When he quitted Carlsruhe it was Lever’s intention to make his way by
easy stages to Italy. His _modus operandi_ was to pack himself and his
family into a large coach, and to drive wherever his wayward fancy led
him. He tried to comfort himself with the assurance that this insouciant
method of journeying was economical as well as being of advantage to
him. He ascertained later that the average cost of these economical
migrations was about £10 a-day.
In May the party, which included Mr Stephen Pearce, arrived at Bregenz,
on the Lake of Constance, and from the window of an inn Lever beheld the
distant prospect of a castle which fascinated him. He ascertained that
the _schloss_ belonged to Baron Pöllnitz, and that the Baron was willing
to let it. Mr Pearce conducted the negotiations. The lord of the
Reider Schloss was Chamberlain to the reigning Grand Duke of
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha--Lever seems to have been destined to forgather with
Grand Dukes,--and he was obliged to resume his duties at Court.
On the 26th May Mr Pearce despatched a letter from Riedenburg, Bregenz,
to Alexander Spencer.
“My dear Sir,--On our way to Italy we stopped suddenly short at the foot
of the Alps, and got ourselves housed in a handsome Gothic castle in
the midst of beautiful scenery. In all the fracas of a new
habitation--luggage arriving, strange servants, &c.--Lever has told
me to acknowledge your letter, which has followed from Carlsruhe,
containing Dr [afterwards Judge] Longfield’s opinion on the Curry
affair. This opinion seems in every respect to bear out Lever’s own
previous convictions, and to sustain the view he took of his contract.
In one point only does he deem Dr L.’s suggestion inapplicable--that
is, as respecting the purchase of the unsold copies. This Lever neither
could nor would undertake. The principal question is the determining of
the right of half profits on an invariable standard, that standard being
already established in the account furnished.... The arrangement Lever
wishes being the acknowledgment by Curry of half profits on the scale
already conceded, and the consent not to make future sales at an
inferior rate without Lever’s agreement thereto....
“Our present habitation is most beautifully situated, the Lake of
Constance being on one side of the house and the mountains on the other,
Mt. Sentis rising to the height of nearly 8000 feet. This, of course,
and the whole range, capped with snow, taking the most beautiful tints
at the rising and the setting of the sun.”
Lever was soon busy entertaining. One of his earliest guests was his
friend Major Dwyer. Towards the end of July he had a visit from his new
publisher, Mr Edward Chapman (of Chapman & Hall). In August he resumed
his correspondence with Dublin.
_To Mr Alexander Spencer_.
“Riedenburg, _Aug_. 5, 1846.
“With a houseful of company and every imaginable kind of confusion
around me, I have barely time for a few lines in reply to your last.
“Curry wrote asking what price I placed on my right to the books, and
I replied demanding a full a/c of all sales up to date. My London
publisher, who fortunately happened to be with me, advised me as to the
course to take.... I shall write fully and lengthily by Mr Chapman, who
leaves on Saturday for London.”
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
“Riedenburg, Bregenz, _Aug_. 15, 1846.
“My chateau continues full of company, with the visits of daily new
arrivals. Baron de Margueritte, wife and daughter, one party. The
Baron’s sister was married to John Armit of Dublin. Dudley Perceval, son
of the late Spencer Perceval; then Charles Dickens and wife, with two
of the Bishop of Exeter’s family expected,--not to speak of my worthy
publisher, Mr Chapman, and wife, from London, who are so pleased with
their visit that, like kind folk, they have stayed three weeks with us.
I like him greatly, and his wife is a remarkably good and favourable
specimen of London.
“As for Curry, his letter was a mild, courteous, mock-friendly,
expostulatory, but semi-defiant epistle, talking about our old and
intimate business relations and the hope of their [being] one day
revived, and asking me to set a price upon my interest; to which I
responded by asking for the data of such a demand, a full and true
statement of a/c. It seems that he offered to sell his share to C. &
H., and asked them, for his moiety, £2500! while he had the insolence
to offer me £200 for mine. This Chapman himself told me, and also added
that his (Curry’s) great anxiety was now to purchase my share, in order
to bring the whole commodity into the market in a more eligible shape,
as few booksellers would buy a divided copyright.
“Chapman says, on reading these letters and hearing all the case, that
he never heard of any man being more shamefully treated,--that I
have been outrageously rogued and robbed throughout. When the accts.
come,--if they ever do,--Chapman will have them examined by their own
accountant, so the great point at present would be to ask him to forward
these to me as early as possible.
“My answer (to Curry) was civil but dry. No notice did I take of his
hopes of future dealings nor the half intimation that a legal case was a
game _à deux_. I merely said: Let me see how I stand, and what would be
a fair sum to ask [as a settlement] for the past.
“It is strange enough that M’Glashan never wrote to me since this
controversy began, although I think he is in my debt a letter. I would
be glad if you would take some opportunity of dropping in on him and
feeling your way as to his ‘dispositions,’ as the French say,--whether
he is friendly or the reverse. I have written this at the cost of my
eyesight, which is abominably bad at night.”
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
“Riedenburg, _Nov_. 2, 1846.
“There never was a bad business man assisted by a cleverer and more
good-natured friend. You have perfectly satisfied all my hazy doubts as
to how I stand before the world. Heaven knows, the matter ought to
seem easy enough to me now! for all through my life I have never looked
beyond the coming month of January,--and how to open the New Year
without cumbering it with the deficiencies of the old one....
“From Curry I received a half-apologetic epistle, hoping that if I would
state what sum I would accept for my remaining interest, the matter
might be arranged without the interference of the gentlemen of the long
robe. I sent the letter on to Chapman for advice, and I have not yet
received his reply. Could you conveniently see M’Glashan and sound
him as to the best mode of terminating the controversy? I am also very
anxious to ascertain his feelings towards myself....
“I hear that my ‘Knight’ (though not by any means so popular as many
others) is the best I have done. I hope this is so, because it is the
last. I know it is most carefully written: the dialogue has cost me
great pains and labour, and the whole book has more of thought in it
than its predecessors.... I am glad you like the ‘Knight’ for more
reasons than flattered vanity suggests. I want you to accept of it in
dedication. I hope you will receive the barren compliment, not at the
poor price of such a production, but as another proof of my sincere
regard and affection.”
_To Mr Hugh Baker_.*
“Riedenburg, _Nov._ 10, 1846.
* Charles Lever’s brother-in-law.
“I possess a contingent interest in certain books--‘Tom Burke,’
‘Hinton,’ and ‘O’Donoghue,’ the former after 11,000, the latter after
10,000 copies. This interest--or, to speak more plainly, the amount of
profit accruing to me--was estimated by M’G. in one of his letters to
me, and I believe in a conversation with you, as such, that if the sales
reached 20,000 my receipts would be doubled. The sale of ‘Hinton’ alone
[? the a/cs] showed did exceed the limits where my profit began, and in
an account furnished to me before leaving Ireland I was credited in a
proportion analogous to M’G.’s pledge.
“Since that period (mark this--for here the iniquity begins) the house
of Curry and Co. effected sales for the purpose, I believe, of raising
cash to conclude the winding-up of partnership, of 1000 copies of
‘Hinton’ at a mere minimum profit (6d, I think, per copy), and thus at
one _coup_ not only reduce my profit to a mere fraction, but seriously
and gravely--as I am prepared to show--damage my character and that of
my books in the London market.
“And these sales made without my consent--without even my
knowledge--were in the face of a scale of profit already acknowledged by
their own account furnished, and specially pledged by M’G.
“The matter ends not here, for, anxious to purchase my remaining
rights,--the only obstacle to selling the sole copyrights in
London,--Curry had the impudence to propose £200 for the four vols.
in question, urging as a reason for my compliance his own depreciated
sales, and using a threat of the damage he could effect in my reputation
by continuing such a system of depreciation.
“This, if related by any less credible witness than Spencer, would
scarcely be believed. But the case is so. Up to the moment Spencer had
been--when able--moving in the matter; but Curry, from old experience of
my capacity for being duped, declined conferring with him, and addressed
to me certain letters--half flattery, half insolence--in which he
alleges that M’G.’s scale of my half profits was far too high, and that
I have been overpaid! and lastly, that the depreciated sales were made
by him in full right on his part.
“A case was submitted to Longfield for his opinion on this head (of
which I enclose you the copy sent to me by Spencer). The last letter I
received from Curry enclosed a statement of the expenses of getting up
‘Hinton,’ in which I am charged for my share of 20,000 copies--i.e.,
4000 more than are sold. It also contains a request to know at what
price I do value my contingent interests, as Mr Curry hopes the matter
may be arranged without reference to the courts of law.
“As to the scale of half profits, C. & H. set them down as £10 per 1000
Nos.--which is just what M’Glashan [? estimated].” *
* Lever would appear to have received £1300 on account of
profits of ‘Jack Hinton.’--E. D.
_To Mr Hugh Baker._
“Riedenburg, _Nov_. 14,1846.
“Soon after despatching my letter to you, I received the enclosed from
Mr Chapman, for whose consideration and counsel I had stated the whole
transaction with Curry. You will perceive that his opinion corroborates
mine, and maintains my moiety of profits as fixed and unchangeable. As
to his (Chapman’s) suggestion that I should ask Curry what price _he_
lays upon his share of the copyrights, it is evidently to reduce him
to the dilemma of avowing that he offered me far too little, and of
impressing that he asks far too much. Will you see Curry and say that
the severe illness of the children in succession has totally prevented
my attending to business,--an excuse, I regret to say, not in the least
fictitious?
“Curry did ask the trade £2500, which I fancy included stock and
stereo-plates, but of this I’m not certain. I had a suspicion that if
the copyrights were offered at a fair and reasonable price, Chapman &
Hall might purchase,--an arrangement which would suit my views in every
respect....
“The affair is of greater moment to me than its mere £ s. d.
interests,--because it may serve to consolidate a publishing connection
which I would be much pleased to fix on a permanent and lasting basis.”
_To Mr Hugh Baker._
“Riedenburg, _Dec_ 10, 1846.
“C. & H. might purchase (the copyrights), but I have only this
impression from a conversation I once held with Chapman, when he
mentioned that Curry, after offering the books in the market, appeared
to withdraw them--and this possibly gave rise to the suspicion of a new
issue being contemplated. What C. & H. would speculate in is, I fancy,
a reissue in weekly parts,* cheap--a ‘People’s Edition,’ or some such
blackguard epi., that, being the taste of the day. Chapman told me that
we might calculate on 30,000, at least, of some of the vols....
* Edward Chapman (according to Lever) stated in one of his
letters to Bregenz that his firm’s mode of dealing with
Dickens was to give the author so much per 1000 copies, “not
charging anything in the a/c for authorship and plates, save
cost of working them off.” Doubtless this refers to
reprints.--E. D.
“As to M’Glashan. About ten days back I received a note from Spencer
which gave me so favourable an impression of his (M’G.’s) feelings
towards me, that I at once wrote to him--which I have not done for the
last ten months, and although I am very far from being in a writing vein
or humour. If he cares for my aid, and if he can afford me such terms as
will not be below my mark and _infra dig_. to work for, I’ll finish the
‘Continental Gossipings,’ and make a 1- or 2-vol affair of it, as
may seem best.... I am perfectly ready to return to our old and
long-continued good understanding.
“I am much amused by your account of Irish affairs. There is something
inherent in the national taste for rascality. I am rather well pleased
that Old Dan has conquered Young Ireland. I like him, if only that he is
the Old Established Blackguard.
“It is rather good fun for us here to read the London morning
papers--‘Times,’ &c.--commenting on the Austrian business. Such a mass
of lies, mistakes, and absurdities as they circulate never was heard of.
First, the Gallician revolt--which ‘The Times’ allege was collusive on
their part--was reported to the Governor eleven days before it broke
out, and though he had every evidence before his eyes, being a stupid
old beast he would not credit [the news], sent the troops away, and had
his rebellion for his pains. As uncle to the Emperor, Metternich could
not degrade him: but he has been _invited_ to Vienna, and not permitted
to resume his government. There was neither collusion on the part of
Austria, nor was the peasant massacre instigated by them,--so far
from it, that the first movement by the Polish nobles (the greatest
blackguards in Europe) was to assassinate or poison all who refused to
join the conspiracy. We have beside us in the [neighbourhood] here a
young Polish count who made his escape in disguise, and would certainly
have been killed for refusing to join the revolt, while the Austrians
would hang him if he did. As to Cracow: Austria refused twice, and it
was only by Russia’s ultimatum--you or I--that she consented to the
annexation. No one who knows anything of Austrian politics suspects her
of desiring increase of territory. It is against her interest and her
stability, but Russia is not the best next-door neighbour. There are
many faults in Austrian rules, but there are excellences and advantages
I never beheld in more democratic governments, and whatever may be said
about spies and police visits, &c. (of which, by the way, I have seen
nothing myself), I cannot speak ill of a country that lets no man
starve--that takes care of its sick and aged, and possesses the safest
roads to travel, and the smallest calendar of crime of any population in
Europe.”
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
“Riedenburg, _Jan_. 9, 1847.
“You will see by the papers that Dickens, as well as Bulwer, has fallen
under the lash of ‘The Times.’ It matters little however; the [? love]
for low verbiage and coarse pictures of unreality is a widespread--and
a spreading--taste. People will buy and read what requires no effort
of mean capacities to follow, and what satisfies lowbred tastes by
a standard of morality to which they can, with as little difficulty,
attain. I have suffered--I am suffering--from the endeavour to supply a
healthier, more manly, and more English sustenance, but it may be that
before I succeed--if I do succeed at all--the hand will be cold and the
heart still, and that I may be only a pioneer to clear the way for the
breaching party.
“That such a taste must rot of its own corruption is clear enough, but,
meanwhile, literature is an unattractive career for those who would use
it for a higher purpose.
“I hope you like my ‘Knight’--because, while I perceive many and grave
faults in its construction and development, I still would fain hope
that the writing (as writing) is pure, and the tone throughout such as
a gentleman might write and a lady read. If you agree with me, I shall
feel that my book requires no better eulogy.
“Miss Edgeworth and O’Sullivan give me warm encouragement and high
commendation; but I take it much of both proceeds from kindness of
feeling, which, perhaps, guesses with intuitive good-nature that such
are as much ‘bids for the future’ as flatteries for the past.”
_To Mr Hugh Baker._
“Bregenz, _Jan._ 22, 1847.
“....I know Cumming has burked my ‘Knight,’--not intentionally, but from
the blundering of a lethargic bad habit of business, and the result has
been most disheartening and unpleasant to me.
“I am suffering severely from gout in the head and palpitations of the
heart, and not able to write: even correcting is too much for me.”
_To Mr Hugh Baker._
“Riedenburg, _Feb_. 10, 1847.
“C. & H. wrote me that they do not contemplate the purchase, but that
if I could get £600 to £800 I should be well off,--though if these sums
(either of them) were to include the disputed moiety on the sale of
‘Hinton’ ‘the settlement is not so grand.’ I think otherwise, and would
be exceedingly glad to have so much out of the fire; besides, I really
want the cash, as my present engagement terminates soon, and I have
nothing in preparation to succeed it for the remainder of the year....
“What would you say--if in the event of their (Curry) refusing me fair
terms--to make this proposal: ‘What will you give Mr Lever if he revises
the works (and they need it) for republication--adding notes, &c.? and
also giving you the copyright of “O’Leary,” to appear like the others?’
“This might lead to something, and the occupation of re-editing, writing
mems., and prefaces, &c., would give me immediate work.”
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
“Riedenburg, _Feb_. 20, 1847.
“I have often had the unpleasant office of inflicting you with my
troublesome affairs, but perhaps never before has it been my lot to have
such a necessity under the same sad _circumstances_ I now do.
“I have just learned, as much to my amazement as my horror, that Hugh
Baker has fled from his home and family owing to money embarrassments so
great as to be overwhelming. What the amount may be I cannot even hazard
a guess, but I suspect and believe it to be considerable.
“I neither am aware of how, when, or where he expended the large sums
attributed to him, for I well knew that the family, who derived great
advantage from the Institution, practised for several years past every
suitable economy, so that they are in no wise to blame for this shocking
calamity. Of course the upshot is that he will be dismissed the first
meeting the Board may have, and it only remains to be seen if his
mother, now old and infirm, can continue to hold her situation. Several
years back Hugh obtained Mrs B.’s unwilling permission to sell an
annuity of £100 settled upon her,--the proceeds of which, and several
hundred pounds besides in bank, he has made away with.
“No one knows anything now--whither he has fled, or what future
course he purposes for himself. Meanwhile I believe the family are in
circumstances so straitened--he having taken away every pound in the
house--that even the most trifling assistance is called for. Will you,
then, see Mrs B. or Miss Baker, and let them have £15 from me? I grieve
to say I cannot do more at the moment, but my own position is one of
grave anxiety. My present literary engagement ends in June. I have
formed none other,--nor can I possibly, without the expense and
inconvenience of a journey to London,--so that my income ceasing
suddenly, and no exact or certain date of its renewal before me, I
am--not unreasonably--anxious and uneasy.
“I looked to some arrangement of the disputed matter with Curry as
the probable means to eke out the year, not intending to begin another
serial till January 1848. This chance appears as remote as ever. C. &
H. estimate at £600 to £800 the value of copyrights, for which Curry
proposes £200,--this even irrespective of my claims on the score of
‘Hinton’ being sold without my consent, &c.
“Before leaving Ireland I paid £185 to save Hugh Baker from arrest, he
averring that he had no other debts in the world. I gave him £57 more,
in addition to various sums of £10 and £20 at different times during my
residence in Templeogue. I also, as you are aware, paid from £38 to £40
per annum since my absence, and now the utter uselessness of these--to
me, a working man--dreary sacrifices has completely overwhelmed me.
“It is only just to tell so old and true a friend as you that my wife,
while deeply feeling for their miseries and willing to restrict her own
expenditure to any extent to relieve them, has never given me the least
encouragement to take their burthen on me, and has on every occasion
done her utmost to stop unreasonable expectations, or what might assume
the shape of claims.
“The announcement of this misfortune has come suddenly and without
warning upon us. We believed--and with fair grounds--that we had removed
the difficulties arising from past imprudence, and now we are to learn
that all our sacrifices only deferred the stroke. If I seem too niggard,
or if, when you visit Mrs B. (and your visit will be taken as that of my
oldest, truest friend), you find that this trifle is inadequate to the
relief of the pressure, pray make it £5 or £10 more,--and with God’s
blessing I’ll sit up an hour or so later for some time and pull it up.
“I scarcely have heart to ask you how you like my ‘Knight’ since last
I heard. [?These] hard rubs clash too rudely on the spirits to give
any zest for the sorrows of tale-writing or reading; and the trade of
fiction-weaving is never more distasteful than when its mock excitements
are placed side by side with flesh and blood afflictions. I am well
weary of it!
“If I could resume relations with M’G. for a serial in his Mag. on fair
terms I would soon pull up the leeway, but I am at a loss to guess the
Scotchman’s _tactiques_.”
_To Mr Alexander Spencer_.
“Bregenz, _March_ 14,1847.
“I am shocked by the want of common candour--common honesty--you
experienced in your kind visit paid in my name. It was not true that H.
B.’s [? difficulty] was temporary--far from it. He is by this time
at New Orleans, and so far from any amelioration in their affairs, I
sincerely believe they cannot be worse. These are sad topics and sadder
confessions, but I cannot afford to be misunderstood by _you_, and
neither zeal nor false shame shall prevent me from telling the truth.
“As regards our part--and it is of that I must think principally,--I
believe that the best thing is, without making any definite pledges of
aid, which to an income so precarious and uncertain as mine are always
onerous, to contribute when and what we can; and although I know and
feel all the great objections to a system which cannot check and may
encourage unwarrantable expectations from us, and (I own I think now of
ourselves) this plan would not have the apparent pressure of a positive
debt,--if the world goes fairly well with us we will not be less
generous in this way than we should have been just in the other.
“For the present there is no need of further interference; and I
never hugged the aphorism, ‘Sufficient for the day,’ &c., with more
satisfaction.
“As to Curry. The a/cs furnished were no a/cs. On the contrary, C. & H.
pronounced them, on the test of a London accountant, ‘mere swindles.’...
My hope is not to sell but to obtain some channel of purchase of the
copyrights back again--in London (not C. & H., who have now begun a
cheap issue of Dickens that will last some years),--and by a new and
cheap edition, with notes, &c., make a better thing of it.
“I cannot say how anxiously I look to hearing from you about M’G. The
whole thing has a gloomy aspect--that is, my present state of relations
in Dublin and London gives me very grave alarm.
“I am glad my ‘Knight’ holds his ground with you. I trust I have not
vulgarised the book merely by introducing low people, but I felt
that mere nominal poverty could never be the full load of affliction
high-born and high-minded people would experience in a fallen
condition, and I was led to lay stress on the fact that altered social
relations--inferior associations--are heavier evils than brown bread and
weak congou.
“I knew--I felt while I wrote it, with a heart very full--that the verse
of my poor father’s song would touch you.
“It is strange enough that the habit of describing emotions and
sentiments in fiction should have heightened to a most painful degree
my own susceptibilities, so that I really am as weak as a girl, and far
more unable to buffet against the rocks of life than when, as a doctor,
I encountered them really and bodily. Half a dozen years may have had
its share in this, but only its share. Besides, we have been living
a very retired solitary life,--my only neighbours are an old Austrian
general and his staff. I have therefore been doing with my thoughts what
they say has deteriorated Spanish nobility--ruining them by frequent
intermarriage.
“I am also fretted by a kind of vague consciousness that I have better
stuff in me than I have yet shown; and though I was just as often
disposed to regret as to indulge this belief, the confession will not
entirely leave me, acting like a blunt spur on a lazy horse,--enough to
irritate him but not to increase his speed.”
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
“Hôtel Bain, Zurich, _March_ 20, 1847.
“Your most welcome letter came after me here, where, in the vague
pursuit of a less expensive residence, I have come, intending by reason
of late events to shorten sail, not knowing what weather may be in store
for us.
“M’Glashan’s [? offer of] arbitration promises well, but you are quite
right not to concede the acknowledgment of the a/c as a preliminary. My
object would be far rather to buy than to sell, but Curry asks £2500
for his interest,--nearly as much as he gave me originally. If we
could induce him to make a reasonable demand, I think I could induce a
publisher to treat for the books, so that I would be more disposed now
simply to press the ‘Hinton’ settlement, which, according to the a/c you
have sent me, is a complete puzzle--2000 being rated as 1000 copies (as
you have yourself observed).... I believe M’Glashan intends fairly by
me, but, from a careless remark of Hugh Baker, he fancied he was to
be immediately examined before a Master in Chancery, and with native
prudence [he] abstained from opening any correspondence in the
conjuncture.... Chapman’s letter will show you _his_ opinion of the
trickery the Currys are attempting. He--Chapman--said £800 would not
be more than a fair sum for my interest,--all claims of ‘Hinton’ being
previously settled to my satisfaction.... M’O.’s estimate of Chapman
(Hall is since dead) is perfectly correct. They are, as indeed is every
bookseller of the London trade that I have conversed with, very
inferior to M’G. himself in natural acuteness and knowledge of books,
book-writers, and book-readers. He is without question the very ablest
man in his walk, and--now that Blackwood* is gone--far above Murray,
Colburn, Longman, and the rest of them; and in London, and with capital,
would beat them hollow.”
* William Blackwood, founder of the firm.
_To Mr Alexander Spencer_.
“Riedenburg, _April_ 13, 1847.
“M’Glashan is so far fair that he says he insisted that in my share of
half profits the expense counted against me should be limited to the
mere paper and press-work, and not the eleventh part of the whole
original cost--authorship, engraving, stereotyping, &c. Now the question
is, Is this the spirit and meaning of the a/c now furnished?*
* The letter enclosing Curry’s a/c had not yet reached
Lever. It had gone to Zurich (or via Zurich).--E. D.
“Am I then credited with all my due and debited with no more than my
due? I ask this because, in my ignorance of figures, I shall be little
the wiser when the a/c is before me.
“I am so far of opinion that it would be well not to couple any
proportion for buying or selling with the settlement of a/cs, and for
this reason: that no sum Curry could be induced to give me _now_
would be a fair compensation for my share of the profits of a
reissue,--without which speculation in view he would never have made his
present steps to obtain the sole copyrights,--and I am not in a position
to repurchase the books, though if Curry would put a fair price on
them I believe I could effect, through another, some arrangement on the
subject....
“Lastly, if Curry does not make me a suitable offer to buy or to sell,
and if he intends a reissue, then comes another feature of the case
worth consideration, and which would all depend on the spirit and
temper he may show. What arrangement could be made for the new edition
appearing with revival prefaces, &c., by me? This, of course, is a last
of all results.
“As to M’G., his letter is possibly a very candid and honest _exposé_,
but I have limited myself to the observation already quoted. With regard
to the Magazine he has made a proposal--i.e., he has asked me to name my
terms for a contribution of some length. I have done so, wishing to open
sources of profit to myself by what I may term ‘irresponsible labour’;
for I really am tired of seeing my name before the public, and more than
tired of the anxiety for success each new acknowledged book brings along
with it. I scarcely suppose he will accede to my terms, which are sharp
ones; but less than I have asked I cannot accept, because such would at
once influence my treatment by others. I’ll send him my first paper at
once....
“We are about to move into Italy next month. I have taken a villa--a
most beautifully situated thing--on the Lake of Como, where we have been
last week, having crossed the Alps in twelve feet of snow,--a journey of
more adventure and danger than you can well conceive.
“I intend to remain there till November--possibly the whole winter; but
if not, we shall move down to Florence or Rome. Como, independent of its
beauty, of which I really had formed no conception (it is Killarney with
a tropical vegetation,--the aloe, the olive, the fig, pomegranate,
with the cactus and magnolia growing wild), offers me the facility of
visiting all the north of Italy by easy excursions,--Milan only four
hours off, Padua, Verona, Vicenza, Venice itself--all available. We
shall have ample time to exchange some letters before I leave, and I
only mention my plans now as to the reasons of my prompt reply to M’G.,
wishing to make up my future contract before I place the High Alps
between myself and the printing-press.”
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
“Riedenburg, Bregenz, _April_ 16, 1847.
“It does not signify that Curry has not kept any separate a/cs of
the cost of all copies above 10,000. It is easy to make the deduction
requisite to such an understanding.
“M’G. and Chapman both concur in stating that I am only to be charged
with the cost price and not the eleventh part of the whole original
cost--that is, I am only chargeable with paper and press-work, and not
with any of the cost of author, engraver, &c. These are M’G.’s words to
me in a letter of last week. Chapman’s words are as follows:--
“‘By their own showing they owe you £280 to the end of Aug., but you
have to dispute this, on the ground that only paper and print are to
go to form the cost of the volumes, whereas they charge you authorship,
engravings, in fact, everything from the beginning,--making the dry cost
per vol. to be 4s. and a fraction.’
“I quote these words from his letter to me when last alluding to the
transaction. So much, then, for the point on which I suppose, as M’G.
has expressed his firm opinion, Curry can scarcely dissent.
“Secondly, in the account forwarded previously to me of cost of
production, I was charged with my share of the expense of all the
copies of ‘Hinton,’ ‘Burke,’ and ‘The O’Donoghue’ printed but still
unsold--that is, I was made a party to the cost of producing so much
stock,--of my interest in which we have not one syllable, and which, if
I were to purchase to-morrow, I should be buying what I have paid the
moiety of the charge of producing.
“This last feature of the affair it is, I opine, which makes Curry
so eager for a final settlement,--at least, it was this _coup_ which
Chapman stigmatised as an atrocious piece of cheating.
“My opinion is, then, this: If Curry’s a/c of the surplus ‘Hinton’ is
fair, if he only charges me with what M’G. stipulated for and says I am
responsible, and if I am not to pay for stock in which I hold a vested
right, settle the a/c and let the transaction be finished.
“M’G. is quite right as to the relative advantages and disadvantages
that Curry and I labour under. But it is quite clear _he_ will scarcely
be able to sell his share in the three works so long as mine remain
unpurchased,--first, because he cannot make out a title until I give him
one; and secondly, that no bookseller would like to buy hampered with my
lien. I do not in the least desire to buy or sell with Curry. ‘Hinton’
being once settled for, I’d rather lie patiently and wait for what may
turn up.
“My proposition to Orr was this: and I would be very glad if you would
communicate it to M’G., because if _he_ felt disposed to become a party
in the compact I should be better pleased. Perhaps you would then read
for him the following:--
“To enter into an arrangement with me to repurchase from Curry all the
copyrights, as well those he owns entire as those in part, and then to
commence from the stereotype plates a cheap weekly issue, with Notes and
Prefaces by the Author. I would myself contribute ‘O’Leary’--which is
entirely mine--to the new edition, and do my utmost to give the whole a
new feature of interest.
“If M’G. would enter into the speculation, he, more than any other,
could contribute to its success, and I would myself pledge that whatever
I wrote in the way of story hereafter should be reserved for similar
publication.
“I believe I have now gone through the whole matter save the expression
of my never-ceasing gratitude to the friend who can devote of his
few and scanty leisure hours nearly all in the cause of affectionate
interest.
“The weather is again becoming wintry. Avalanches have fallen on every
side of us--fifty feet of snow is lying in the Innspruck road; the mail
for Italy is four days due, and even Switzerland--usually regular--is
two days behind time. I do not venture to anticipate when we may be able
to cross the Alps,--certainly not under six or eight weeks if present
appearances last.
“If M’G. has not replied to my last when you see him, urge him to do
so, as it regards the contributing of some papers which I should like to
despatch before I left this.”
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
“Riedenburg, _April_ 20, 1847.
“We are already busied with the stir and bustle of departure, though the
time is still distant; but poor dear Germany is not a land of despatch,
and to obtain a packing-box you must wait for a tree to be felled,
barked, sawed, and planed, with all the vicissitudes attendant on these
several processes, and the inevitable interruptions of saints’ days and
festivals in honour of every grand duke and grand duchess that ever were
chronicled in the ‘Almanac de Gotha.’
“Speed, therefore, is out of the question, and my impatience has already
more than once jeopardised my character for prudence and good sense
among this, the easiest-going nation that ever smoked away existence.
Still, I am sorry to leave them, and feel that the exchange to Italy is,
in every respect save climate, for the worse. The Germans are
peaceful, good-natured, homely, honest souls, docile as dogs, and never
treacherous. The Italians are falsehood incarnated,--their whole lives a
long practical lie. Still, not to see the land would be a sad disgrace,
the more as we have stood so long on the threshold--or rather at the
bottom of the stairs--i.e., at the foot of the Alps.
“I have written to John a long prosy narrative of our Splugen
journey--which really, albeit a novelist _par métier_, I have not
exaggerated.”
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
“Riedenburg, _May_ 10, 1847.
“Except Orr and M’G., there are no others in the trade sufficiently
cognisant of the profits of my books to undertake on a grand scale a
reissue; and for this reason--because I was an Irish author, printed and
published and mostly sold in Ireland, branded with the nationality of
blunder in type as well as errors in thought,--and the same professional
reputation hangs to me still. Now Orr and M’G. hang back. The invariable
answer I meet from them is: ‘We are so much suspected by Curry, that
from us he would not accept a fair sum, whereas from you he would be
likely to be restricted in his demand, because he would thereby by
implication be setting a value on what _you_ might claim from _him_:
“Finally, the very qualified success of Dickens’s new and cheap issue
for 1s. 1 1/2d. (and pub. 1s. 2d.)--the greatest trial of cheapness ever
made in bookselling--has shown that the profits of a new edition cannot
be reckoned on till after a considerable lapse of time. When an author’s
popularity has lasted long enough to be more than a passing taste,
and to stand the test of a new generation of readers, then--and only
then--can successive editions be regarded as profitable [? experiments].
“I have received a letter from the Custom House, Portsmouth, stating
that ‘a great number of your works in foreign editions (in English) pass
through this Custom House, and as we received no notice of copyright
subsisting thereon, we cannot prevent their entrance. We deem it only
fair to let you know the fact for your information and guidance.’ Now
Mr Curry ought at once, through the Custom House, London, to take the
requisite steps against this nuisance, which I already foresaw would be
the result of the much boasted International Copyright Treaty.
“I am in a fix about Italy. I have my house at Como for June 1, but
three avalanches have fallen in the Splügen, and the road will not be
practicable before the middle of July, so that I have been compelled to
retain my present house for three months longer,--a piece of the most
ill-timed bad luck, as I never was more anxious to economise a little.”
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
“Bregenz, May 26,1847.
“Famine and money distress have cut off all the luxuries--of which
books are the easiest to go without,--and so publishers won’t make any
contracts till better days arrive, and we who have no capital but our
brains must live how we can meanwhile. I am not impatient, but I will be
very glad when any prospect offers of concluding something with Curry.” *
* With this letter he sent a cheque for the funeral expenses
of a sister-in-law.--E. D.
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
“Bregenz, _May_ 31 [1847].
“....I have formed no literary engagement for next year. My present
contract concludes in July. Chapman is now winding up the a/c of the
partnership, as Hall is dead; and from this cause and the great monetary
crisis in England, will not, I believe, engage in any new speculation
hastily,--so that I am really, for the first time, at sea. If I could
have any occupation such as re-editing, &c., on hand, it would be my
best mode of employing a season which can scarcely fail to be a bad one
for books. If not this, I must try to get money by selling my copyrights
somehow or somewhere, and wait for better days.
“M’Glashan is, I hear, in London. He is not coming this way certainly.
He has been at his old game of fast-and-loose with me; but as I never
trusted him, I am not deceived.
“Curry should take prompt measures against the piracy, or we shall
be inundated. All the United States out of the new treaty are at work
robbing and stealing from every nation.
“P.S.--The thermometer stands at 118 Fahrenheit at the shady side of a
room, as I write.”
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
“Bregenz, _June_ 9, 1847.
“Though I am without any over-confidence in what is whimiscally termed
‘12 honest men’s award,’ I would rather cry heads or tails for my
right--by a lawsuit--than be bullied out of it by Curry and his secret
adviser Butt, who I know is at the bottom of the whole proceedings.
I once laughed at Butt’s pretensions to represent the University in
Parliament: some one told him so....
“In M’G.’s letter to me a month ago he writes:--‘I totally dissented
from Curry’s notion of these sales being made at your charge, and said
that if he--Curry--did not consent to your receiving the usual sum
you had hitherto received as moiety of profits, I would decline all
interposition as his negotiatee.’”
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
“Bregenz, _June_ 24, 1847.
“I hasten to say that the more I think of Curry and his conduct, the
more I am impressed by the fear of some latent mischief. He is evidently
acting under advice--Butt’s, I conjecture; and if he does resist on
threat of law, we have not the means of sustaining a costly
suit--which, if merely requiring my presence in England, would more than
counterbalance a victory, and make defeat half ruin. Before, therefore,
making this last move,--if not yet too late,--I would advise your seeing
M’G., and, having explained to him the impracticability of any dealings
with Curry, whose subterfuges and evasions are never-ending, ask him if
he would endeavour to effect an amicable arrangement. This I must submit
to at great sacrifices, if requisite, because I find (within the
last few days) the increasing difficulty of any new arrangement with
booksellers, who, dreading a money crisis, are awaiting better and safer
days.
“I have concluded an arrangement with Tauchnitz of Leipsic* to publish
all my books in Germany,--with which Curry has nothing to do,--they
(Tauchnitz) being limited to the circulation of the Continent; but I
should be glad to have our affair with him (Curry) so concluded that he
might not be disposed to give us any worry or inconvenience. In fact,
sooner than risk a jury, I would take £300 for my interest, my debt
of £300 being paid--£600 for all. M’G. values my interest at £400--at
least, so Baker told me. Do not speak of my German arrangement to M’G.
“Where has M’G. been on the Continent? and what [? wickedness has he
been] at? He received a MS. from me above a month back, and I have not
yet heard any tidings of its acceptance or rejection.... I had asked him
here. Orr of London was to join him on his trip.”
* On May 8, 1847, Lever wrote as follows to Baron Tauchnitz
about ‘The Knight of Gwynne’:--
“....I am aware that the fact cannot in any way affect your
views in the matter, but it is as well I should mention--
what, after all, is the only test of an author’s actual
repute and standing in his own country--viz., the money
value of his writings,--and for this same story I receive a
sum little short of £3000. I then may safely leave to your
consideration the scale on which it should be estimated by
you.”
On July 21 he wrote: “You ask about the portrait annexed to
‘Jack Hinton.’ It is not--at least so say my friends--a
resemblance, and I can myself assure you that _I_ do not
squint, which _it_ does abominably.”--E. D.
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
“Bregenz, _July_ 17, 1848.
“Your letter of the 8th has this day arrived, and I hasten to express
my full concurrence in _your_--but not in Longfield’s--view of the
transaction, save where you both concur in thinking that Curry’s failure
may eventuate favourably for us. Is there any chance of my being able
to purchase the stock and the copyrights of ‘O’Malley’ and ‘Lorrequer’?
without which the set is incomplete. I cannot say that I anticipate such
a probability. I could only hope for it through the intervention of
a publisher, and in the existing state of monetary matters few would
adventure in any speculation. M’G. will, I have no doubt, try and
possess himself of the books; and if such be his intention, I would be
glad to be a party to his purchase. It would be well to know his views
and what course he may probably take, or what [course he would] advise
us to pursue.
“In the event of any composition with creditors, what is your opinion
of my claim? Should I expect to be rated in Curry’s assets? Or should I
hope for my proportion of assets as _we_ claim?
“M’Glashan has not acknowledged a MS. sent two months ago. I can neither
fathom his plans by this system nor see how his silence chimes in with
his fervent protestations for a renewal of our relations.
“My meagre dedication did not, and could not, say a thousandth part of
what I feel,--but even so much was pleasurable to say before the world.
I would indeed be proud to associate you in any part of it. As it is, I
believe ‘The Knight’ is the best of the breed, and hence the reason for
calling it yours.
“I expect to leave for Italy about Aug. 4, but address me always
‘Coutts et Cie,’ who still will continue to exercise the sinecure of my
bankers.”