Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-07-18
BOOKS WHICH WE'RE NOT THOUGHT
WORTH THE PRINTING.

|
All the world knows the history of = Jane
Eyre :" how it was written in the gray old
the rough notes, sketched hastily in pencil,
were transcribed in a neat hand as legible as
print, and how the manuscript in its brown
paper wrapper, was sent off from the small
station-house at Keighley to publisher, only
to find its way back again, Returned with
thanks, ~ till the packet, scored all over with
publishers names, and, well-nigh worn out
by its travels, found its way into the hands
of Messrs. Smith & Elder, with a stamped
envelope inside for reply.
This story of g Jane Eyre is, with au-
thors who cannot find q publisher, one of
the standing sources of consolation, and it Is
q very striking instance of the loose way In
which publishers readers now and then look
through manuscripts that find their way into
their hands, even if it does not prove that
publishers, like women, though they cant
about genius, cannot divine its existence till
all the world point with the hand for Smith
& Elders reader was so struck with the tale
that, Scot as he was, he sat up half Of the
night to finish it. But some allowance ought
to be made even for the readers, for it must
be dull, tedious work to spell out the plot of
q story, or to find the proofs of genius In a
loose pile of manuscript which you can hard
ly perhaps decipher except with glass, and
perhaps not always with that.
Francis Jeffrey knew SO well the difficulty
of forming an opinion upon an article from
reading it in manuscript, that in sending his
first article to the Edinburgh Re0ieac after
he had relinquished the editorship, he stipu-
lated that Mr.. Napier should not attempt to
read it until he could read it in type; and
the editor of the Saturday Re0ieao, few
years ago, used to have every article that
seemed at all worth publishing set up in
type before he made up his mind whether
to accept or reject it.
Everything, as Charles Lamb used to say,
is apt to read SO raw in manuscript. 1t is
the most difficult thing in the world to know
how an article will read from looking at it
in manuscript, so difficult that even authors
themselves, men of long and varied expert
ence men like Moore and Macaulay, could
seldom form an opinion upon their own
writings until they saw how they looked in
print. And when that is the case with the
author, how must it be with the publisher or
his reader, and with the editor of a publica-
ton, who has to make up his mind about
the merits of half dozen manuscripts in
the course of morning!
Yet, after all, I suspect that very few ar
ticles and very few books that are worth
printing are lost to the world, for the COM
petition among publishers for manuscripts is
only one degree less keen than the compe-
tition among authors for publishers, and an
author who has anything worth printing is
seldom long without publisher.
I happen to know the secret history of a
book which has long since taken its rank
among the classics of English literature
mean " Eothen' 1t was written years and
years before it was published; written with
care and thought; revised in the honest
| spirit of criticism, and kept under lock and
key for long time. 1t is book which, as
far as workmanship goes, exemplifed in a
very striking form Shenstones rule for
good writing, Spontaneous thought, la
bored expression" and there are few books
of travel which equally abound in adventure,
incident, sketches of character and personal
romance. It is, as Lockhart well said, an
English classic.
| But when Alexander Kinglake offered it to
the publishers, they refused it one and all,
refused it upon any terms, and the author at
! last out of conceit with his manuscript and
perhaps with himself, walked into book
sellers shop in Pail Mall, explained the ad-
ventures of the manuscript, and made it a
present to the publisher if he thought it
worth the printing. The first edition lin
gered little on his hands, till a notice in
Quarterly Revieao, from the pen of Lock
| hart called attention to it, and the printers
difficulty after that was to keep pace with
the demand. hope I am not violating any
confidence by adding that the publisher,
year by year, for many years, sent Mr..
Kinglake check for e1oO every Christmas
Day.-Belg7ovia.