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| [167] | ||
| Among the literary projects fermenting in his brain at the time of my father’s marriage, was one suggested by a friend, of a literary and artistic miscellany, in which a variety of short tales, sketches and poems,
by popular authors, should be associated with carefully executed line engravings from good pictures. He had even ventured to anticipate that such a volume might issue, every year, in competition, as a gift-book,
with the ‘Ladies’ Polite Remembrancer,’ and other pocket-books, published annually by the London booksellers in great variety, and which had a large sale for presents at Christmas and the New Year. He proposed this
work to Hurst and Robinson, in the year 1823. The firm had, however, already in hand an |
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| [168] | ||
| enterprise of somewhat similar character under the editorship of his friend Mr. Croly, entitle ‘The Graces, or Literary Souvenir;’ the latter the title of an old and popular pocket-book.
This work was avowedly suggested by the German literary almanacs, ‘an old and popular species of publication,’ as the editor claimed for it, and as indeed it has been ‘in Germany’ from the days of Schiller and
Goethe. This book was a 12mo., with two engraved title-pages and two frontispieces; one an engraving from the well-known picture of ‘Titian’s Daughter,’ the other an illustration by Smirke, R.A., from Scott’s poem
of the ‘Bridal of Triermain.’ The literary contents comprised—The Months, in verse, with a calendar of the flowers; ruled lines for a Diary; an Obituary for the year; a selection of Jeux d’Esprit; Lists of Foreign
Ambassadors, Literary Institutions, Bankers of the Metropolis, Theatres, and Tables of Foreign Moneys. It was, in fact, a glorified pocket-book. In the same year, 1823, Mr. Rudolph Ackermann, a publisher of foreign prints and illustrated works in the Strand, had produced an annual publication of the same class, under |
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| [169] | ||
| the title of ‘The Forget-Me-Not.’ It was embellished, like ‘The Graces,’ by the Months, in verse, from the pen of Mr. Combe, the author of ‘Dr. Syntax’s Tours,’ illustrating twelve
emblematical designs from drawings by Burney. It had somewhat less of the almanac and pocket-book character of publication than ‘The Graces.’ It, nevertheless, did not disclaim utility, which it sought to combine
with fashion. The former characteristic it justified by copious Tables of the Population Returns ‘from the last census,’ and an Historical Chronicle of the events of the preceding year; the latter by Genealogies of
the reigning Sovereigns, and Lists of their Diplomatic Agents. Arranged, sandwich fashion, between the two, were some tales of sketches, apparently of German origin. The work was a link between the ‘Almanac de
Gotha,’ to which it avowed its obligations and the ‘Annual Register,’ diversified by some of the more popular characteristics of the pocket-book. Its interest is that, with all its defects, it was the first of the
‘Annuals’ which enjoyed in their day so much popularity, and in the improved form given to them by |
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| [170] | ||
| my father, exercised so much influence in popularizing in that age a taste for art in this country. A similar work was issued by Mr. Lupton Relfe, a bookseller in Cornhill, under the title of ‘Friendship’s Offering,’ in 1824. On the 23rd December, 1823, Mr. Robinson reverted to the idea of the ‘Literary and Artistic Miscellany.’ ‘If,’ he says, ‘you keep to your plan of an “Annual Book,” and will make it as unlike Croly’s as possible, I shall be most happy to join you in it.’ My father had no desire to enter into a rivalry of this description with the friend whom he had himself introduced to his publisher, and this proposal was not entertained by him. On the 31st July, 1824, Mr. Robinson writes: ‘Croly has relinquished “The Graces;” therefore I hope you and we may make a good thing of it, though it is not very polite to ask you to take it up after Croly has abandoned it; but I am aware that you are in a great measure ready for such a volume.’ The fact was, ‘The Graces’ had not been a success. The public could not be brought to |
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| [171] | ||
| favour the union of ‘Titian’s Daughter,’ ‘fair one with golden locks’ though she were, with the ‘Bankers of the Metropolis;’ and the connection, if any could be discovered, between
‘Gyneth starting from Sleep’ and the ‘Obituary’ for the year, was of too occult and mystical a nature to be apprehended by the general reader. ‘The Royal Red Book,’ illustrated by the Royal Academy and the ‘old
masters,’ was not the sort of ‘Annual’ required. Whether the similar publications of Mr. Ackermann and Mr. Relfe had up to that time met with better fortune, I have no means of knowing. My father entered upon the undertaking for which his plan had long been matured, heartily enough; and early in November, 1824, was published ‘The Literary Souvenir and Cabinet of Poetry and Romance, edited by Alaric A. Watts.’ Of this work were sold within the year more than six thousand copies. It was a small octavo volume bound in pale green, pink, or violet boards, ornamented by an |
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| [172] | ||
| engraved design by Corbould, the edges of the leaves only gilt. It contained some twenty original compositions by the principal writers of the day, in prose and verse, and ten line
engravings, with some fac-similes of autographs. The price was twelve shillings. All element of the pocket-book, almanac, diary, or red-book was carefully eschewed; all, in short, which could make it less
acceptable or give it less value at one period of the year than another. It was strictly a literary and artistic miscellany, though for it, as respects the art, my father had little responsibility, the
embellishments having been selected and put into the engraver’s hands before the work was committed to him. The progress of this enterprise, from its projection to this propitious conclusion, is very graphically pourtrayed in the correspondence between the editor and publisher, of which the following extracts may afford a fair sample, and carry on the drama in the words of the acts. |
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Mr. Watts to Mr. Robinson |
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‘July 5, 1824. |
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| ‘As to “The Graces,’ I accept your proposal with pleasure, though the choice made of some of the embellishments |
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| [173] | ||
| does not altogether accord with my taste. I have just forwarded to Mr. Ackermann, at his require, a poem, “Kirkstall Revisted,” and two other papers. These I must recall.’ | ||
‘August 12, 1824 |
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| ‘As soon as I arrived at home, I set to work, vi et armis, at the book. I have for it an exquisite copy of verses by Thomas Campbell, also poetry and prose by James Montgomery, Lisle Bowles, Lacon Colton, Maturin, Mrs. Hemans, Miss Landon, Archdeacon Wrangham, Mrs. Opie, Thomas Dale, Allan Cunningham, James Hogg, Moir (of Blackwood’s Magazine), Herbert Knowles, and William Read, the author of “Rouge et Noir.” Of Wordsworth and Coleridge I have some hopes, but no certainty. If we can but manage to establish a large sale for the volume, it will become an annual property of importance. I am indifferent to profit this year, if we can but get the thing in a fair train for success in future. I shall fix on the title with all possible expedition. The design for the covers, instead of being naked women, should be something emblematic of the contents—Poetry, the Arts, etc.; in short, polite literature.’ | ||
‘September 1. |
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| ‘The mischief of asking people to furnish papers is that one is then compelled, as it were to accept one from them whether it suits or not. Mr. Kendrick’s MS. will not do; Dr.
Kitchener’s literary friends may generally be looked on with suspicion. What think you for the following lines from Sir |
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| [174] | ||
| Walter for the motto on the title page? The title to be “Literary Souvenir”: |
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|
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| The plate from Nash, of “Pere la Chaise,” I admire very much. It is beautiful. I am afraid that as Windsor Castle is about to undergo so much important alterations, the engraving from De Wint’s drawing may prove out of date. I should like to see the drawing of “The Decision of the Flower,” after Retsch. | ||
‘September 2, 1824. |
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| ‘You have no doubt heard of the success of your Mr. Mann in subscribing the “Literary Souvenir.[“] Mr. Banks, twenty-five copies; Sowler the same; Agnew the same; David Grant has given me an order to ten copies for himself. If I can have a little aid in the production of the book this year, I venture to predict that it will turn out a profitable speculation for ever. I am disposed to think you may print two thousand with safety.’ | ||
| The letters of Mr. Robinson continue the narrative very happily: | ||
Mr. Ogle Robinson to Mr. Watts |
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‘September 4, 1824. |
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| ‘I have written to Mr. Constable for Sir Walter Scott’s answer to our request for a contribution to |
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| [175] | ||
| the work and shall hear next week. I really think we shall sell three or four thousand copies. Indeed, one bookseller offered the other day to take one thousand, if we would give him a little advantage. L.E.L will be ready for you on Monday with some beautiful verses, but don’t give us more poetry than prose. Poetry is beyond many of the purchasers of this description of the book. Sale to the trade should be in October.’ | ||
‘November 16, 1824. |
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| ‘We shall not be able to publish before Monday; but on Saturday we intend to forward our most important country orders, such as Leeds, Halifax, Manchester. All our Irish orders on Thursday. H. Mann is now out subscribing the book. Orders from the country increase constantly. Bentley could not print a second edition in less than fourteen days. I have no doubt we shall sell the whole five thousand copies, and have therefore taken upon ourselves to print two thousand more copies, and go to press this day.’ | ||
‘November 30, 1824. |
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| ‘We are going on gloriously with the “Literary Souvenir;” and altogether living above the malice of our enemies; and enjoy in our own breasts nobler feelings, pursuing the direct course
of business, disregarding all tricks, and selling more books than they! You may rely upon it, next year we will sell ten thousand copies.’ |
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| [176] | ||
‘December 14, 1824. |
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| ‘I have much pleasure in handing you the enclosed order in part of what will be due to you on the “Literary Souvenir,” and I trust this is but a small portion of what will appear on the face of the account to your credit. I am highly delighted with our progress with the “Souvenir.” Longmans are buying them daily at what we call “scrip” and no odd book. This gives a relish to business every day. As for next year—Leslie’s “Rivals” you shall have. What would you like from Sir Thomas? And what from Wilkie? And we must have some beautiful landscape from that giant Turner.’ | ||
‘April 6, 1825. |
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| ‘Of the “Souvenir” we sold about sixty copies at our last trade sale, whilst all our rivals are as dead as though they had never existed.’ | ||
| Of the contents of the ‘Literary Souvenir,’ a sufficient idea may be gained from the preceding narrative. The writers were all among the most popular of that day. Sir Walter Scott’s
contributions, which duly arrived, added no more value to the book than might be afforded by his illustrious name in the table of contents. Campbell’s poem, ‘Lines on quitting a Scene in Bavaria,’ were, however, of
a very different quality. Byron, in a letter to Murray, given in Moore’s ‘Life,’ says of this |
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| [177] | ||
| poem, ‘Campbell has an unpublished poem on a scene in Germany, Bavaria, I think, which I saw last year, that is perfectly magnificent, and equal to himself. I wonder he don’t publish
it.’ Three contributions, by three young writers of Manchester, may be worthy a passing record; some lines bearing the initials W.H.A., one of the earliest literary compositions of that popular writer Mr. Harrison
Ainsworth; a poem entitled ‘The Convict Ship,’ a very noble effusion, by a young gentleman of Manchester, Mr. T.K. Hervey, best remembered now by his editorship in later years of the Athenaeum; and a prose
sketch, full of humor, signed with the initials M.J.J. [Maria Jane Jewsbury]. The editor’s contributions were two poems, ‘Kirkstall Abbey Revisited,’ and ‘The Death of the First-born.’ Of the embellishments I must not omit to note one by Brockedon, which greatly seized upon the imagination of Mrs. Hemans, in which a child, playing close to the edge of a dangerous cliff, is being wiled back, in the most natural way in the world, to the bosom of its mother. |
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*** |
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CHAPTER XIX. |
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| [214] | ||
| So successful had been the enterprise of the ‘Literary Souvenir,’ that its editor was enabled to introduce the second volume, that of the year 1826, with the announcement that the sale of
the preceding volume had reached, as I have said, six thousand copies. With more time, more resources, and the energizing stimulus of achieved success, he was now to produce, in all respects, a much better book. ‘I should be disingenuous,’ he says in his preface, ‘were I to lead my readers to expect any material improvement hereafter.’ It included contributions from Coleridge, Southey, and Campbell; from Milman, Montgomery, |
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| [215] | ||
| and Lisle Bowles; amongst the famed writers were Mrs. Hemans, Miss Mitford, Miss Landon, Miss Jewsbury, as well as ‘one of the authors of “The Forest Minstrel,”’ Mrs. Mary Howitt. This
was, I believe, Mary Howitt’s first independent appearance in print as a poet. The poem was entitled ‘Surrey in Captivity.’ But the great charm of the book, no doubt was in its embellishments. The frontispiece was engraved by Charles Rolls from a picture by Stewart Newton; a work which Leslie, in his ‘Autobiography,’ characterizes as Stewart Newton’s best picture—‘The Lovers’ Quarrel.’ Two lovers of the days of Sir Peter Lely are re-exchanging miniatures. The gallant, erect, with face averted, and an air of dignity, coxcombical, but not comical, for he is not intended to be made ridiculous, though exquisitely serious, is removing the lady’s portrait from beneath his laced cravat; the lady, also, with averted face and an air of pettish displeasure, the fan working actively in one hand, has withdrawn its counterpart from its place of tender concealment, and is handing it, ribbon and all, in exchange, with well- |
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| [216] | ||
| assumed indifference. Clever are all the accessories, animate and inanimate, which help to carry on the story. The arch waiting-maid, who makes no great secret of her merriment behind
her mistress’s chair; the pictured happy shepherd and shepherdess upon the tapestry of the chamber, emblematic of the lovers’ past, and, who would doubt, also, future paradise of the contentment: even the Japanese
screen with its gilt border and hinges; the gold-fish in the glass bowl; the reels of silk for the lady’s embroidery lying in careless disorder upon the table, mingled with the scattered letters of the lover just
withdrawn from the open dressing-case. Such details are a matter of course now; but the time was, when a picture of this character, filled with such carefully wrought-out detail, afforded a stimulus to imagination,
and was a source of enjoyment in many a middle-class home, not now to be conceived. Take another of the embellishments to this volume,--‘The Rivals,’ one of Leslie’s earliest and happiest genre pictures, engraved by Finden. Here, as in the ‘Lovers’ Quarrel,’ the age is of Charles II., or it might be a little earlier, the presiding spirit being here rather of Vandyke than Lely. A young and capricious beauty, attired in the conventional white satin dress, followed by her black page bearing a guitar. Two young cavaliers, full of suppressed merriment, accompany her, lagging slightly behind on the left hand, as personages for the moment of secondary important. One appears to be whispering in her ear, while she drops from her hand, as though by accident, her fan of peacock’s feathers, which has rolled down a step of the terrace-walk. She drops it, laughing the while merrily, as, keeping the younger gallant in the background, she allows a very corpulent and rather elderly cavalier, sumptuously attired, to stoop at her feet, and, with much evident discomfort and difficulty, pick up the fan. Very heavy and very stiff is this elderly admirer of the wicked girl, as, bowing low, he leans upon his walking-cane, which bends beneath his weight. The scene is a broad and stately marble terrace in a grand old pleasaunce garden; and you have a very vivid sense of afternoon sun, and a long walk under |
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| [218] | ||
| it along the hot marble flags for the tired gentleman before reaching the house; -- | ||
|
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| These works, then engraved for the first time, became so popular that larger engravings were subsequently made from them, as was the case with other subjects first introduced to the
public in this work. As an illustration of the technical beauty of the engravings in this volume, I may mention that another subject by Stewart Newton, entitled ‘The Forsaken,’ engraved by Charles Heath, was so
highly valued by connoisseurs for the engraver’s work,--it possessed, I think, little other value,--that proofs of it, before letters, were purchased in this very year by Messrs. Colnaghi, the print-sellers, at a
public sale, at an uniform price of 19s. each. The plates in this volume, of ‘Richmond Hill,’ engraved by Goodall, and of ‘Bolton Abbey, Wharfdale,’ by Finden, after the well-known drawings by Turner, are too well remembered for their beauty and brilliancy to call for more than a passing reference. The latter drawing was lent, for the purpose of this work, by Mr. |
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| [219] | ||
| Lister Parker; the former was made by Mr. Turner expressly for it. Its editor had produced perhaps the most beautiful Christmas book that had, at that time, ever been presented to the public; but what was the Christmas to which it was to address itself! Certainly one of the gloomiest that any undertaking, publishing or otherwise, had ever had to face in England, was the Christmas of 1825. It heralded the year of the Great Panic, with which there has been nothing since, in the way of commercial distress, to compare. In the very month of November in which the ‘Literary Souvenir’ for 1826 was published, the number of bankruptcies in England had doubled those of the preceding January; and these were again to be doubled in the following month. These failures in November and December, 1825, included between seventy and eighty banks, of which six were London banks,--nay, it was afterwards confessed by Mr. Huskisson, in Parliament, that the Bank of England itself was on the verge of stoppage. As may well be believed, the consternation was universal. |
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| [220] | ||
| Here is an experience of the Panic graphically portrayed by one who was both a bookseller and a writer. . . . | ||
*** |
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| [222]. . . | ||
| On the 14th January, 1826, it became known in the City, that a bill drawn by Constable and Co., the Edinburgh publishers, on their London agents, Hurst, Robinson and Company, had been
dishonoured; and, with a great crash, Sir Walter Scott and his two publishers came to the ground together. Such events have many ramifications. On the same evening,--the circumstance was mentioned to my father by a gentleman who was present,--Mr. Secretary Peel and Mrs. Peel entertained a select circle at dinner at their residence in Privy Gardens, Whitehall. A gentleman arriving late from the City brought the intelligence that Hurst and Robinson had stopped payment. Another guest was observed to exhibit marks of agitation, so much so as to drop his knife and fork. It was Sir Thomas Lawrence, to whom, with reckless liberality, the firm had been in the habit of paying |
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| [223] | ||
| £3,000 a year for the privilege, which did not belong to him, of engraving his portraits. But authors probably were among the greatest sufferers. ‘The booksellers here,’ writes to my father a friend from Edinburgh, Mr. John Malcolm, a writer of much pure and tender verse, ‘are very timid now,--January, 1827,--in bringing out any new book. A friend of mind, Mr. Carlyle, author of a “Life of Schiller,” disposed of the copyright of certain translations from the German to the Taits, booksellers here, and they have had them ready these four months, always expecting the times would mend. They have at last published them; but, I understand, are terrified lest they should not take.’ To my father, the failure of Hurst and Robinson was a serious blow, the more discouraging, coming as it did at a time when he might fairly have hoped that his struggles were over, and that an assured position in the walk of life which he had chosen as congenial to him, had been definitively secured. His success with the works already published with the firm had established a mutual con- |
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| [224] | ||
| fidence, and other literary projects were under arrangement between them. Moreover, he felt for Mr. Robinson, who had been to him a kind and considerate friend, a regard which he knew to
be reciprocated; and to a person of his temperament, in which the element of feeling entered strongly, if it did not predominate, these were conditions important, if not indispensable, to satisfactory business
relations. These relations were not readily or rapidly to be established with another. There was, moreover, another element of embarrassment,--which, however, had its aspect of consolation,--in the fact that the balance of his account with the firm proved to be against him, at which he seems to have been surprised, a surprise not on the wholely shared by this biographer. He had, I think, much the same dislike to accounts that Dr. Johnson admitted himself to entertain of ‘clean linen,’ perhaps for something of the same reason, their cold, unaccommodating character. He had possibly discovered,--at all events, he was so to find on more than one occasion,--that an ‘account,’ whether of a publisher or any other ‘man of |
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| [225] | ||
| business,’ is justly to be regarded with apprehension by persons not skilled in the manufacture and use of such engines; and, under all such, when sought to be therein enmeshed, he
writhed like Samson under the withes of Dalilah, though not always with the same success. No doubt his peace and comfort were more or less disquieted for years by the presentation from time to time of copies of
this document, with interest carefully computed to date. Certainly the ‘Assignees of Hurst and Robinson’ are remembered by this biographer as representing to his youthful imagination some mysteriously powerful and
perpetually present malefic influence. Of Mr. Joseph Ogle Robinson a few kind words may here by justly added. He was one of those men whom the world calls enterprising when they succeed, and culpably rash when they fail; and both with a certain reason. He possessed some sterling virtues. He was a kind friend, a fair and liberal man of business, and I have been informed by his faithful clerk, the late Mr. William Spooner of the Strand, a considerate master. He |
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| [226] | ||
| made some attempt to carry on affairs after his bankruptcy, in the Poultry and in Red Lion Square, but with no great success. He published at this season an edition of ‘Johnson’s
Dictionary,’ the very able preface to which, I may mention as a literary curiosity, was, Mr. Spooner informed me, written by Dr. Maginn. In the meantime the ‘Literary Souvenir’ for the year 1826 had been published; and, notwithstanding the badness of the times, met with even greater success than its predecessor, a prosperity which, in view of the adverse ‘account’ in question, did not, I fear, very greatly advantage its editor. |
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*** |
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|
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| [248] | ||
| The ‘Literary Souvenir’ for the year 1827, notwithstanding the failure of the original publishers, and much adverse vaticination on the part of the editors of rival publications, came up
to time, or nearly so, and proved not less successful than its predecessors. It was ‘subscribed,’—that is, presented to the trade for their orders,--on the 1st November, 1826, and the ‘subscription book’ has been
preserved. It may, perhaps, be a curiosity it will certainly be a novelty, to most readers, who are not accustomed to be admitted to the mysteries of the Publishers’ atelier, and the first page is herewith
presented for their information. The names of various publishers |
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| [249] | ||
| and the numbers of copies taken by each firm are ‘subscribed’ by the senior partner. |
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Nov. 1, 1826. |
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LITERARY SOUVENIR; |
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| Longmans, Rees, and Co. Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy Simpkin and Marshall George B. Whittaker Sherwood and Co. James Duncan Rivingtons Smith, Elder, and Co. T.M. Richardson Lupton Relfe Harrison and Co. J.A. Hessey Charles Tilt R. Ackermann Thomas Tegg Robert Jennings F.G. Moon Sampson Low W. Pickering Hatchard and Son |
Small |
Large |
| [250] | ||
| and about a hundred other booksellers. The total number subscribed, on the day of publication, was 6,433 small-paper copies and 201 large-paper. From memoranda in a diary I find that the
number actually printed of small-paper copies was 10,169. Of these 335 were presentation copies; 700 were sent for sale, and, I conclude sold there, to America; and 7,712 were sold in England between the date of
publication, November 1, 1826, and the month of April, 1827. In addition to these, 528 large-paper copies were sold in the same interval, out of 750 printed. There was, furthermore, a considerable sale of the
engravings, published separately, without the letterpress, in portfolios. As there was a certain demand for back volumes, it may, I think, be assumed that the whole impression was sooner or later exhausted. In further account in the same book, the cost of production is set out roughly at £2,620. |
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| [251] | ||
| I have ventured to enter these details, as they afford a certain basis upon which something approaching an estimate may be formed of the amount of money spent, and consequent
encouragement to Art given, by these publications. The ‘Literary Souvenir’ for 1827 was on the whole, I think, more interesting from the quality and variety of its literature than for its art. It, however, contained the engraving by Robert Wallis . . . |
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| [252] | ||
| The literature of this volume is certainly striking, and a list of contributories would prove practically a list of all the distinguished writers of that day, with one exception. Mr.
Wordsworth excused himself from associating his valued name with the volume, on the plea of a general rule which he had laid down to himself, not to contribute to these annual publications. But Southey, Coleridge,
Bowles, Campbell, and Montgomery all favoured him with contributions. Amongst the contributors, in addition to these, were Washington Irving—an admirable sketch in the style of Jouy—entitled ‘The Contented Man;’
Galt; Horace Smith of the ‘Rejected Addresses;’ Praed; Francis Hodgson (Byron’s friend, afterwards Provost of Eton); Shee (afterwards President of the Royal Academy); James Emerson, (better remembered by this
generation as Sir |
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| [253] | ||
| Emerson Tennent); and one of the authors of ‘Odes and Addresses to Great People,’—Thomas Hood. Among the ladies were Mrs. Hemans, Miss Mitford, Miss Landon, Miss Jewsbury, and Mrs. Gore, afterwards to be so popular as a novelist of society (this being almost her first appearance in print). In this volume were published for the first time, ‘The Better Land’ of Mrs. Hemans, and Thomas Hood’s ‘Retrospective Review.’ As I have said, more than eight thousand copies were sold between the date of publication in November, 1826, and the month of April in the following year. No sooner were the labours of one year completed than those of the next began. Suitable works of art for engraving, to be bought or borrowed, which became more difficult every year; good copies of the picture to be made for the engraver, where the work, though allowed by the owner to be engraved, could not be spared from the walls for the purpose; the engraver to be set to work and very carefully looked after, for these were golden |
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| [254] | ||
| days for the line-engravers, and those who were of any eminence had almost more work than they could fairly do justice to, and much stirring up was needed. Then the literature was to be
looked after. To get together one hundred contributions in prose and verse from popular authors, and return with thanks the five hundred at least that were offered and were not suitable, required both labour and
diplomacy. Then the plates to be distributed for illustrations, like parts in private theatricals, every player dissatisfied and wanting somebody else’s. Of the difficulty of obtaining subjects for engravings, the following autobiographical notes afford some idea. |
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*** |
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|
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| [268] | ||
| It was not to be supposed that an enterprise so successful as the ‘Literary Souvenir’ should be permitted to hold command of the bookmarket. Mr. Ackermann, as he was well entitled to do,
lost no time in indemnifying himself for the original idea of naturalizing the Taschenbuch, for which the proprietors of the ‘Literary Souvenir’ had been indebted to him, by adopting, for his ‘Forget-Me-Not,’ the
improved form which my father’s taste and judgment had given to that idea. ‘The Illuminated Pocket-Book and Friendship’s Offering,’ under the editorship of Mr. T.K. Hervey, and afterwards of Thomas Pringle, had
ceased |
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| [269] | ||
| to be a pocket-book at all, and in its new and improved form had become a formidable rival. It was always ably conducted, and survived to receive in later days contributions from Mr.
Tennyson and Mr. Ruskin. But the most dangerous competitor of this time was the ‘Keepsake,’ established in 1827 by Mr. Charles Heath, the eminent engraver, under the editorship, at first, of Mr. Harrison Ainsworth,
and afterwards, for some years, of Mr. Frederic Mansel Reynolds, son of Frederic Reynolds, a well-known dramatist of that day. Early in 1828 Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Heath made a pilgrimage into Scotland and the Lake
districts, buying up with much gallantry and enterprise, if not always with equal discrimination, contributions from the great masters of the day, blowing their trumpet with no uncertain sound, and killing their
contemporaries in anticipation without scruple or remorse. ‘Charles Heath the engraver,’ says Southey in a letter to his daughter, written in February, 1828, ‘who is the “Keepsake,” was here last week. He sold
fifteen thousand copies last year, and has bespoken four thousand yards of red |
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| [270] | ||
| watered silk, at three shillings a yard, for binding the next volume. Four of the existing annuals will drop this year.’ To another correspondent he writes: ‘Heath has been here, and
offered me fifty guineas for something for the “Keepsake.” I sold him “a pig in the poke” at that price.’ Sir Walter Scott responded to a similar appeal, by accommodating Mr. Heath likewise with “a pig in the
poke:’ Mr. Heath receiving, in consideration of no less a sum than £500, Mr. Lockhart tells us, ‘the liberty of printing in his “Keepsake” the long-forgotten juvenile drama of the “House of Aspen,” with “My Aunt
Margaret’s Mirror,” and two other little tales which had been omitted, at Ballantyne’s entreaty, from the second part of the “Chronicles of Croftangry.” Wordsworth, even, who had felt that his years rendered it
unsuitable for him to enter into competition with younger writers in these annual publications, allowed himself to be carried away in this auriferous stream, seeking the sustainment, under these wholly unlooked-for
circumstances, of his friend Coleridge. ‘Some weeks before my late tour,’ |
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| [271] | ||
| writes the latter to the subject of this memoir, September 14, 1828, ‘Mr. Frederic Reynolds called on me with a letter of introduction from Wordsworth, in which he (Wordsworth) informed
me he had been induced to furnish some poems to Mr. Heath’s work; that the unusually handsome terms would scarcely have overcome his reluctance had he not entertained the hope that I might be persuaded to give my
name—in short, he hoped I would write.’ It was Pactolus overflowing Parnassus. The immoderate and injudicious expenditure of these considerable sums for productions, some of which, at all events, could not fail to be disappointing, associated with great names, was unsuccessful in securing in any commensurate degree the success of Mr. Heath’s speculation; and the work passed out of his hands into those, I believe, of his publishers. He, however, continued to superintend the engravings of this and other similar enterprises. Conducted with more prudence and moderation, the ‘Keepsake’ continued to maintain for many years an important position |
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| among the annuals, and was, I believe, the last survivor of them. As the discriminating physician will perceive the seeds of a mortal disorder long before it shall have pronounced itself, or become in the smallest degree apparent to less experienced eyes, so might the prophetic eye of the judicious critic have discovered in Mr. Heath’s four thousand yards of red silk at three shillings a yard, and these ‘pigs in pokes,’ purchased, regardless of expense, to secure great names in a table of contents, symptom of an alarming character as affecting the health and duration of life of the class of publications beginning to have recourse to such stimulants. In the meantime they seemed to flourish on competition. The ‘Literary Souvenir’ for the year 1828 was, I think, less interesting on the whole than had been its immediate predecessors. . . . |
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| The editor refers in his preface to the rising competition in these annual works, and, while yielding ungrudgingly to Mr. Ackermann the praise of having introduced books of this class
into this country, vindicates to himself his claim to the merit of having, as he modestly phrases it, contributed to render them what they had then become; and as having been the first to set the example of
engraving modern pictures in a style worthy their excellence, and at a price which has placed them within the reach of nearly all classes of persons. He concludes with a reference to a proposed |
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| introduction of the ‘Annual’ class of publication into France, by a French ‘Souvenir,’ to be published in anticipation of the year 1829.. . . | ||
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| The year 1829 opened with a pretty lively competition among these annuals books. There were already in the field, as I have said, in addition to the ‘Literary Souvenir,’ the
‘Forget-Me-Not,’ edited by Mr. Shoberl; the ‘Friendship’s Offering,’ by Mr. Thomas Pringle; the ‘Keepsake,’ by Mr. Mansel Reynolds; also the ‘Amulet,’ by Mr. S.C. Hall. To these were to be added, this year, the
‘Bijou,’ edited by Mr. (afterwards Sir) Harris Nicolas; the ‘Winter’s Wreath,’ by Mr. William B. Chorley; the ‘Anniversary,’ by Allan Cunningham; and the ‘Gem’ (in which was first published the ‘Dream of Eugene
Aram’), by Thomas Hood. |
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| Nor were these all. The idea that among the Christmas and New Year’s gifts of this description, provision should be made for the tastes and requirements of the young, who take an
especial interest in such seasons, seems to have developed itself simultaneously, like the origin of man, according to the physicists, in a variety of directions at the same time. This year, 1829, witnessed the
birth of the ‘Juvenile Forget-Me-Not,’ edited by Mrs. S.C. Hall; the ‘Juvenile Keepsake,’ by Thomas Roscoe; the ‘Christmas Box,’ by Crofton Croker; and, more important to this narrative, the ‘New Year’s Gift,’ by
Mrs. Alaric Watts. The ‘Literary Souvenir’ for 1829, though it included amongst the names of its contributors, for the first time, that of ‘the author of “Pelham,”’ was, I think, more interesting from its engravings than from its letterpress. . . . |
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| My mother’s annual, ‘The New Year’s Gift,’ commenced in this year, and continued, annually, until the year 1836, to divide pretty equally, I think, with the ‘Juvenile Forget- |
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| Me-Not’ of Mrs. S.C. Hall, the suffrages of the rising generation of that day. There is an interest, worthy perhaps a passing remark, in the difference between the spirit in which it was sought,--at all events by my mother,--to address and interest young people in that day, and the modes and methods of addressing youth now. Each, of course, has had its origin in the nature of the material to be dealt with, which was very different then in quality and character from that under treatment by parents and guardians fifty years later. Young people were much younger people then than they are now; they believed more readily, and they reasoned less. It was needful, therefore, in them, to cultivate the reason, and, as my mother thought,--though such was not then the general opinion,--morality and Christian principles, through the reason. Religion, purely doctrinal, she left to other agencies. We should, perhaps, now deem it desirable to reverse the process; to cultivate, in the first instance, the imagination, which is the faculty of belief, rather than the reason, which has become intuitive, needing no |
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| stimulant; and to arrive at Christian principles and practice through the imagination. She excluded, therefore, from the subjects of her little book all apocryphal personages, giants and fairies, in all of which children of that age were quite capable of believing to their prejudice, and not to their profit. Stories of giants and fairies may now be told to children with impunity, for they will not believe them; nay, greatly to their advantage, for, from them, they will formulate to themselves innocent and beautiful phantasies wherein to repose their poor work-worn brains, and gently stimulate their too infrequently exercised imaginations. | ||