earlier manuscripts were frequently rejected. He tried to induce managers
of theatres to accept his plays, but not one was ever produced. The first
year's labour with the pen, and a very hard year's work too, only yielded
L12. The next year the sum was still small, only amounting to L20, yet he
did not despair. At last, the happy time came, and it was taken at the
flood. It was in 1855 that he scored with "The Warden." From that time he
was a man of mark; his works were in demand, and with ease he earned
L1,000 a year, which soon increased to L2,000 and L3,000, and at the time
of his death to about L4,000. The amounts paid for a few of his books are
as follows: In 1850 was issued "La Vendee," and for it he got L20; twelve
years later he was paid, for "Orley Farm," L3,135; in 1864 was published
"Can You Forgive Her?" for which he received L3,525; and in the same year
was issued "The Small House at Allington," for which he was paid L3,000.
Amongst his other novels for which he received large sums may be mentioned
"The Last Chronicles of Barset," L3,000; "Phineas Finn," L3,200; "He knew
He was Right," L3,200. The last two were published in 1869. He was paid
L3,000 for "The Way We Live Now." "More than nine-tenths of my literary
work," writes Trollope, "has been done in the last twenty years, and
during twelve of those years I followed another profession. I have never
been a slave to this work, giving due time, if not more than due time, to
the amusement I have loved. But I have been constant--and constancy of
labour will conquer all difficulties." In twenty years he made by writing
nearly L70,000. We cannot place Trollope in a high position amongst the
greatest novelists, yet the monetary results of his literary labours must
be regarded as extremely satisfactory.
Large sums of money were made by George Eliot, but we must not forget that
she had some weary years to wait for the days of prosperity, and that the
story of her life contains many records of disappointment after brave
struggles. We read of her living in humble apartments in London; to earn a
little money, which she much needed when she went to Switzerland in 1849,
she tried to sell her books and globes. It was not until she was forty
years of age that she established a reputation by the publication of "Adam
Bede." She received in cash down, for the first sale of her book, some
L40,000, or about L2,000 a year. George Eliot had a great objection to her
novels appearing in serial form, and she sacrificed much money by not
first publishing them in the magazines. Ouida had for a long time the same
objection to her stories being published piecemeal in newspapers and
periodicals. She now appears to have got over her prejudice in this
matter, and consents to write for newspaper readers. It is generally
believed amongst literary and journalistic men, that she is not a
brilliant success as a newspaper novelist, yet Ouida's income as an author
must be very great. The reader of the weekly paper in which fiction forms
a feature is not educated up to her standard; authors like those engaged
on the _Family Herald_ and similar journals are much more popular.
It is pleasing to state that Mr. John Ruskin has made large sums with his
books, but not so much, we think, as his merits entitle him to receive.
We have seen it stated that by "Oceana," by no means a large volume, Mr.
Froude cleared L10,000.
In the "Life of Longfellow," written by his brother, are a few particulars
of his earnings. During 1825--the last year of his college course--he
contributed poems to the United States _Literary Gazette_, and was paid
one or two dollars a poem, the price depending on the length of the piece.
He wrote, in 1840-1, "The Village Blacksmith," "Endymion," and "God's
Acre," and was paid fifteen dollars each. When his fame was fully
established, Mr. Bonner the publisher of the _New York Ledger_, paid him,
for the right of publishing in that paper, 3,000 dollars for "The Hanging
of the Crane."
Lord Tennyson received considerable sums for his poetry. He was paid L100
for the right of printing a short original poem in a monthly magazine. For
his ballad, "The Revenge," in the _Nineteenth Century_, he received 300
guineas. It became known some time ago that his lordship did not deem
L5,000 a year a sufficient sum for the exclusive right of publishing his
works. He changed his publishers several times. He was regarded as a keen
man of business, and it is said that he generally got the best of the
bargain.
Money never tempted Robert Browning to contribute to the magazines. His
poems always saw the light in book form.
Mr. J. Cuthbert Hadden, who has made a study of this subject, says the
supply of verse to-day is greatly in excess of the demand, and so it
happens that in many quarters poetry is not paid for at all. Most of the
minor poets whose volumes come before the public have to bear the whole
expense of production themselves, and only a very small number escape
without considerable loss. In this connection an amusing story regarding
James Russell Lowell--not quite a minor poet--may be quoted. The cost of
publishing his first book was borne entirely by Mr. Lowell himself, the
edition being a plain but substantial one of 500 copies. The author felt
the usual pride in his achievement, and hoped for almost immediate fame.
Unhappily, only a few copies of the work were sold. Soon after, a fire
occurred in the publishing house where the volumes were stored, and they
were destroyed. As the publisher carried a full insurance on the stock,
Mr. Lowell was able to realise the full cash value on his venture, and he
had the satisfaction of saying that the entire edition was exhausted.
The leading American novelists usually get L1,000 for a serial story in a
magazine, and a similar sum when it is produced in book form. Bret Harte
can command a thousand dollars for a single magazine article. Mrs. Grant
received a cheque for L40,000 for her share of the first volume of General
Grant's "Memoirs," and the whole of her share of the proceeds is put down
at L100,000.
In closing, we must remind our readers that there are two sides to every
picture, and that countless instances of bitter disappointment and death
are recorded in the annals of literature. Only a few in the mighty army of
writers come to the front and win fame and fortune.
"Declined with Thanks."
"Declined with thanks," is a phrase which often disappoints the aspirant
in the wide field of literature. Works of the highest merit are frequently
rejected by publishers; indeed, some of the most popular books in our
language have gone the rounds of the trade without their merits being
recognised. Frequently the authors, after repeated failures, have brought
their works out at their own risk, and have thereby won fame and fortune.
In works of fiction, perhaps the most notable example of a story which was
offered to publisher after publisher only to be returned to its author, is
that of "Robinson Crusoe." It was at last "Printed for W. Taylor, at the
Ship in Paternoster Row, MDCCXIX." It proved a good speculation for the
lucky publisher. He made a profit of one hundred thousand pounds out of
the venture. Jane Austen's name stands high in the annals of English
literature; yet she had a struggle to get her books published. She sold
her "Northanger Abbey" to a Bath bookseller for the insignificant sum of
ten pounds. The manuscript remained for some time in his possession
without being printed, he fearing that if published it would prove a
failure. He was, however, at length induced to issue it, and its merits
caused it to be extensively read. Samuel Warren could not prevail upon a
publisher to bring out his well-known book, "The Diary of a late
Physician," and, much against his inclination, it was first given to the
reading public as a serial in "Blackwood's Magazine." Thackeray wrote his
great novel, "Vanity Fair," for "Colburn's Magazine"; it was refused by
the publishers, who deemed it a work without interest. He tried to place
it with several of the leading London firms who all declined it. He
finally issued it in monthly parts, and by it his fame as a novelist was
established.
It will surprise many to learn that the first volume of Hans Christian
Andersen's "Fairy Tales" was declined by every publisher in Copenhagen.
The book was brought out at the author's own cost, and the charming
collection of stories gained for him world-wide renown. The Rev. James
Beresford could not induce any publisher to pay twenty pounds for his
amusing volume, entitled "The Miseries of Human Life." It was after some
delay issued, and in twelve months passed through nine editions. A
humorous notice by Sir Walter Scott in the "Edinburgh Review" doubtless
did much to increase the circulation of the book. The handsome sum of five
thousand pounds profit was cleared out of this happy venture. In an able
work by a leading American critic, entitled "American Publishers and
English Authors," it is stated that "'Jane Eyre' went the round of the
publishing houses of London, but could not find a market until the
daughter of a publisher accidentally discovered the manuscript in an iron
safe, where it had been lying until it was mouldy. She saw the
extraordinary merit of the novel, and induced her father to publish it."
The foregoing statement is incorrect. As a matter of fact, the manuscript
was sent by rail to Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., on the 24th August, 1847,
and by the 16th of October in the same year the firm issued the novel.
According to Mrs. Gaskell's "Life of Charlotte Bronte," the future
publishers of "Jane Eyre" were at once most favourably impressed with the
book, and this is fully confirmed by the prompt publication of it.
Respecting its reception by the firm, says Mrs. Gaskell, "the first
reader of the manuscript was so powerfully struck by the character of the
tale, that he reported his impression in very strong terms to Mr. Smith,
who appears to have been much amused by the admiration excited. 'You seem
to have been so much enchanted, that I do not know how to believe you,' he
laughingly said. But when a second reader, in the person of a clear-headed
Scotchman, not given to enthusiasm, had taken the manuscript home in the
evening, and become so deeply interested in it as to sit up half the night
to finish it, Mr. Smith's curiosity was sufficiently excited to prompt him
to read it for himself; and great as were the praises which had been
bestowed upon it, he found that they did not exceed the truth." The first
novel Miss Bronte wrote was entitled "The Professor," which was submitted
to numerous publishers without finding one to accept it. It was not issued
until after the death of the gifted author, and is much inferior to her
other books. Says Mrs. Gaskell, "Mr. Smith has told me a little
circumstance connected with the reception of this manuscript, which seems
indicative of no ordinary character. It came in a brown paper parcel to
65, Cornhill. Besides the address to Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., there
were on it those of other publishers to whom the tale had been sent, not
obliterated, but simply scored through, so that Mr. Smith at once
perceived the names of some of the houses in the trade to which the
unlucky parcel had gone, without success."
Sterne could not find a bookseller who would pay fifty pounds for
"Tristram Shandy," he therefore issued it on his own account, and it
proved a saleable work, gaining for its author a front place amongst
English humorists. Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was written as a
serial for the "National Era," an anti-slavery journal published at
Washington. It was next offered to Messrs. Jewett & Co., but their reader
and critic pronounced it not a story of sufficient interest to be worth
reproducing in book form. The wife of the latter strenuously insisted that
it would meet with a favourable reception, and advised its publication. In
a notice of Mrs. Stowe, it is stated that in four years 313,000 copies had
been printed in the United States alone, probably as many more in Great
Britain. Miss Warner's popular novel, "The Wide, Wide World," was declined
by a leading New York publisher. It is said that several well-known
houses refused to have anything to do with one of the most popular books
of recent times, "Vice Versa"; even when in type, two American firms did
not discover its worth, and rejected it.
Some notable books in history, travels, poetry, and science have been
"Declined with thanks." Both Murray and Longman were afraid to risk the
publication of Prescott's "Ferdinand and Isabella," but Bentley brought
out the book, and according to his statement it is the most successful
work that he has published. A score of houses refused to publish "Eoethen."
The author in despair handed his manuscript to one of the lesser known
booksellers, and printed it at his own cost; it was extremely successful.
After twenty-five editions of Buchan's "Domestic Medicine" had been sold,
one thousand six hundred pounds was paid for the copyright, yet, strange
to state, before it was published not a single firm in Edinburgh would pay
a hundred pounds for it. Strahan, the King's printer, had offered to him
the first volume of Blair's "Sermons," and, after a careful perusal,
concluded that the work would not be one to find a ready sale. Dr.
Johnson, however, came to the rescue, and with his eloquence induced Mr.
Strahan to pay a hundred pounds for the copyright. It had a large
circulation; for a second volume, three hundred pounds was the amount
gladly paid, and for subsequent volumes six hundred pounds each.
Sir Richard Phillips rejected several famous books. It was to this
bookseller and publisher that Robert Bloomfield offered the copyright of
his "Farmer's Boy" in return for a dozen copies of the work when printed.
He feared it would be a failure, and declined it. The poet issued it by
subscription, and within three years 25,000 copies were sold. This
publisher is said to have had offered to him Byron's early poems. He might
have purchased the copyright of "Waverley" for thirty pounds, but declined
it! He rejected other works which won favourable reception from the press
and the public. It is only right to state that he gave to the world many
valuable volumes, and that he was a man of decided literary ability. A
paragraph went the rounds of the literary press after the death of Mr. J.
H. Parker, the well-known Oxford publisher, stating that the copyright of
Keble's "Christian Year" was offered to Joseph Parker for the sum of
twenty pounds and refused. It was further stated that "during the forty
years which followed the publication of this work nearly 400,000 copies
were sold, and Mr. Keble's share of the profits amounted to fourteen
thousand pounds, being one-fourth the retail price." The brothers Smith
desired to sell for twenty pounds to Mr. Murray their celebrated "Rejected
Addresses," but the great publisher declined the proposal with thanks.
They resolved to bring out the book at their own risk. It hit the popular
taste, and after sixteen editions had been sold, Mr. Murray paid for the
copyright one hundred and thirty-one pounds. The poems yielded the authors
over a thousand pounds.
Editors of newspapers and magazines have often made ludicrous blunders in
rejecting poems of sterling merit. It is generally known that the editor
of the _Greenock Advertiser_ expressed his regret that he could not insert
in his newspaper one of Thomas Campbell's best poems on account of it not
being quite up to his standard.
The Rev. Charles Wolfe submitted to the editor of a leading magazine his
famous ode on "The Burial of Sir John Moore," but it was rejected in such
a scornful manner as to cause the writer to hand it to the editor of _The
Newry Telegraph_, an Ulster newspaper of no standing as a literary
journal. It was published in 1817, in that obscure paper, with the
initials of "C. W." It was reproduced in various publications, and
attracted great attention. It is one of the best in our limited number of
pieces of martial poetry.
Epigrams on Authors.
The epigram is of considerable antiquity. The Greeks placed on their
monuments, statues, and tombs, short poetical inscriptions, written in a
simple style, and it was from this practice that we derive the epigram. In
the earlier examples we fail to find any traces of satire which is now its
chief characteristic. The Romans were the first to give a satirical turn
to this class of literature. Amongst the writers of Latin epigrams,
Catullus and Martial occupy leading places. The French are, perhaps, the
most gifted writers of epigrams. German epigrammatists have put into verse
moral proverbs. Schiller and Goethe did not, however, follow the usual
practice of their countrymen, but wrote many satirical epigrams, having
great force. Many of our English poets have displayed a fine faculty of
writing epigrams.
The birthplace of Homer is a disputed point, and has given rise to not a
few essays and epigrams. Thomas Heywood, in one of his poetical
publications, published in 1640, wrote:--
"Seven cities warr'd for Homer, being dead,
Who, living, had no roof to shroud his head."
Much in the same strain wrote Thomas Seward, a century and a half later:--
"Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer dead,
Through which the living Homer begg'd his bread."
The two writers have not stated fully the number of cities which claim to
have given birth to Homer. The number is nearer twenty than seven. Pope,
in his translation of Homer, was assisted by a poet named William Broome,
a circumstance which prompted John Henley to pen the following:--
"Pope came off clean with Homer; but, they say,
Broome went before, and kindly swept the way."
Butler, the author of "Hudibras," was much neglected during his life. It
is true that Charles II. and his courtiers read and were delighted with
his poem, but they did not extend to him any patronage. The greater part
of his days were passed in obscurity and poverty. He had been buried about
forty years when a monument was placed in Westminster Abbey to his memory,
by John Barber, a printer, and afterwards an Alderman and Lord Mayor of
London. Samuel Wesley wrote on the memorial the following lines:--
"Whilst Butler, needy wretch! was yet alive,
No gen'rous patron would a dinner give;
See him, when starved to death, and turn'd to dust,
Presented with a monumental bust!
The poet's fate is here in emblem shown,--
He asked for bread, and he receiv'd a stone."
An epitaph similar in sentiment to the foregoing was placed by Horace
Walpole over the remains of Theodore, King of Corsica, who, after many
trials and disappointments, ended his life as a prisoner for debt in
King's Bench, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Anne's,
Westminster:--
"The grave, great teacher, to a level brings
Heroes and beggars, galley slaves and kings.
But Theodore this moral learn'd ere dead;
Fate pour'd its lesson on his living head;
Bestow'd a kingdom, and denied him bread."
The fourth Earl of Chesterfield, on seeing a whole-length portrait of Nash
between the busts of Sir Isaac Newton and Pope in the rooms at Bath, wrote
as follows:--
"Immortal Newton never spoke
More truth than here you'll find;
Nor Pope himself e'er penn'd a joke
More cruel on mankind.
The picture, plac'd the busts between,
Gives satire all its strength:
Wisdom and Wit are little seen,
But Folly at full length."
Stephen Duck's poetry and progress in life gave rise to some lively lines
by the lampooners of the eighteenth century. He was an agricultural
labourer, having a thirst for knowledge and some skill as a writer of
verse. This humble and self-taught student was brought under the notice of
Queen Caroline, who was much interested in his welfare, and pleased with
his poetry; she granted him a pension of L30 a year. He was next made a
yeoman of the guard, an appointment he did not long retain, for he was
advanced to the position of a clergyman in the Church of England, and
presented to the living of Byfleet, Surrey. It is to be feared that his
education was not sufficiently liberal for a clerk in holy orders. Dean
Swift assailed the poor poet as follows:--
"The thresher Duck could o'er the Queen prevail;
The proverb says 'No fence against a flail.'
From threshing corn he turns to thresh his brains,
For which Her Majesty allows him grains.
Though 'tis confess'd that those who ever saw
His poems, think them all not worth a straw.
Thrice happy Duck, employed in threshing stubble!
Thy toil is lessen'd and thy profits doubled."
The want of dignity displayed in the foregoing is unworthy of Swift, and
the reply as follows made by Duck is certainly much to his credit:--
"You think it, censor, mighty strange
That, born a country clown,
I should my first profession change
And wear a chaplain's gown!
If virtue honours the low race
From which I was descended,
If vices your high birth disgrace
Who should be most commended?"
Duck wrote the epitaph for the tombstone over the remains of Joe Miller of
mirthful memory. The following is a copy of the lines:--
"If humour, wit, and honesty could save
The hum'rous, witty, honest from the grave;
The grave had not so soon this tenant found
Whom honesty, and wit, and humour crowned.
Or could esteem and love preserve our breath,
And guard us longer from the stroke of death,
The stroke of death on him had later fell,
Whom all mankind esteem'd and lov'd so well."
The poet-preacher was advanced to the chaplaincy of a regiment of Dragoon
Guards. Sad to relate, in the year 1756, in a fit of insanity, he took his
own life.
During the Gordon riots on the 7th of January, 1780, Lord Mansfield's
house in Bloomsbury Square was burnt, and in the flames perished his
valuable library, which he commenced collecting when a lad at school. It
included many valuable volumes and materials for memoirs of his times.
Cowper thus wrote on the subject:--
"So then--the Vandals of our isle,
Sworn foes of sense and law,
Have burnt to dust a nobler pile
Than ever Roman saw!
And Murray sighs o'er Pope and Swift,
And many a treasure more,
The well-judged purchase, and the gift
That graced his letter'd store.
Their pages mangled, burnt, and torn,
The loss was his alone;
But ages yet to come shall mourn
The burning of his own."
A pleasing and playful epigram on Robert Bloomfield, the author of "The
Farmer's Boy," was written by Henry Kirke White:--
"Bloomfield, thy happy omen'd name
Ensures continuance of thy fame;
Both sense and truth this verdict give,
While _fields_ shall _bloom_ thy name shall live."
The residences of Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge near the English
Lakes suggested the title of lake poets, and of their works the Rev. Henry
Townshend wrote:--
"They come from the lakes--an appropriate quarter
For poems diluted with plenty of water."
Surely Lord Holland was a little wide of the mark when he penned the
following epigram, complaining that Southey did not write sufficient
laureate poems; the fact is, he wrote too many to sustain his reputation
as a poet:--
"Our Laureate Bob defrauds the King--
He takes his cash and will not sing;
Yet on he goes, I know not why,
Singing for us who do not buy."
In the _Diary_ of Thomas Moore, under date of September 4, 1825, it is
stated: "Lord H. full of an epigram he had just written on Southey, which
we all twisted and turned into various shapes; he is as happy as a boy
during the operation. He suggests the following as the last couplet:--
"And for us, who will not buy,
Goes singing on eternally."
It has been truthfully observed that William Wordsworth "found poetry in
the most common-place events of life, and described them in familiar
language; he naturally contended that there was little real difference
between poetry and prose." Byron thus rallies him on the theory:--
"The simple Wordsworth, framer of a lay
As soft as evening in his favourite May,
Who warns his friend, 'to shake off toil and trouble,
And quit his books, for fear of growing double;'
Who, both by precept and example, shows
That prose is verse, and verse is merely prose;
Convincing all, by demonstration plain,
Poetic souls delight in prose inane."
Theodore Hook produced some pungent verses; here is a slight example on
Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound":--
"Shelley styles his new poem _Prometheus Unbound_,
And 'tis like to remain so while time circles round;
For surely an age would be spent in the finding
A reader so weak as to pay for the binding!"
Scott wrote a poem which was published in 1815, under the title of _The
Field of Waterloo_, and prefaced it thus: "It may be some apology for the
imperfections of this poem, that it was composed hastily, and during a
short tour upon the Continent, where the author's labours were liable to
frequent interruption; but its best apology is, that it was written for
the purpose of assisting the Waterloo subscription."
This plea did not disarm hostile criticism. Thomas, Lord Erskine,
expressed himself as follows:--
"On Waterloo's ensanguined plain
Lie tens of thousands of the slain;
But none by sabre or by shot
Fell half so flat as Walter Scott."
Wrote Thomas Moore in his _Diary_: "I have read _Walter_-loo. The battle
murdered many, and _he_ has murdered the battle; 'tis sad stuff."
The Earl of Carlisle wrote a sixpenny pamphlet advocating small theatres;
and on the day it was issued the newspapers contained the announcement
that he had given a large subscription to a public fund, a circumstance
which formed the theme of the following epigram by his cousin, Lord Byron:
"Carlisle subscribes a thousand pounds
Out of his rich domains;
And for sixpence circles round
The product of his brains:
'Tis thus the difference you may hit
Between his fortune and his wit."