successor to John Newbery. The elder man combined a successful
business in the publishing of books with the sale of quack
medicines,--not an unusual thing in those days. His list of
nostrums contained over thirty medicines, among them being
Dr. James's Fever Powder, Dr. Steer's Oil for Convulsions, Dr.
Harper's Female Pills, and a certain Cordial Cephalic Snuff.
His book-selling ventures demand more than passing mention,
since he really introduced "the regular system of a Juvenile
Library, and gave children books in a more permanent form than
the popular chap-books of the period,"--delightful books of
which more than one writer has spoken with affection. The
general character of the stories, splendidly bound in flowered
and gilt Dutch papers, may be gathered from a few of their
titles: _The History of Little Goody Two Shoes_, _The Renowned
History of Giles Gingerbread_, and _Blossoms of Morality_.
Newbery's publishing ventures were not confined to children's
books, by any means; his name gains additional luster by
appearing on the title-pages of several of Goldsmith's works.
Francis was mostly a reflection of his enterprising uncle, but
his connection with the _Vicar of Wakefield_ will ever cause
him to be remembered.
Duodecimo.
COLLATION: _Two volumes._ Volume I: _2 ll., 214 pp._ Volume II:
_1 l., 223 pp._
LAURENCE STERNE
(1713-1768)
54. A | Sentimental Journey | Through | France And Italy. | By | Mr.
Yorick. | Vol. I. | London: | Printed for T. Becket and P. A. De
Hondt, | in the Strand. MDCCLXVIII.
The real journey immortalized in the story was made in
October, 1765; in December, 1767, two volumes were completed,
and on February 27, the work was published at five shillings
for the two volumes. On the eighteenth of March, Sterne died.
Yorick, in _Tristram Shandy_, was represented as an
Englishman, descended from the Yorick of Shakespeare, "a
fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy." Sterne also
used the pseudonym in his _Sermons by Mr. Yorick_, published
in 1760, so that the authorship of this book was probably
never in doubt. "The lively, witty, sensitive and heedless
parson," was, as Sir Walter Scott says, "the well-known
personification of Sterne himself."
Fitzgerald tells us in his biography of Sterne, that it was
the author's first thought to have the volume a stately quarto
with handsome margins, costing a half-guinea, but that he
finally decided to use the _Shandy_ size, which had become a
favorite with the public. The book, which is without ornament,
except for an engraving on copper of a coat of arms (Sterne's
book-plate), in the second volume, is a good specimen of the
best typography of the period. Large paper copies also
were issued. The first volume begins with a long list of
"Subscribers," the names starred being down for "Imperial
Paper."
Thomas Becket lived to be ninety-three years old, long enough,
as Charles Knight remarks, to see many revolutions in
literary taste; long enough, in fact, to see Sterne, his most
successful author, go out of fashion. He was an assistant to
Andrew Millar, before he became De Hondt's partner. It was
he who published the famous anonymous book, _The Pursuits of
Literature_ by Mathias, which had the distinction of running
into fourteen editions.
Duodecimo.
COLLATION: _Two volumes._ Volume I, _xx, 203 pp._ Volume II,
2 _ll., 208 pp._
THE FEDERALIST
55. The | Federalist: | A Collection | Of | Essays, | Written In
Favour Of The | New Constitution, | As Agreed Upon By The Federal
Convention, | September 17, 1787. | In Two Volumes | Vol. I.
| New-York: | Printed And Sold By J. And A. M'Lean, | No. 41,
Hanover-Square. | M,DCC,LXXXVIII.
"The papers under the title of "Federalist," and signature of
"Publius," were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison,
and John Jay, in the latter part of the year 1787 and the
former part of the year 1788. The immediate object of them
was, to vindicate and recommend the new Constitution to the
State of New York, whose ratification of the instrument was
doubtful, as well as important. The undertaking was proposed
by A. Hamilton (who had probably consulted Mr. Jay and others)
to J. M., who agreed to take a part in it. The papers were
originally addressed to the people of N. York, under the
signature of a "Citizen of New York." This was changed for
that of "Publius," the first name of Valerius Publicola. A
reason for the change was, that one of the writers was not
a Citizen of that State; another, that the publication had
diffused itself among most of the other States. The papers
were first published at New York in a newspaper printed by
Francis Childs, at the rate, during great part of the time,
at least, of four numbers a week; and notwithstanding this
exertion, they were not compleated till a large proportion of
the States had decided on the Constitution. They were edited
as soon as possible in two small volumes, the preface to the
first volume, drawn up by Mr. Hamilton, bearing date N. York,
March, 1788...." This from Madison in a letter to Mr. Paulding
at Washington, dated July 24, 1818.
The first seven papers appeared under the title _The
F[oe]deralist. No. 1. To the People of the State of New York_,
in _The Independent Journal_, and many of the succeeding
numbers first came out in that paper: some were issued in _The
New York Packet_, two appeared in _The Daily Advertiser_, six
appeared simultaneously in two or more papers, and nine were
not published until the whole was collected in book form.
Mr. Paul Leicester Ford, in his _Bibliotheca Hamiltoniana_,
gives Jay credit for five numbers; "Madison numbers 10, 14, 37
to 48 inclusive; numbers 18, 19 and 20 are the joint work of
Madison and Hamilton; numbers 49 to 58, 62 and 63 are claimed
by both Madison and Hamilton; the rest of the numbers are by
Hamilton."
Duodecimo.
COLLATION: _Two volumes._ Volume I, _vi, 227 pp._ Volume II, _vi,
384 pp._
TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT
(1721-1771)
56. The | Expedition | Of | Humphry Clinker. | By the Author of |
Roderick Random. | In Three Volumes. | Vol. I. | [Quotation] London,
| Printed for W. Johnston, in Ludgate-Street: | and B. Collins, in
Saliſbury. | MDCLXXI.
_Roderick Random_, Smollett's first book, had appeared in
1748. The greater part of _Humphry Clinker_ was written in
the autumn of 1770, when its author was dying. He "had the
satisfaction of seeing his masterpiece, but not of hearing the
chorus of praise that greeted it."
Some copies of the first volume have, as in this instance, an
error in the date, 1671 being printed for 1771.
Collins, as we have seen, was associated with Francis Newbery
in the publication of _The Vicar of Wakefield_, and he was
also associated with nephew and uncle in the sale of Dr.
James's Fever Powder, and the manufacture of the celebrated
_Cordial Cephalic Snuff_. We are fortunate in having his
orderly and well-kept account books, in one of which is the
following entry, worthy of a place here, and at length:
From B. Collins' Publishing Book.
Account Of Books Printed, And Shares Therein.
No. 3. 1770 To 1785.
Humphrey Clinker: A Novel, 3 vols. 12mo.
Of which I have one moiety, in partnership with Mr. William
Johnston, London.
_Dr._ | _Cr._
|
To Dr S. Mollet |
copy money £210 0 0 |
|
To Printing and |
Paper 2,000 |
No. 155 15 6 |
|
9 Sets to the Hall |
and 10 to the |
Author 6 1 10 |
|
Advertisements 15 10 0 |
------------ |
£387 7 4 |
|
To Balance for | By 2000 Books
Profit 92 12 8 | sold at £24
------------ |
£480 0 0 | per 100 £480 0 0
|
My Moiety of Profits, £46, 6s. 4d., |
for which I received Mr. |
Johnston's Note, Nov. 19, 1772. |
--B. C. |
Duodecimo.
COLLATION: _Three volumes._
ADAM SMITH
(1723-1790)
57. An | Inquiry | Into The | Nature and Cauſes | Of The | Wealth Of
Nations. | By Adam Smith, LL.D. and F. R. S. | Formerly Profeſſor
of Moral Philoſophy in the Univerſity of Glasgow. | In Two Volumes
| Vol. I. | London: | Printed for W. Strahan; And T. Cadell, In The
Strand. | MDCCLXXVI.
It is doubtful if any English book were ever longer in being
put to press than this one. Mr. John Rae, in his life of
Smith, says he took twelve years to write it, and that it was
in contemplation twelve years before that. It was explicitly
and publicly promised in the concluding paragraph of _The
Theory of Moral Sentiments_, which appeared in 1759.
Nothing definite is known of the terms on which the author
parted with the work to his publishers, but it is thought to
have been sold outright. It is estimated that Strahan paid
five hundred pounds for the first edition, and that he
published later editions at half profit. The selling price of
the first edition was £1 16s. The edition was exhausted in six
months, but the number of copies is unknown.
Beginning as a printer, in which capacity we have already seen
him in connection with Dr. Johnson's Dictionary, Strahan rose
rapidly to eminence as a publisher, figuring prominently
in the ventures of Hume, Gibbon, Robertson, Blackstone,
and Blair. He introduced into his dealings with his clients
amenities unknown before. His pecuniary successes, as in this
case, enabled him to set up the coach which Dr. Johnson said
was a credit to literature.
Quarto.
COLLATION: _Two volumes._ Volume I: _6 ll., 510 pp._ Volume II:
_2 ll., 587 pp._
EDWARD GIBBON
(1737-1794)
58. The | History | Of The | Decline And Fall | Of The | Roman Empire.
| By Edward Gibbon, Eſq; | Volume The First. | [Quotation] London:
| Printed For W. Strahan; And T. Cadell, In The Strand. | MDCCLXXVI.
[--MDCCLXXXVIII]
We are fortunate in having an account of the publication of
this work written by Gibbon himself. In June, 1775, he says:
"The volume of my history, which had been somewhat delayed by
the novelty and tumult of a first session, was now ready for
the press. After the perilous adventure had been declined by
my timid friend Mr. Elmsley, I agreed, on very easy terms,
with Mr. Thomas Cadell, a respectable bookseller, and Mr.
William Strahan, an eminent printer; and they undertook the
care and risk of the publication, which derived more credit
from the name of the shop than from that of the author. The
last revisal of the proofs was submitted to my vigilance;
and many blemishes of style, which had been invisible in
the manuscript, were discovered and corrected in the
printed sheet. So moderate were our hopes, that the original
impression had been stinted to five hundred, till the number
was doubled by the prophetic taste of Mr. Strahan. During this
awful interval I was neither elated by the ambition of fame,
nor depressed by the apprehension of contempt. My diligence
and accuracy were attested by my own conscience...."
It was on the 17th of February that the first volume of the
great work finally "declined into the World," as the author
expressed it. Its success was immediate. "I am at a loss how
to describe the success of the work without betraying the
vanity of the writer. The first impression was exhausted in a
few days; a second and third edition were scarcely adequate to
the demand, and the bookseller's property was twice invaded by
the pyrates of Dublin. My book was on every table, and almost
on every toilette...."
The second edition was called for in 1776. On May 20th Gibbon
writes to J. B. Holroyd:
"In about a fortnight I again launch into the World in the
shape of a quarto Volume. The dear Cadell assures me that he
never remembered so eager and impatient a demand for a second
Edition." And again in June he writes to the same: "The 1500
Copies are moving off with decent speed, and the obliging
Cadell begins to mutter something of a third Edition for next
year." This third edition did not, however, appear until 1782.
In June, 1780, we find our author busy revising and correcting
for the press the second and third volumes of the first
edition, both of which appeared the next year. Under date of
April 13, 1781, he writes to his stepmother:
"The reception of these two volumes has been very unlike that
of the first, and yet my vanity is so very dextrous, that I
am not displeased with the difference. The effects of novelty
could no longer operate, and the public was not surprised by
the unexpected appearance of a new and unknown author. The
progress of these two volumes has hitherto been quiet and
silent. Almost everybody that reads has purchased, but few
persons (comparatively) have read them; and I find that the
greatest number, satisfied that they have acquired a valuable
fund of entertainment, differ the perusal to the summer, the
country, and a more quiet period. Yet I have reason to think,
from the opinion of some judges, that my reputation has
not suffered by this publication. The Clergy (such is the
advantage of a total loss of character) commend my decency
and moderation: but the patriots wish to down the work and the
author."
The concluding volumes were delayed for various reasons as
Gibbon said to Lord Sheffield in July, 1786: "A book takes
more time in making than a pudding." In June, 1787, he says:
"I am building a great book, which, besides the three stories
already exposed to the public eye, will have three stories
more before we reach the roof and battlement," and promises
that, with the diligence and speed then exerted, he hopes to
be able to have the work ready for the press in August, or
perhaps July. In an earlier letter he says:
"About a month ago I had a voluntary, and not unpleasing
Epistle from Cadell; he informs me that he is going to print
a new octavo edition, the former being exhausted, and that the
public expect with impatience the conclusion of the excellent
work, whose reputation and sale increases every day, etc. I
answered him by the return of the post, to inform him of the
period and extent of my labours, and to express a reasonable
hope that he would set the same value on the three last as he
had done on the three former Volumes. Should we conclude in
this easy manner a transaction as honourable to the author
and bookseller, my way is clear and open before; in pecuniary
matters I think I am assured for the rest of my life of never
troubling my friends, or being troubled myself; a state to
which I aspire, and which I indeed deserve, if not by my
management, at least by moderation."
The publishers had allowed Gibbon two thirds of the profits
for the first volume, which amounted on the first edition
to £490. In a letter written in 1788, to his stepmother, he
refers again to his relations with Cadell: "The public, where
it costs them nothing, are extravagantly liberal; yet I will
allow with Dr. Johnson 'that booksellers in this age are not
the worst patrons of literature.'" Allibone tells us that
the historian's "profit on the whole is stated to have been
£6,000, whilst the booksellers netted the handsome sum of
£60,000."
The sixth volume was finished June 27, 1787, and was published
with the fourth and fifth in April, 1788. Gibbon says:
"The impression of the fourth volume had consumed three
months; our common interest required that we should move with
quicker pace, and Mr. Strahan fulfilled his engagement, which
few printers could sustain, of delivering every week three
thousand copies of nine sheets. The day of publication was,
however, delayed, that it might coincide with the fifty-first
anniversary of my own birthday: the double festival was
celebrated by a cheerful literary dinner at Mr. Cadell's
house, and I seemed to blush while they read an elegant
compliment from Mr. Haley."
John Hall, historical engraver to George III, and one of the
engravers of the plates for Alderman Boydell's collection,
executed the portrait of Gibbon, after Sir Joshua Reynolds,
which faces the title-page of our first volume. The plate was
issued separately in 1780, Cadell having "strenuously urged
the curiosity of the public" as a reason for its immediate
publication. It was most appropriate to introduce, as he did,
the vignettes emblematic of Rome.
Quarto.
COLLATION: _Six volumes._
RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN
(1751-1816)
59. The | School | For | Scandal. | A | Comedy. | [Quotation] Dublin:
| Printed for J. Ewling.
The first performance of the play occurred May 8, 1777, at
the Drury Lane Theatre, which had been opened under Sheridan's
management the previous year. A publisher immediately offered
five hundred guineas for a corrected copy of the comedy, and
Sheridan promised to prepare it for the press; but Mr. W.
Fraser Rae tells us that when importuned for the revised
manuscript Sheridan "always replied that he had never been
able to satisfy himself as to the version which he wished
to be published, and the comedy, with any of his final
corrections, has not yet been given to the world."
The Ewling edition was printed from an acting copy which
Sheridan had given to his sister, Mrs. LeFanu of Dublin, who,
for one hundred guineas and free admission to the theater for
herself and family, had let it go to Mr. Roger of the Theatre
Royal. A dated edition appeared in Dublin in 1781.
The omission of the author's name from the title-page recalls
the foolish statement made by Dr. Watkins on the authority of
Isaac Reed, "that the play was written by a young lady, the
daughter of a merchant in Thames Street [whose name and the
number of whose house are judiciously withheld], that, at
the beginning of the season when Mr. Sheridan commenced
his management, the manuscript was put into his hands for
judgment, soon after which the fair writer, who was then in a
stage of decline, went to Bristol Hot Wells, where she died."
Duodecimo.
COLLATION: _vi, 93 pp., 1 l._
WILLIAM COWPER
(1731-1800)
60. The | Task, | A | Poem, | In Six Books. | By William Cowper, | Of
The Inner Temple, Esq. | Fit ſurculus arbor. | Anonym. | To which
are added, | By The Same Author, | An Epistle to Joseph Hill, Eſq.
Tirocinium, or a | Review of Schools, and the History of John Gilpin.
| London: | Printed For J. Johnson, N^o 72, St. Paul's | Church-Yard:
| 1785.
In October, 1784, William Cawthorne Unwin,
"A friend whose worth deserves as warm a lay
As ever friendship penned,"
received from Cowper "four quires of verse" with the request
that it might be read by him and, if approved, conveyed to
Joseph Johnson, the publisher of Cowper's first volume.
"If, when you make the offer of my book [_The Task_], to
Johnson, he should stroke his chin, and look up at the ceiling
and cry 'Humph!', anticipate him, I beseech you, at once
by saying 'that you know I should be sorry that he should
undertake for me to his own disadvantage, or that my volume
should be in any degree pressed upon him. I make him the offer
merely because I think he would have reason to complain of
me if I did not.' But, that punctilio once satisfied, it is a
matter of indifference to me what publisher sends me forth."
Johnson, however, accepted.
"My imagination tells me," says Cowper to Unwin, "(for I know
you interest yourself in the success of my productions) that
your heart fluttered when you approached his door, and that it
felt itself discharged of a burthen when you came out again."
The "Advertisement," or preface, accounting for _The Task_, is
worth reprinting. It runs:
"The hiſtory of the following production is briefly this. A
lady, fond of blank verſe, demanded a poem of that kind from
the author, and gave him the SOFA for a ſubject. He obeyed;
and having much leiſure, connected another ſubject
with it; and purſuing the train of thought to which his
ſituation and turn of mind led him, brought forth at length,
inſtead of the trifle which he at firſt intended, a
ſerious affair--a Volume."
The lady, who was Cowper's friend, Lady Austin, was also
responsible for _John Gilpin_, for it was from her that
the poet first heard the tale. It is said that he wrote the
outline that night and sent it to _The Public Advertiser_,
anonymously, the next morning; but, in fact, it appeared in
November, 1782. It had a great success in the newspapers, and
in pamphlet form, and Henderson, the actor, gave it further
vogue by his recitations.
"I have not been without thoughts of adding 'John Gilpin' at
the tail of all," wrote Cowper, while _The Task_ was in press.
"He has made a good deal of noise in the world; and perhaps it
may not be amiss to show, that though I write generally with a
serious intention, I know how to be occasionally merry."
There was some discussion between the poet and the publisher,
as to the propriety of putting poems so different in character
into the same volume. The poet says to Mr. Newton: "I should
blame nobody, not even my intimate friends, and those who
have the most favorable opinion of me, were they to charge the
publication of John Gilpin, at the end of so much solemn and
serious truth, to the score of the author's vanity; and to
suspect that, however sober I may be upon proper occasions, I
have yet that itch of popularity that would not suffer me to
sink my title to a jest that had been so successful. But
the case is not such. When I sent the copy of the _Task_ to
Johnson, I desired, indeed, Mr. Unwin to ask him the question,
whether or not he would choose to make it a part of the
volume. This I did merely with a view to promote the sale of
it. Johnson answered, 'By all means.' Some months afterward,
he enclosed a note to me in one of my packets, in which he
expressed a change of mind, alleging, that to print John
Gilpin would only be to print what had been hackneyed in every
magazine, in every shop, and at the corner of every street.
I answered, that I desired to be entirely governed by his
opinion; and that if he chose to waive it, I should be better
pleased with the omission. Nothing more passed between us
on the subject, and I concluded that I should never have the
immortal honor of being generally known as the author of John
Gilpin. In the last packet, however, down came John, very
fairly printed, and equipped for public appearance. The
business having taken this turn, I concluded that Johnson had
adopted my original thought, that it might prove advantageous
to the sale; and as he had had the trouble and expense of
printing it, I corrected the copy, and let it pass."
The half-title to _John Gilpin_ in our copy reads: _The
Diverting | History | Of | John Gilpin, | Shewing How He Went
Farther Than He | Intended And Came Safe Home Again_.
The book appeared in June, having now grown into a volume of
poems, containing, as the title-page shows, four works, paged
continuously. It cost four shillings, in boards. The volume
was a great success, and two issues were made in the same
year. These show several variations, but chiefly in the
arrangement of the pages. A half-title, found in some copies,
and thought to belong only to late issues, reads: _Poems,
By William Cowper, Esq. Vol. II_. Herein we may possibly see
Johnson's afterthought to make the book a second volume to the
collection of _Poems_ issued in 1782, and referred to in the
advertisement on the last page: "Lately publiſhed by the
ſame Author, in one Volume of this Size. Price 4s. ſewed."
It would have been a shrewd plan thus to make the successful
later volume carry the unsuccessful earlier.
Cowper gave the copyright to Johnson, who afterward, when the
work proved so successful, would have allowed him to take back
his gift, but Cowper refused.
This Johnson was also the publisher of Horne Tooke, Fuseli,
Bonnycastle, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Miss Edgeworth. He, as
well as his successor, Rowland Hunter, was a dissenter, and
the building which he occupied, we are told, was "plain and
unadorned, befitting the head-quarters of the bookselling of
Protestant Dissent." Charles Knight, in _Shadows of the
Old Booksellers_, has a paragraph, which must be quoted in
connection with the appearance of Johnson's books.
"With wire-wove hot-pres'd paper's glossy glare,
Blind all the wise, and make the stupid stare."
The publisher of Cowper was an exception to his brother
publishers of that day, who are addressed in these lines.
Aikin says of him, "It is proper to mention that his true
regard for the interests of literature rendered him an enemy
to that typographical luxury which, joined to the necessary
increase of expense in printing, has so much enhanced the
price of new books as to be a material obstacle to the
indulgence of a laudable and reasonable curiosity to the
reading public."
It is quite certain that in making the _Task_ he did not sin
against these principles of philanthropy, even if he sinned
against many of the rules of good book-making.
Octavo.
COLLATION: _4 ll., 359 pp._
ROBERT BURNS
(1759-1796)