the author devoted
to matters which most writers are glad to leave to their
publishers. "He could not rest until the lines were level to a
hair's breadth, and the punctuation correct to a comma; until
every paragraph concluded with a telling sentence, and every
sentence flowed like water."

In a footnote he adds this quotation from one of Macaulay's
letters to Mr. Longman, which, while it referred to the
edition of 1858, is also indicative of his attitude toward
this, the first edition:

"I have no more corrections to make at present. I am inclined
to hope that the book will be as nearly faultless, as to
typographical execution, as any work of equal extent that is
to be found in the world."

He was apprehensive concerning the success of the book. He
writes, "I have armed myself with all my philosophy for the
event of failure," but his fears were groundless.

"The people of the United States," says Trevelyan, "were even
more eager than the people of the United Kingdom to read about
their common ancestors; with the advantage that, from the
absence of an international copyright, they were able to read
about them for next to nothing. On the 4th of April, 1849,
Messrs. Harper, of New York, wrote to Macaulay: 'We beg you
to accept herewith a copy of our cheap edition of your work.
There have been three other editions published by different
houses, and another is now in preparation; so there will be
six different editions in the market. We have already sold
forty thousand copies, and we presume that over sixty thousand
copies have been disposed of. Probably, within three months
of this time, the sale will amount to two hundred thousand
copies. No work, of any kind, has ever so completely taken
our whole country by storm.' An indirect compliment to the
celebrity of the book was afforded by a desperate, and almost
internecine, controversy which raged throughout the American
newspapers as to whether the Messrs. Harper were justified in
having altered Macaulay's spelling to suit the orthographical
canons laid down in Noah Webster's dictionary."

This quotation refers to the first volume. The second volume
came out in the same year, but the third and fourth did
not appear until 1855. Volume five was edited by Macaulay's
sister, Lady Trevelyan, in 1861. It continued the portion of
the History which was fairly transcribed and revised by the
author before his death.

The posthumous appearance of the last volume reminds us of
what Mr. Alexander B. Grosart says in his life of Spenser,
apropos of the promise on the title-page of the _Fairy Queen_
that the work should be in twelve books fashioning twelve
moral virtues:

"Than this splendid audacity I know nothing comparable,
unless Lord Macaulay's opening of his _History of England_,
wherein--without any saving clause, as Thomas Fuller would
have said, of 'if the Lord will'--he pledges himself to write
his great Story down to 'memories' of men 'still living.'"

Octavo.

COLLATION: _Five volumes._

ALFRED TENNYSON,

FIRST BARON TENNYSON

(1809-1892)

89. In Memoriam. | London. | Edward Moxon, Dover Street. | 1850.

In May of the year 1850, _In Memoriam_ was privately printed
for the use of friends, and soon afterward was published
in the present form, at six shillings. A second and third
editions were issued in the same year. They are alike in
all particulars except for the correction of two literal
misprints. Though the book was anonymous, the authorship was
never in doubt.

A circumstance connected with its publication, though not
bibliographical in its bearing, demands a passing word. "If
'In Memoriam' were published," Hallam Tennyson says in his
life of the laureate, "Moxon had promised a small yearly
royalty on this and on the other poems, and so my father had
decided that he could now honourably offer my mother a home.
Accordingly after ten years of separation their engagement was
renewed.... Moxon now advanced £300--so my uncle Charles told
a friend,--at all events £300 were in my father's bank in his
name." With this and their small incomes combined they decided
to marry. The marriage took place June 13, the month that saw
the publication of "In Memoriam."

Octavo.

COLLATION: _vii, 210 pp._

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

(1804-1864)

James T. Fields, in his little life of Hawthorne, tells of a
visit to Salem to see the author. He goes on to say:

"... I caught sight of a bureau or set of drawers near where
we were sitting; and immediately it occurred to me that hidden
away somewhere in that article of furniture was a story or
stories by the author of the 'Twice-Told Tales,' and I became
so positive of it that I charged him vehemently with the fact.
He seemed surprised, I thought, but shook his head again; and
I rose to take my leave.... I was hurrying down the stairs
when he called after me from the chamber, asking me to stop
a moment. Then quickly stepping into the entry with a roll of
manuscript in his hands, he said: 'How in Heaven's name did
you know the thing was there? As you have found me out, take
what I have written, and tell me, after you get home and have
time to read it, if it is good for anything....' On my way up
to Boston I read the germ of 'The Scarlet Letter'; before I
slept that night I wrote him a note all aglow with admiration
of the marvellous story he had put into my hands, and told him
that I would come again to Salem the next day and arrange for
its publication."

It was Hawthorne's first intention to make the romance one of
a volume of several short stories, because, as he remarks to
Mr. Fields:

"A hunter loads his gun with a bullet and several buckshot;
and, following his sagacious example, it was my purpose to
conjoin the one long story with half a dozen shorter ones, so
that, failing to kill the public outright with my biggest and
heaviest lump of lead, I might have other chances with the
smaller bits, individually and in the aggregate." But this
plan was finally changed and it was decided to publish the
story alone. There was then some talk about a title for it.
"In this latter event" (the event of publishing alone), "it
appears to me that the only proper title for the book would
be 'The Scarlet Letter,' for 'The Custom House' is merely
introductory...." And so it was decided.

"If 'The Scarlet Letter' is to be the title," he asked Mr.
Fields, "would it not be well to print it on the title-page in
red ink? I am not quite sure about the good taste of so doing,
but it would certainly be piquant and appropriate, and, I
think, attractive to the great gull whom we are endeavoring to
circumvent." The reader might ask the bibliophile if the red
title line, for it was printed in that way, really did have
anything to do with the circumventing which eventually took
place.

On February 4, 1850, Hawthorne wrote to Horatio Bridges:

"I finished my book yesterday, one end being in the press in
Boston, while the other was in my head here in Salem; so that,
as you see, the story is at least fourteen miles long."

The book appeared about March 16. As Mr. George Parsons
Lathrop points out, there seems to have been no expectation of
a very successful sale, in spite of Mr. Fields's enthusiasm;
but to the surprise of all, the whole issue was exhausted in
ten days. A second edition, with a preface dated March 30, was
soon published, making, with the first, a total number of five
thousand copies. All these were printed by Metcalf &
Company of Cambridge. The third issue was entirely reset and
electrotyped, and numbered 307 pages.

The second issue, beside the preface, shows numerous changes,
especially in words. Among these the bookseller's favorite
catch-word "reduplicate" (p. 21, l. 20) was changed to
"repudiate." In late copies of the stereotyped form, this word
was changed to "resuscitate."

Duodecimo.

COLLATION: _vi, 322 pp._

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE

(1811-1896)

The first chapter of _Uncle Tom_ appeared June, 1851, in _The
National Era_ of Washington, a magazine edited by Gamaliel
Bailey, and one of the ablest mediums of opinion of the
anti-slavery party. It was finished in April, 1852. Mrs. Stowe
received $300 for her labor.

The interest which the story awakened led John Punchard
Jewett, a member of the first anti-slavery society in New
England, and himself a frequent contributor to the newspapers
on anti-slavery topics, to offer to bring it out immediately
in book form, giving the author ten per cent. on the sales.
The proposition was accepted, and the book was published March
20, 1852. The very remarkable sale of three thousand copies
the first day was only an earnest of what was to happen.
Over 300,000 copies were sold within the year, and eight
power-presses running day and night could hardly supply the
demand.

There is a vignette on the title-pages signed by the
engravers, _Baker-Smith_, and each volume contains three
unsigned plates, evidently by the same artist, and engraved
by the same hands as the vignette. The volumes were bound
in black with the vignette of the title-page stamped on the
covers, the front impression being in gold.

Octavo.

COLLATION: _Two volumes._ Volume I: _312 pp._ Volume II: _322
pp. Six plates._

JOHN RUSKIN

(1819-1900)

These fine volumes, printed by Spottiswoode and Shaw, have a
particularly clean and clear type-page, and are excellent
in press-work. It is not the type, however, that demands our
especial attention, but the illustrations with which the work
is liberally furnished. These distinguish it from anything we
have hitherto seen in our list of books. The plates and cuts,
made by various processes, mezzo-tinting, lithography, line
engraving and wood-cutting, mark most clearly the advance
in bookmaking which had taken place within the half century.
Hitherto we have had illustrations for their own sakes, or for
the ornamentation of the books they are in, and depending for
their existence solely upon the liberality and intelligence of
the publisher; but here we have illustrations introduced
into the book for the sake of the text, of which they are an
integral part. Ruskin's own words about them, as found in the
Preface, are instructive:

"It was of course inexpedient to reduce drawings of crowded
details to the size of an octavo volume,--I do not say
impossible, but inexpedient; requiring infinite pains on the
part of the engraver, with no result except farther pain to
the beholder. And as, on the other hand, folio books are
not easy reading, I determined to separate the text and the
unreduceable plates. I have given, with the principal
text, all the illustrations absolutely necessary to the
understanding of it, and, in the detached work, such
additional text as had special reference to the larger
illustrations.

"A considerable number of these larger plates were at first
intended to be executed in tinted lithography; but, finding
the result unsatisfactory, I have determined to prepare the
principal subjects for mezzotinting,--a change of method
requiring two new drawings to be made for every subject; one
a carefully penned outline for the etcher, and then a finished
drawing upon the etching....

"For the illustrations of the body of the work itself, I
have used any kind of engraving which seemed suited to the
subjects--line and mezzotint, on steel, with mixed lithographs
and woodcuts, at a considerable loss of uniformity in the
appearance of the volume, but, I hope, with advantage, in
rendering the character of the architecture it describes."

"The illustrations to the new book," Collingwood adds, "were
a great advance upon the rough soft-ground etchings of the
_Seven Lamps_. He secured the services of some of the finest
engravers who ever handled the tools of their art. The English
school of engravers was then in its last and most accomplished
period. Photography had not yet begun to supersede it; and the
demand for delicate work in book illustration had encouraged
minuteness and precision of handling to the last degree. In
this excessive refinement there were the symptoms of decline;
but it was most fortunate for Mr. Ruskin that his drawings
could be interpreted by such men as Armytage and Cousen, Cuff
and Le Keux, Boys and Lupton.... The mere fact of their skill
in translating a sketch from a note-book into a gem-like
vignette, encouraged him to ask for more; so that some of
the subjects which became the most elaborate were at first
comparatively rough drawings, and were gradually worked up
from successive retouchings of the proofs by the infinite
patience of both parties. In other cases, working drawings
were prepared by Mr. Ruskin, as refined as the plates."

"Like much else of his work, these plates for 'Stones of
Venice' were in advance of the times. The publishers thought
them 'caviare to the general,' so Mr. J. J. Ruskin told his
son; but gave it as his own belief that 'some dealers in
Ruskins and Turners in 1890 will get great prices for what at
present will not sell.'"

An "Advertisement" in the second volume tells us, "It was
originally intended that this Work should consist of two
volumes only; the subject has extended to three. The second
volume, however, will conclude the account of the ancient
architecture of Venice. The third will embrace the Early, the
Roman, and the Grotesque Renaissance; and an Index...."

The first volume, called _The Foundations_, and having
twenty-one plates, and the second, called _The Sea-Stories_,
with twenty plates, each cost two guineas. The third volume,
called _The Fall_, with twelve plates, cost a guinea and a
half. They were bound in cloth, stamped in gold, with the
"Lion of St. Mark" on the back. A few copies of both volumes
one and two were issued in two parts. The first volume ran
into a second edition in 1858, and the second and third were
reissued in 1867.

Octavo.

COLLATION: _Three volumes. Illustrations. Fifty-three plates._

ROBERT BROWNING

(1812-1889)

This was the only edition of _Men and Women_ published
separately. The poems it contained were afterward incorporated
in collected editions; with the exception of _In a Balcony_,
they were distributed under the respective headings of
_Dramatic Lyrics_, _Dramatic Romances_, and _Men and Women_.

The book was issued in a green cloth binding, at twelve
shillings a copy.

Octavo.

COLLATION: _Two volumes._ Volume I: _iv, 260 pp._ Volume II:
_iv, 241 pp._

JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY

(1814-1877)

Motley wrote a letter to his wife, dated at London, May 10,
1854, in which he says that he has had the matter of copyright
looked up, and finds that the English law will protect him
if he publish his book recently completed, first, by however
small an interval, in England. He then carried the manuscript
to Murray, who received him civilly, and professed interest
in his subject, promising an answer in a fortnight. But the
answer, when it came, was unfavorable, and, being of the mind
that "if Murray declines ... I shall doubt very much whether
anybody will accept, because history is very much in his
line," he seems to have tried no farther, but to have arranged
with Mr. John Chapman to publish the _Dutch Republic_ himself.

Throughout the transaction Motley was very modest and not at
all sanguine for the success of his venture.

"It cannot take in England," he says to his mother in 1855,
"and moreover the war, Macaulay's new volumes, and Prescott's,
will entirely absorb the public attention." And again to his
father, May 13, 1856, he says:

"I have heard nothing from Chapman since the book was
published, but I feel sure from the silence that very few
copies have been sold. I shall be surprised if a hundred
copies are sold at the end of a year."

In reality, the book, as Dr. Holmes said, was "a triumph."
Seventeen thousand copies were sold in England alone during
the first year, and in America, where it was issued by the
Harpers, just long enough after the English edition to fulfill
all the demands of the copyright law, it was equally popular.
Mr. Murray afterward asked to be allowed to publish _The
History of the United Netherlands_, and expressed his
regret "at what he candidly called his mistake in the first
instance." Prescott, Motley's friend and generous rival, wrote
from Boston, April 18, 1856:

"You have good reason to be pleased with the reception the
book has had from the English press, considering that you had
no one particularly to stand godfather to your bantling, but
that it tumbled into the world almost without the aid of
a midwife. Under these circumstances success is a great
triumph...."

Octavo.

COLLATION: _Three volumes._

GEORGE ELIOT

MARY ANN _or_ MARIAN CROSS

(1819-1880)

_Scenes from Clerical Life_ had appeared in the early part of
January, 1858, and had proved an unexpected success, but the
name of its author, concealed under a pseudonym, long proved a
mystery.

"The first volume [of Adam Bede]," says Mrs. Cross, "was
written at Richmond, and given to Blackwood in March. He
expressed great admiration of its freshness and vividness, but
seemed to hesitate about putting it in the Magazine, which was
the form of publication he, as well as myself, had previously
contemplated. He still _wished_ to have it for the Magazine,
but desired to know the course of the story. At _present_ he
saw nothing to prevent its reception in 'Maga,' but he would
like to see more. I am uncertain whether his doubts rested
solely on Hetty's relation to Arthur, or whether they were
also directed towards the treatment of Methodism by the
Church. I refused to tell my story beforehand, on the ground
that I would not have it judged apart from my _treatment_,
which alone determines the moral quality of art; and
ultimately I proposed that the notion of publication in 'Maga'
should be given up, and that the novel should be published in
three volumes at Christmas, if possible. He assented."

"... When, on October 29, I had written to the end of the
love-scene at the Farm between Adam and Dinah, I sent the MS.
to Blackwood, since the remainder of the third volume could
not affect the judgement passed on what had gone before. He
wrote back in warm admiration, and offered me, on the part of
the firm, £800 for four years' copyright. I accepted the
offer.... The book would have been published at Christmas, or
rather early in December, but that Bulwer's 'What will he do
with it?' was to be published by Blackwood at that time, and
it was thought that this novel might interfere with mine."

The book was published the first day of January with the still
unpenetrated pseudonym on the title-page. It cost thirty one
shillings and six pence. The advance subscriptions amounted
to 730 copies, and the following note, written March 16, gives
the history of its success:

"Blackwood writes to say I am 'a popular author as well as
a great author.' They printed 2,090 of 'Adam Bede,' and have
disposed of more than 1800, so that they are thinking of a
second edition."

In May, Blackwood proposed to add, at the end of the year,
£400 to the £800 originally given for the copyright. A fourth
edition of 5000 volumes was issued in 1859, all of which were
sold in a fortnight; a seventh was printed the same year, and
in October Blackwood felt justified in proposing to pay £800
more at the beginning of the new year. The sale amounted to
16,000 volumes in one year.

Octavo.

COLLATION: _Three volumes._

CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN

(1809-1882)

The simplicity and honesty of Darwin's character are nowhere
more clearly seen than in his correspondence over the
production of this book, which, from its unorthodoxy, he
feared might expose others as well as himself to censure. For
example, he says in a letter of March 28, 1859, to Sir Charles
Lyell, the famous geologist, who made the arrangements for the
publication of the work:

"P.S. Would you advise me to tell Murray that my book is not
more _un_-orthodox than the subject makes inevitable....
Or had I better say _nothing_ to Murray, and assume that he
cannot object to this much unorthodoxy, which in fact is not
more than any Geological Treatise which runs slap counter to
Genesis."

Afterward, in a letter to J. D. Hooker, under date of April 2,
1859, he says:

"... I wrote to him [Mr. Murray] and gave him the headings of
the chapters, and told him he could not have the MSS. for ten
days or so; and this morning I received a letter, offering
me handsome terms, and agreeing to publish without seeing
the MS.! So he is eager enough; I think I should have been
cautious, anyhow, but, owing to your letter, I told him most
_explicitly_ that I accepted his offer solely on condition
that, after he has seen part or all the MS., he has full power
of retracting. You will think me presumptuous, but I think
my book will be popular to a certain extent (enough to ensure
[against] heavy loss) amongst scientific and semiscientific
men.... Anyhow, Murray ought to be the best judge, and if
he chooses to publish it, I think I may wash my hands of all
responsibility...."

His views on the success of the book are worth recording. To
Murray he writes, April 5, 1859: "It may be conceit, but I
believe the subject will interest the public, and I am sure
that the views are original. If you think otherwise, I must
repeat my request that you will freely reject my work; and
though I shall be a little disappointed, I shall be in no way
injured." And again to J. D. Hooker: "... Please do not say
to any one that I thought my book on Species would be fairly
popular, and have a fairly remunerative sale (which was the
height of my ambition), for if it proves a dead failure, it
would make me the more ridiculous."

After the book went to press he found it necessary to make
many corrections involving no slight extra expense; without
waiting for Murray to complain he took the initiative in
setting the matter upon the proper footing in the following
manner, in a letter written June 14, 1859:

"P.S. I have been looking at the corrections, and considering
them. It seems to me that I shall put you to quite unfair
expense. If you please I should like to enter into some such
arrangement as the following:

"When work completed, you to allow in the account a fairly
moderately heavy charge for corrections, and all excess
over that to be deducted from my profits, or paid by me
individually."

"... But you are really too generous about the, to me,
scandalously heavy corrections. Are you not acting unfairly
towards yourself? Would it not be better at least to share the
£72 8s.? I shall be fully satisfied, for I had no business
to send, though quite unintentionally and unexpectedly, such
badly composed MS. to the printers."

The first edition, a child, Darwin calls it, in whose
appearance he takes infinite pride and pleasure, was published
November 24:

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Bibliographic Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English LiteratureChapter VII: Part 7

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