The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-01-31

ConstitutionaP-of his early struggles
in Paris and London-of his efforts as an
artist-of Dickens curt refusal of his
request to be allowed toillustrate" Pick
xick"-of his long meditation and lab
orous production Of "Vanity Fair"-and
Of the way in which the MS. Of this
work, q work worthy Of the genius that
produced atom JONES'" made its Mound
of the publishers readers only to be re-
turned with or without thanks by all in
turn, till it at last found appreciative
publishers in Bradbury and Evans, and,
with the help of an article, in the "Edin-
burgh Review" soon became as popular
in its yellow wrapper as "Pickwick" had
been in its green cover.
All the world knows the history of
"Jane Eyre"-how it was written in the
grey old parsonage under the Yorkshire
hills; how the rough notes, sketched has
tily in pencil, were transcribed in neat
hand as legibls as print; and how the
MS, in its brown.paper wrapper, was
sent off from the small station-house at
Keighley to publisher after publisher,
only to find its way back again, Gre
turned 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 and Elder with stamped enyel-
ope inside for reply. This story Of j., ane
Eyre" is, with authors who can not find
a publisher, one Of the standing sources
Of consolation, and it is very striking
instance of the loose way in which pub
fishers readers now and then look
through MSS. that find their way into
their hands, even if it does not prove
that publishers, like women, though
they cant about genius, can not divine
it's existence till all the world point with
the hand; for Messrs. Smith and 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 a story, or to
find the proofs of genius in a loose
pile Of MSS. which you can
hardly perhaps dscipher except with a
glass, and perhaps not always with that.
Francis Jeffrey knew 80 well the difficult
,ty of forming an opinion upon an article
from reading it in MS, that in sending his
first article to the "Edinburg Review -
after he had relinquished the editorship,
he stipulated that Mr.. Napier should not
attempt to read it till ihe could read 1t
in type; and the editor of the Saturday
Review" a few wears ago, used to have
every article that seemed at all worth
publishing, set up in type before lie
made up his mind whether to accept or
reject it. Everything, as Charles Lamb
used to say, is apt to read 30 raw in MS.
1t is the most difficult thing in the
world to know how an article will read
from looking at it in MS, no difficult
that even authors themselves, men of
long and yanied experience, men like
Moore and Macsulay, could seldom form
an opinion upon their own writings till
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-
4tion who has to make up his mind about
the merits,of half a dozen MSS. in the
course of 8 morning! Yet, after all, i
suspect that very few articles and 'very
few books that are worth printing are
lost to the world, for the competition
ameng publishers for MSS. is only y'one
degree less keen than the competition
among authorstifor 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 litera-
,ture--I mean 'Euthsn." 1T was written
years and years before it was published,
written with care and thought, revised in
the keenest spirit of criticism, and kept
under lock aud key for a long time. 1T
is book which, as far as workmanship
goes, exemplifes in very striking form
,Shenstones rule for COED writing-"Spon.
taneous thought, labored expression
and there are few books of travel which
equally abound in adventure, incident,
sketches Of character, and personal ro-
nance. It is, as Lockhart well said,
an English classic. But when Alexan.
der Kinglake offered it to the
publishers, they refused it one and all, re-
fused it upon any terms, and the author
at last, out of conceit with his MS. and
perhaps with himself, walked into a book.
sellers shop in Pail Mall, explained the
adventures of the MS, and made it q
present to the publisher if he thought il
werth printing. The first edition fingered
a 1ittle ON his hand, till a notice in the
Quarterly Review, from tho pen ,oi
Lockhart, called attention to it, and the
printers difficulty after that was to keep
pace with the demand. I hope I am moi
violating amy confidence by adding that
tho publisher, year by year, for many
years, sent Mr.. Kinglske cheque fol
1901. every Christmas Day.
Thomas Campbell, the poet, attending
publishers dinner, once rose and asked
permission to propose toast. The toast
was to Napoleon Bonaparte." "Why
are we to drink his health2" asked the
host. because he shot a bookseller
replied the poet; and it was in the spirit
of this story that Peter Farley once com.
pared publishers 10 Odin and TAor