Baxter's Procrustes is one of the publications of the Bodleian Club. The
Bodleian Club is composed of gentlemen of culture, who are interested
in books and book-collecting. It was named, very obviously, after the
famous library of the same name, and not only became in our city a sort
of shrine for local worshipers of fine bindings and rare editions,
but was visited occasionally by pilgrims from afar. The Bodleian
has entertained Mark Twain, Joseph Jefferson, and other literary and
histrionic celebrities. It possesses quite a collection of personal
mementos of distinguished authors, among them a paperweight which once
belonged to Goethe, a lead pencil used by Emerson, an autograph letter
of Matthew Arnold, and a chip from a tree felled by Mr. Gladstone. Its
library contains a number of rare books, including a fine collection on
chess, of which game several of the members are enthusiastic devotees.
The activities of the club are not, however, confined entirely to books.
We have a very handsome clubhouse, and much taste and discrimination
have been exercised in its adornment. There are many good paintings,
including portraits of the various presidents of the club, which adorn
the entrance hall. After books, perhaps the most distinctive feature
of the club is our collection of pipes. In a large rack in the
smoking-room--really a superfluity, since smoking is permitted all over
the house--is as complete an assortment of pipes as perhaps exists in
the civilized world. Indeed, it is an unwritten rule of the club that no
one is eligible for membership who cannot produce a new variety of pipe,
which is filed with his application for membership, and, if he passes,
deposited with the club collection, he, however, retaining the title in
himself. Once a year, upon the anniversary of the death of Sir Walter
Raleigh, who it will be remembered, first introduced tobacco into
England, the full membership of the club, as a rule, turns out. A large
supply of the very best smoking mixture is laid in. At nine o'clock
sharp each member takes his pipe from the rack, fills it with tobacco,
and then the whole club, with the president at the head, all smoking
furiously, march in solemn procession from room to room, upstairs
and downstairs, making the tour of the clubhouse and returning to the
smoking-room. The president then delivers an address, and each member
is called upon to say something, either by way of a quotation or
an original sentiment, in praise of the virtues of nicotine. This
ceremony--facetiously known as "hitting the pipe"--being thus concluded,
the membership pipes are carefully cleaned out and replaced in the club
rack.
As I have said, however, the raison d'etre of the club, and the feature
upon which its fame chiefly rests, is its collection of rare books, and
of these by far the most interesting are its own publications. Even its
catalogues are works of art, published in numbered editions, and sought
by libraries and book-collectors. Early in its history it began
the occasional publication of books which should meet the club
standard,--books in which emphasis should be laid upon the qualities
that make a book valuable in the eyes of collectors. Of these, age
could not, of course, be imparted, but in the matter of fine and curious
bindings, of hand-made linen papers, of uncut or deckle edges, of
wide margins and limited editions, the club could control its own
publications. The matter of contents was, it must be confessed, a
less important consideration. At first it was felt by the publishing
committee that nothing but the finest products of the human mind should
be selected for enshrinement in the beautiful volumes which the
club should issue. The length of the work was an important
consideration,--long things were not compatible with wide margins and
graceful slenderness. For instance, we brought out Coleridge's Ancient
Mariner, an essay by Emerson, and another by Thoreau. Our Rubaiyat of
Omar Khayyam was Heron-Allen's translation of the original MS in
the Bodleian Library at Oxford, which, though less poetical than
FitzGerald's, was not so common. Several years ago we began to publish
the works of our own members. Bascom's Essay on Pipes was a very
creditable performance. It was published in a limited edition of one
hundred copies, and since it had not previously appeared elsewhere and
was copyrighted by the club, it was sufficiently rare to be valuable
for that reason. The second publication of local origin was Baxter's
Procrustes.
I have omitted to say that once or twice a year, at a meeting of which
notice has been given, an auction is held at the Bodleian. The members
of the club send in their duplicate copies, or books they for any reason
wish to dispose of, which are auctioned off to the highest bidder. At
these sales, which are well attended, the club's publications have of
recent years formed the leading feature. Three years ago, number three
of Bascom's Essay on Pipes sold for fifteen dollars;--the original
cost of publication was one dollar and seventy-five cents. Later in the
evening an uncut copy of the same brought thirty dollars. At the next
auction the price of the cut copy was run up to twenty-five dollars,
while the uncut copy was knocked down at seventy-five dollars. The club
had always appreciated the value of uncut copies, but this financial
indorsement enhanced their desirability immensely. This rise in the
Essay on Pipes was not without a sympathetic effect upon all the club
publications. The Emerson essay rose from three dollars to seventeen,
and the Thoreau, being by an author less widely read, and, by his own
confession commercially unsuccessful, brought a somewhat higher figure.
The prices, thus inflated, were not permitted to come down appreciably.
Since every member of the club possessed one or more of these valuable
editions, they were all manifestly interested in keeping up the price.
The publication, however, which brought the highest prices, and, but
for the sober second thought, might have wrecked the whole system, was
Baxter's Procrustes.
Baxter was, perhaps, the most scholarly member of the club. A graduate
of Harvard, he had traveled extensively, had read widely, and while not
so enthusiastic a collector as some of us, possessed as fine a private
library as any man of his age in the city. He was about thirty-five
when he joined the club, and apparently some bitter experience--some
disappointment in love or ambition--had left its mark upon his
character. With light, curly hair, fair complexion, and gray eyes,
one would have expected Baxter to be genial of temper, with a tendency
toward wordiness of speech. But though he had occasional flashes of
humor, his ordinary demeanor was characterized by a mild cynicism,
which, with his gloomy pessimistic philosophy, so foreign to the
temperament that should accompany his physical type, could only be
accounted for upon the hypothesis of some secret sorrow such as I
have suggested. What it might be no one knew. He had means and social
position, and was an uncommonly handsome man. The fact that he remained
unmarried at thirty-five furnished some support for the theory of a
disappointment in love, though this the several intimates of Baxter who
belonged to the club were not able to verify.
It had occurred to me, in a vague way, that perhaps Baxter might be
an unsuccessful author. That he was a poet we knew very well, and
typewritten copies of his verses had occasionally circulated among us.
But Baxter had always expressed such a profound contempt for modern
literature, had always spoken in terms of such unmeasured pity for
the slaves of the pen, who were dependent upon the whim of an
undiscriminating public for recognition and a livelihood, that no one of
us had ever suspected him of aspirations toward publication, until, as I
have said, it occurred to me one day that Baxter's attitude with regard
to publication might be viewed in the light of effect as well as of
cause--that his scorn of publicity might as easily arise from failure
to achieve it, as his never having published might be due to his
preconceived disdain of the vulgar popularity which one must share with
the pugilist or balloonist of the hour.
The notion of publishing Baxter's Procrustes did not emanate from
Baxter,--I must do him the justice to say this. But he had spoken to
several of the fellows about the theme of his poem, until the notion
that Baxter was at work upon something fine had become pretty well
disseminated throughout our membership. He would occasionally read
brief passages to a small coterie of friends in the sitting-room or
library,--never more than ten lines at once, or to more than five people
at a time,--and these excerpts gave at least a few of us a pretty fair
idea of the motive and scope of the poem. As I, for one, gathered,
it was quite along the line of Baxter's philosophy. Society was the
Procrustes which, like the Greek bandit of old, caught every man born
into the world, and endeavored to fit him to some preconceived standard,
generally to the one for which he was least adapted. The world was full
of men and women who were merely square pegs in round holes, and vice
versa. Most marriages were unhappy because the contracting parties were
not properly mated. Religion was mostly superstition, science for the
most part sciolism, popular education merely a means of forcing the
stupid and repressing the bright, so that all the youth of the rising
generation might conform to the same dull, dead level of democratic
mediocrity. Life would soon become so monotonously uniform and so
uniformly monotonous as to be scarce worth the living.
It was Smith, I think, who first proposed that the club publish Baxter's
Procrustes. The poet himself did not seem enthusiastic when the subject
was broached; he demurred for some little time, protesting that the poem
was not worthy of publication. But when it was proposed that the edition
be limited to fifty copies he agreed to consider the proposition. When
I suggested, having in mind my secret theory of Baxter's failure in
authorship, that the edition would at least be in the hands of friends,
that it would be difficult for a hostile critic to secure a copy, and
that if it should not achieve success from a literary point of view,
the extent of the failure would be limited to the size of the edition,
Baxter was visibly impressed. When the literary committee at length
decided to request formally of Baxter the privilege of publishing his
Procrustes, he consented, with evident reluctance, upon condition that
he should supervise the printing, binding, and delivery of the books,
merely submitting to the committee, in advance, the manuscript, and
taking their views in regard to the bookmaking.
The manuscript was duly presented to the literary committee. Baxter
having expressed the desire that the poem be not read aloud at a meeting
of the club, as was the custom, since he wished it to be given to the
world clad in suitable garb, the committee went even farther. Having
entire confidence in Baxter's taste and scholarship, they, with great
delicacy, refrained from even reading the manuscript, contenting
themselves with Baxter's statement of the general theme and the topics
grouped under it. The details of the bookmaking, however, were gone into
thoroughly. The paper was to be of hand-made linen, from the Kelmscott
Mills; the type black-letter, with rubricated initials. The cover, which
was Baxter's own selection, was to be of dark green morocco, with a
cap-and-bells border in red inlays, and doublures of maroon morocco
with a blind-tooled design. Baxter was authorized to contract with the
printer and superintend the publication. The whole edition of fifty
numbered copies was to be disposed of at auction, in advance, to the
highest bidder, only one copy to each, the proceeds to be devoted to
paying for the printing and binding, the remainder, if any, to go into
the club treasury, and Baxter himself to receive one copy by way of
remuneration. Baxter was inclined to protest at this, on the ground that
his copy would probably be worth more than the royalties on the edition,
at the usual ten per cent, would amount to, but was finally prevailed
upon to accept an author's copy.
While the Procrustes was under consideration, some one read, at one of
our meetings, a note from some magazine, which stated that a sealed copy
of a new translation of Campanella's Sonnets, published by the Grolier
Club, had been sold for three hundred dollars. This impressed the
members greatly. It was a novel idea. A new work might thus be enshrined
in a sort of holy of holies, which, if the collector so desired, could
be forever sacred from the profanation of any vulgar or unappreciative
eye. The possessor of such a treasure could enjoy it by the eye of
imagination, having at the same time the exaltation of grasping what was
for others the unattainable. The literary committee were so impressed
with this idea that they presented it to Baxter in regard to the
Procrustes. Baxter making no objection, the subscribers who might wish
their copies delivered sealed were directed to notify the author. I sent
in my name. A fine book, after all, was an investment, and if there was
any way of enhancing its rarity, and therefore its value, I was quite
willing to enjoy such an advantage.
When the Procrustes was ready for distribution, each subscriber received
his copy by mail, in a neat pasteboard box. Each number was wrapped in
a thin and transparent but very strong paper through which the cover
design and tooling were clearly visible. The number of the copy was
indorsed upon the wrapper, the folds of which were securely fastened at
each end with sealing-wax, upon which was impressed, as a guaranty of
its inviolateness, the monogram of the club.
At the next meeting of the Bodleian, a great deal was said about the
Procrustes, and it was unanimously agreed that no finer specimen
of bookmaking had ever been published by the club. By a curious
coincidence, no one had brought his copy with him, and the two club
copies had not yet been received from the binder, who, Baxter had
reported was retaining them for some extra fine work. Upon resolution,
offered by a member who had not subscribed for the volume, a committee
of three was appointed to review the Procrustes at the next literary
meeting of the club. Of this committee it was my doubtful fortune to
constitute one.
In pursuance of my duty in the premises, it of course became necessary
for me to read the Procrustes. In all probability I should have cut my
own copy for this purpose, had not one of the club auctions intervened
between my appointment and the date set for the discussion of the
Procrustes. At this meeting a copy of the book, still sealed, was
offered for sale, and bought by a non-subscriber for the unprecedented
price of one hundred and fifty dollars. After this a proper regard for
my own interests would not permit me to spoil my copy by opening it, and
I was therefore compelled to procure my information concerning the poem
from some other source. As I had no desire to appear mercenary, I
said nothing about my own copy, and made no attempt to borrow. I did,
however, casually remark to Baxter that I should like to look at
his copy of the proof sheets, since I wished to make some extended
quotations for my review, and would rather not trust my copy to a typist
for that purpose. Baxter assured me, with every evidence of regret, that
he had considered them of so little importance that he had thrown them
into the fire. This indifference of Baxter to literary values struck
me as just a little overdone. The proof sheets of Hamlet, corrected in
Shakespeare's own hand, would be well-nigh priceless.
At the next meeting of the club I observed that Thompson and Davis,
who were with me on the reviewing committee, very soon brought up the
question of the Procrustes in conversation in the smoking-room, and
seemed anxious to get from the members their views concerning Baxter's
production, I supposed upon the theory that the appreciation of any book
review would depend more or less upon the degree to which it reflected
the opinion of those to whom the review should be presented. I presumed,
of course, that Thompson and Davis had each read the book,--they were
among the subscribers,--and I was desirous of getting their point of
view.
"What do you think," I inquired, "of the passage on Social Systems?" I
have forgotten to say that the poem was in blank verse, and divided into
parts, each with an appropriate title.
"Well," replied Davis, it seemed to me a little cautiously, "it is not
exactly Spencerian, although it squints at the Spencerian view, with a
slight deflection toward Hegelianism. I should consider it an harmonious
fusion of the best views of all the modern philosophers, with a strong
Baxterian flavor."
"Yes," said Thompson, "the charm of the chapter lies in this very
quality. The style is an emanation from Baxter's own intellect,--he
has written himself into the poem. By knowing Baxter we are able to
appreciate the book, and after having read the book we feel that we are
so much the more intimately acquainted with Baxter,--the real Baxter."
Baxter had come in during this colloquy, and was standing by the
fireplace smoking a pipe. I was not exactly sure whether the faint
smile which marked his face was a token of pleasure or cynicism; it was
Baxterian, however, and I had already learned that Baxter's opinions
upon any subject were not to be gathered always from his facial
expression. For instance, when the club porter's crippled child died
Baxter remarked, it seemed to me unfeelingly, that the poor little devil
was doubtless better off, and that the porter himself had certainly
been relieved of a burden; and only a week later the porter told me in
confidence that Baxter had paid for an expensive operation, undertaken
in the hope of prolonging the child's life. I therefore drew no
conclusions from Baxter's somewhat enigmatical smile. He left the room
at this point in the conversation, somewhat to my relief.
"By the way, Jones," said Davis, addressing me, "are you impressed by
Baxter's views on Degeneration?"
Having often heard Baxter express himself upon the general downward
tendency of modern civilization, I felt safe in discussing his views in
a broad and general manner.
"I think," I replied, "that they are in harmony with those of
Schopenhauer, without his bitterness; with those of Nordau, without his
flippancy. His materialism is Haeckel's, presented with something of the
charm of Omar Khayyam."
"Yes," chimed in Davis, "it answers the strenuous demand of our
day,--dissatisfaction with an unjustified optimism,--and voices for us
the courage of human philosophy facing the unknown."
I had a vague recollection of having read something like this somewhere,
but so much has been written, that one can scarcely discuss any subject
of importance without unconsciously borrowing, now and then, the
thoughts or the language of others. Quotation, like imitation, is a
superior grade of flattery.
"The Procrustes," said Thompson, to whom the metrical review had been
apportioned, "is couched in sonorous lines, of haunting melody and
charm; and yet so closely inter-related as to be scarcely quotable with
justice to the author. To be appreciated the poem should be read as
a whole,--I shall say as much in my review. What shall you say of the
letter-press?" he concluded, addressing me. I was supposed to discuss
the technical excellence of the volume from the connoisseur's viewpoint.
"The setting," I replied judicially, "is worthy of the gem. The dark
green cover, elaborately tooled, the old English lettering, the heavy
linen paper, mark this as one of our very choicest publications. The
letter-press is of course De Vinne's best,--there is nothing better
on this side of the Atlantic. The text is a beautiful, slender stream,
meandering gracefully through a wide meadow of margin."
For some reason I left the room for a minute. As I stepped into the
hall, I almost ran into Baxter, who was standing near the door, facing a
hunting print of a somewhat humorous character, hung upon the wall, and
smiling with an immensely pleased expression.
"What a ridiculous scene!" he remarked. "Look at that fat old squire on
that tall hunter! I'll wager dollars to doughnuts that he won't get over
the first fence!"
It was a very good bluff, but did not deceive me. Under his mask of
unconcern, Baxter was anxious to learn what we thought of his poem, and
had stationed himself in the hall that he might overhear our discussion
without embarrassing us by his presence. He had covered up his delight
at our appreciation by this simulated interest in the hunting print.
When the night came for the review of the Procrustes there was a large
attendance of members, and several visitors, among them a young English
cousin of one of the members, on his first visit to the United States;
some of us had met him at other clubs, and in society, and had found
him a very jolly boy, with a youthful exuberance of spirits and a naive
ignorance of things American that made his views refreshing and, at
times, amusing.
The critical essays were well considered, if a trifle vague. Baxter
received credit for poetic skill of a high order.
"Our brother Baxter," said Thompson, "should no longer bury his talent
in a napkin. This gem, of course, belongs to the club, but the same
brain from which issued this exquisite emanation can produce others to
inspire and charm an appreciative world."
"The author's view of life," said Davis, "as expressed in these
beautiful lines, will help us to fit our shoulders for the heavy
burden of life, by bringing to our realization those profound truths
of philosophy which find hope in despair and pleasure in pain. When he
shall see fit to give to the wider world, in fuller form, the thoughts
of which we have been vouchsafed this foretaste, let us hope that some
little ray of his fame may rest upon the Bodleian, from which can never
be taken away the proud privilege of saying that he was one of its
members."
I then pointed out the beauties of the volume as a piece of bookmaking.
I knew, from conversation with the publication committee, the style of
type and rubrication, and could see the cover through the wrapper of my
sealed copy. The dark green morocco, I said, in summing up, typified the
author's serious view of life, as a thing to be endured as patiently as
might be. The cap-and-bells border was significant of the shams by which
the optimist sought to delude himself into the view that life was a
desirable thing. The intricate blind-tooling of the doublure shadowed
forth the blind fate which left us in ignorance of our future and our
past, or of even what the day itself might bring forth. The black-letter
type, with rubricated initials, signified a philosophic pessimism
enlightened by the conviction that in duty one might find, after all, an
excuse for life and a hope for humanity. Applying this test to the club,
this work, which might be said to represent all that the Bodleian stood
for, was in itself sufficient to justify the club's existence. If the
Bodleian had done nothing else, if it should do nothing more, it had
produced a masterpiece.
There was a sealed copy of the Procrustes, belonging, I believe, to one
of the committee, lying on the table by which I stood, and I had picked
it up and held it in my hand for a moment, to emphasize one of my
periods, but had laid it down immediately. I noted, as I sat down, that
young Hunkin, our English visitor, who sat on the other side of the
table, had picked up the volume and was examining it with interest. When
the last review was read, and the generous applause had subsided, there
were cries for Baxter.
"Baxter! Baxter! Author! Author!"
Baxter had been sitting over in a corner during the reading of the
reviews, and had succeeded remarkably well, it seemed to me, in
concealing, under his mask of cynical indifference, the exultation which
I was sure he must feel. But this outburst of enthusiasm was too much
even for Baxter, and it was clear that he was struggling with strong
emotion when he rose to speak.
"Gentlemen, and fellow members of the Bodleian, it gives me unaffected
pleasure--sincere pleasure--some day you may know how much pleasure--I
cannot trust myself to say it now--to see the evident care with which
your committee have read my poor verses, and the responsive sympathy
with which my friends have entered into my views of life and conduct.
I thank you again, and again, and when I say that I am too full for
utterance,--I'm sure you will excuse me from saying any more."
Baxter took his seat, and the applause had begun again when it was
broken by a sudden exclamation.
"By Jove!" exclaimed our English visitor, who still sat behind the
table, "what an extraordinary book!"
Every one gathered around him.
"You see," he exclaimed; holding up the volume, "you fellows said so
much about the bally book that I wanted to see what it was like; so I
untied the ribbon, and cut the leaves with the paper knife lying here,
and found--and found that there wasn't a single line in it, don't you
know!"
Blank consternation followed this announcement, which proved only too
true. Every one knew instinctively, without further investigation, that
the club had been badly sold. In the resulting confusion Baxter escaped,
but later was waited upon by a committee, to whom he made the rather
lame excuse that he had always regarded uncut and sealed books as
tommy-rot, and that he had merely been curious to see how far the thing
could go; and that the result had justified his belief that a book with
nothing in it was just as useful to a book-collector as one embodying a
work of genius. He offered to pay all the bills for the sham Procrustes,
or to replace the blank copies with the real thing, as we might choose.
Of course, after such an insult, the club did not care for the poem. He
was permitted to pay the expense, however, and it was more than hinted
to him that his resignation from the club would be favorably acted upon.
He never sent it in, and, as he went to Europe shortly afterwards, the
affair had time to blow over.
In our first disgust at Baxter's duplicity, most of us cut our copies of
the Procrustes, some of us mailed them to Baxter with cutting notes, and
others threw them into the fire. A few wiser spirits held on to theirs,
and this fact leaking out, it began to dawn upon the minds of the real
collectors among us that the volume was something unique in the way of a
publication.
"Baxter," said our president one evening to a select few of us who
sat around the fireplace, "was wiser than we knew, or than he perhaps
appreciated. His Procrustes, from the collector's point of view, is
entirely logical, and might be considered as the acme of bookmaking. To
the true collector, a book is a work of art, of which the contents
are no more important than the words of an opera. Fine binding is a
desideratum, and, for its cost, that of the Procrustes could not be
improved upon. The paper is above criticism. The true collector loves
wide margins, and the Procrustes, being all margin, merely touches the
vanishing point of the perspective. The smaller the edition, the greater
the collector's eagerness to acquire a copy. There are but six uncut
copies left, I am told, of the Procrustes, and three sealed copies, of
one of which I am the fortunate possessor."
After this deliverance, it is not surprising that, at our next auction,
a sealed copy of Baxter's Procrustes was knocked down, after spirited
bidding, for two hundred and fifty dollars, the highest price ever
brought by a single volume published by the club.