Captain Mayne Reid now sought to find a publisher for his first romance,
"The Rifle Rangers," which he had written at Donn Piatt's house in Ohio,
and to which he had now put the finishing touches in London.
To find a publisher for a book by an unknown author was no easy task.
Eventually the work was published by William Shoberl, Great Marlborough
Street, in two volumes, at one guinea, on an agreement to pay the author
half the profits. The preface to "The Rifle Rangers" is as follows:
"The incidents are not fictitious, but allowance must be made for a
poetic colouring which fancy has doubtless imparted. The characters are
taken from living originals, though most of them figure under fictitious
names; they are portraits nevertheless."
The book was dedicated to his friend, Lord Dudley Coutts Stuart.
"The Rifle Rangers" became at once a success, and the reviews in the
press were of the most flattering description. The _Observer_, April
7th, 1850, says:
"Two extraordinary volumes, teeming with varied Mexican adventures, and
written by no everyday man. Of Captain Mayne Reid may be said,
according to his own analysis of himself, what Byron wrote of Bonaparte:
"`And quiet to quick bosoms is a bell!'
"The volumes contain some wild love passages, and many descriptions of
manners and scenery."
Of this book a writer in an American journal says: "In London he found a
publisher, and awoke to a world-wide fame. The book that could not be
published here, was translated and republished in every language in
Europe, and returning to this country, found thousands of delighted
readers. Your correspondent, calling once to pay his respects to
Lamartine, found that gentleman with Mayne Reid's book in his hand, and
the eminent Frenchman loud in its praise. Dumas, senior, said he could
not close the book till he had read the last word."
This was followed by his second romance, the world-famed "Scalp
Hunters," which was written by Mayne Reid in Ireland, at Ballyroney, in
the old house in which he was born. On its completion he returned to
London, and the book was published in 1851, by Charles Street, in three
volumes.
It at once became one of the most popular books of the season, and has
maintained its popularity ever since. Over a million copies have been
sold in Great Britain alone, and it has been translated into as many
languages as "The Pilgrim's Progress." The preface to "The Scalp
Hunters" is dated June, 1851:
"My book is a _trapper_ book. It is well known that trappers swear like
troopers; some of them, in fact, worse. I have endeavoured to
christianise my trappers as much as lay in my power. I, however, see a
wide distinction between the impiety of a trapper's oath and the
immorality of an unchaste episode."
There was not an adverse criticism in any of the press notices.
David Bogue, publisher, of Fleet Street, proposed to Mayne Reid to write
a series of boys' books of adventure, the books which earned for him the
title of the "Boy's Novelist." The first of these was "The Desert
Home," or "English Family Robinson." It was published by Bogue at
Christmas, 1851, in an illustrated cloth edition at 7 shillings 6 pence.
The _Globe_, February 2nd, 1852, says: "Captain Mayne Reid offers to
the juvenile community a little book calculated to excite their surprise
and to gratify their tastes for the transatlantic, and the wonderful.
The dangers and incidents of life in the wilderness are depicted in
vivid colours."
In addition to his literary work Captain Mayne Reid now established a
Rifle Club. His military ardour was not quite quenched. The Belvidere
Rifle Club was the title.
The preliminary conditions for obtaining recognition by the Crown were
stated by the Marquis of Salisbury, Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex, to be
that the numbers of a Volunteer Rifle Corps should exceed sixty, and
that particulars of the names of the members, and of the mode of
training in arms practised, should be supplied.
The Christmas of 1852 saw the production of "The Boy Hunters." "For the
boy readers of England and America this book has been written, and to
them it is dedicated; that it may interest them, so as to rival in their
affections the top, the ball, and the kite--that it may impress them, so
as to create a taste for that most refining study, the study of Nature--
that it may benefit them, by begetting a fondness for books, the
antidotes of ignorance, of idleness, and vice, has been the design, as
it is the sincere wish, of their friend the author."