“Railway Edition” in 25 vols. ” 1858-60 ” 1 17 6
New Illustrated Edition in 48 vols. founded on
“Author’s Favourite” ” 1859-61 ” 10 13 0
“Shilling Edition” in 25 vols. ” 1862-63 ” 1 5 0
At our present writing a beautiful new edition, the “Centenary,” is
being published.
The moment that the copyrights of the earlier novels expired the market
was flooded with cheap reprints; but the Messrs. Black were equal
to the occasion. They issued a trade reminder to the public that the
edition of 1829 was thoroughly revised by the author, was altered in
almost every page and largely augmented by notes, and that it still was
copyright, and as a death-blow to the reprints by rival houses they
brought out the “sixpenny edition” in monthly volumes, each volume
containing a complete tale with all the matter that had appeared in
the more expensive editions. Thanks to former stereotypes they were
thus enabled to present a series of the cheapest and most valuable
books that any house in the country has yet been able to produce.
The publication lasted from November, 1866, to November, 1868, and
the complete issue consisted of twenty-five volumes, and thus the
public were able to purchase for twelve shillings and sixpence what
had originally cost upwards of forty pounds. Constable himself in his
wildest dreams of cheap publishing never imagined such a marvellous
feature as this.
As a proof of their popularity we quote from a contemporary writer
in the _Illustrated Times_, 25th of September, 1867. The writer was
travelling down to Wales, and, at the London station, he said, “‘Boy,
where are the Scott novels?’ ‘Don’t keep them,’ he replied. ‘Don’t keep
them! Why not?’ ‘Because, if we did, we should not sell anything else.’
Here then, to begin with, is a small fact worth reflection. Some of
the novels were first published fifty years ago. Can you point out any
other series of books, or even any single book, a sixpenny edition of
which Mr. Smith would be afraid to lay upon his bookstalls for fear the
public might refuse to buy anything else?” At every station the writer
made the same inquiry and met with the same result.
As through the business talents of the publishers, the printed works
of Sir Walter Scott were reduced in price, so through the fame of the
author did the autograph remains rise to a very wonderful fictitious
value. Mr. Cadell made a remarkable collection of all the manuscripts
he could purchase, and on the 9th of July, 1868, his collection was
sold for £1073; while even a corrected proof of “Peveril of the Peak”
realized £25.
The seventh edition of the “Encyclopædia Britannica” was finished,
as we have previously stated, in 1842, and met with, not only an
immediate, but also a continuous sale, but human knowledge refuses
to be stereotyped, and at the close of 1852 the eighth edition was
commenced, occupying nine years in the publication. The proprietors
justly claim for it the proud title of “the largest literary enterprise
ever undertaken by any single house in Great Britain.” The editorial
charge was entrusted to Dr. Thomas Stewart Trail, professor of
medical jurisprudence in the University of Edinburgh; and, among the
more important new contributors, we may mention Archbishop Whately,
Professor Blackie, and Dr. Forbes, the latter of whom contributed
a new “Dissertation” to the introductory volume. Lord Macaulay
contributed five of the leading biographies “as a token of friendship
to the senior proprietor.” “Any article of any value in any preceding
edition,” says the editor, “has been reprinted in this--in all cases
with corrections, and frequently with considerable additions. Besides
these, it has received so great an accession of original contributions,
that nine-tenths of its contents may be said to be absolutely new,”
and this will probably apply with the same force to the ninth edition,
which is to be commenced next year.
Long before this date Mr. Adam Black was assisted in his business by
his sons. He retired from the house in 1865, and now laden with honours
in public, and successes in business, life, he may fairly claim to
be the Nestor of publishers. He must have seen many changes in the
literary world, and marked many vicissitudes in the “realms of print;”
but the changes as far as they operated for him were for the better,
and vicissitudes seem invariably to have kept outside his charmed
circle.
In the year 1861, a very valuable work--the “Collected Writings of the
late Thomas De Quincey”--came into the hands of Messrs. Black; but,
as the public are almost entirely indebted to the laborious care and
patient perseverance of another publisher, Mr. James Hogg, then of
Edinburgh, for the production of this collection, which then consisted
of fourteen volumes, we have thought it better that this account should
form a kind of supplement to our present chapter.
For a period of about forty years De Quincey had been an extensive
contributor to periodical literature, and it is scarcely surprising
that, during such a length of time, the sources even where many of his
contributions originally appeared had been forgotten, and that the very
existence of a few had altogether escaped the author’s recollection.
Various attempts had been made to induce De Quincey to draw together
and revise a selection from the more important of his scattered
writings, but from his varying state of health and, consequent on this,
his inveterate habit of procrastination, the work was always postponed;
and from his advanced years, all hope was given up of the collected
works ever appearing under the superintendence of the author.
In the year 1845, the well-known periodical, _Hogg’s Instructor_, was
started under the management and sole responsibility of Mr. Hogg.
Sixteen volumes of the _Instructor_ as a weekly serial were published,
and among many other contributors of note was the “Opium-Eater,” and
from the commencement of their intercourse De Quincey and Mr. Hogg
became firm friends.
About this time several volumes of De Quincey’s writings had been
collected and published by Messrs. Ticknor and Fields, of Boston, U.S.,
without, of course, the advantage of the author’s own revisal; and, as
the papers had been originally hurriedly written for magazines, and
as, during the lapse of time, many changes had become unavoidable,
the author felt that, in justice to himself, extensive additions
and, in some cases, suppressions were necessary. Arrangements were
accordingly entered into for bringing out the collected works at home
in a thoroughly revised and amended form, Mr. Hogg undertaking all the
responsibility, and engaging to give his aid both in collecting the
materials, and in generally seeing the volumes through the press. On
the announcement of the publication it was confidently predicted by
some of those who had been engaged in the previous attempts that not
a single volume would ever appear. In order to afford ample time for
the thorough revision of the work it was arranged that the publication
should be spread over three years. The first volume appeared in 1853;
but, instead of three years bringing the series to a close, eight
years had elapsed before the thirteenth volume was completed, and
then De Quincey died--the remainder of the thirteenth, and the whole
of the fourteenth, being due to Mr. Hogg. During these eight years
almost daily interviews or correspondence occurred between De Quincey
and Mr. Hogg. To use the author’s words, “the joint labour and patient
perseverance spent in the preparation of these volumes was something
perfectly astounding.” In addition to the frequent and protracted
interviews, the correspondence which passed during the progress of the
work would fill a goodly volume.
In order to account for the delays which so frequently occurred, De
Quincey remarks upon one occasion:--“I suffer from a most afflicting
derangement of the nervous system, which at times makes it difficult
for me to write at all, and always makes me impatient, in a degree not
easily understood, of recasting what may seem insufficiently or even
incoherently expressed.” But, while suffering under this cause, he
laboured under a daily and more formidable bar to progress, as annoying
and perplexing to himself as to others. For many years he had been in
the habit of correcting manuscript or of jotting down on loose sheets,
more frequently on small scraps of paper, any stray thoughts that
occurred to him, intending to use them as occasion might afterwards
offer. These papers, however, instead of being methodically arranged
and preserved, were carelessly laid aside, and were soon mixed up with
letters, proofs, old and new copy, newspapers, periodicals, and other
confusing litter, and the numerous volumes he received from literary
friends and admirers, all huddled together on chairs, tables, or
wherever they at the moment might be stowed. Placing a high value on
many things in this heterogeneous mass, and feeling assured in his own
mind that strange hands would only render confusion worse confounded,
he would allow no one to endeavour to put the things in order. Indeed,
if anything could have ruffled his gentle nature into the use of an
angry word it would have been the attempt to meddle with these papers.
They very rapidly increased, and every search after missing copy or
proofs made matters worse. When a dead block occurred his invariable
practice was to build them up, as they lay, against the wall of the
room, and, as a consequence, everything went astray. A few extracts
from notes to Mr. Hogg will show the labour, suffering, and worry
which this state of chaos entailed:--“My dear Sir,--It is useless to
trouble you with the _ins_ and _outs_ of the process--the result is,
that, working through most part of the night, I have not yet come to
the missing copy. I am going on with the search, yet being walled up
in so narrow an area (not larger than a postchaise as regards the free
space), I work with difficulty, and the _stooping_ kills me. I greatly
fear that the entire day will be spent in the search.”
“Yesterday, suddenly, I missed the interleaved volume. I have been
unrolling an immense heap of newspapers, &c., ever since six a.m. How
so thick a vol. _can_ have hidden itself, I am unable to explain.”
“The act of _stooping_ has for many years caused me so much illness,
that in this search, all applied to papers lying on the floor,
entangled with innumerable newspapers, I have repeatedly been forced
to pause. I fear that the seventeen or eighteen missing pages may have
been burned suddenly lighting candles; and I am more surprised at
finding so many than at missing so few.”
“I am utterly in the dark as to where this paper is--whether _chez
moi_, or _chez la presse_ (I use French simply as being the briefest
way of conveying my doubts). Now mark the difference to me, according
to the answer. 1. On the assumption that the paper is in _my_
possession, then, of course, I will seek till I find it, and no labour
will be thrown away. But 2. On the counter assumption that the paper
is all the while in the possession of the press, the difference to me
would be this: That I should be searching for perhaps half a day, and,
as it is manifestly not on my table, I should proceed on the postulate
that it must have been transferred to the floor, consequently the work
would all be unavoidably a process of stooping, and all labour lost,
from which I should hardly recover for a fortnight. This explains to
you my earnestness in the matter. Exactly the same doubt applies (and
therefore exactly the same dilemma or alternative of stoop or stoop
not) to some other papers.”
How keenly De Quincey felt in consequence of these continually
recurring delays, the following sentences will show:--“It distracts
me to find that I have been constantly working at the wrong part. It
is most unfortunate, nor am I able to guess the cause, that I who am
rendered seriously unhappy whenever I find or suppose myself to have
caused any loss of time to a compositor, whose time is generally his
main estate, am yet continually doing so unintentionally and in most
cases unconsciously. It seems as if to the very last my destiny were to
cause delays.”
The frequency of the communications and personal interviews which
occurred during the eight years in which the works were in progress
may be inferred from the following:--“My dear Sir,--I have been in
great anxiety through yesterday and to-day as to the cause of a
mysterious interruption of the press intercourse with me. Now, it
has happened once before that we were at cross purposes, each side
supposing itself stopped by the other. As the easiest way, therefore,
of creeping out of the mystery I repeat it to you.”
Notwithstanding the continual interruptions and the difficulty of
dragging the volumes through the press, the cordial and friendly
feeling which existed between De Quincey and Mr. Hogg was never
interrupted by a single jarring word.
Since the fourteen volumes passed into the hands of Messrs. Black, they
have added other two volumes, made up of biographies contributed by De
Quincey to the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” and a number of papers which
remained in Mr. Hogg’s hands.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
_JOHN MURRAY_: