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NINETEENTH CENTURY LITERARY MANUSCRIPTS

Part 6: Correspondence and Papers, 1788-1827, of Archibald Constable, Publisher of the Edinburgh Review (NLS Mss 319-332, 668-684, 742-743, 789-792,7200, 8991, 23117, 23230-23234, 23618-23620)

Part 6 looks at the papers of Archibald Constable & Co, which rose from 1795 to 1825 to become one of the greatest publishing houses in Great Britain. In 1826 the Company was destroyed by bankruptcy and within a year the Companys founder was dead. That is the enigma of Archibald Constable and it is the story revealed by the documents published here.

The launch of The Edinburgh Review (in 1802) coincided with the firms first publication of a novel, Sir Tristam, by Sir Walter Scott. These twin ventures were to become the mainstay of the business and the foundations of its greatness. The Edinburgh Review became the model on which all nineteenth century reviews were based.

Robert Cadell was taken on by Constable in 1811 and quickly realised the value of Scott, Our most productive culture is the author of Waverley. Let us stick to him, let us dig on and on at that inestimable quarry - and as sure as I now write to you we shall do well. (Cadell to Constable).

Then came the countrywide financial crash of 1825 which brought down many banks and businesses. At first Constable appeared secure, but their London agents, Hurst, Robinson and Co, were brought down by an unwise speculation in hops by J O Robinson. When they went under payments owing from Constable were demanded and Constable collapsed, owing £256,000, with Scott owing £117,000.

The majority of the archive presented here consists of manuscript letterbooks, featuring correspondence with the authors, 1788-1827; correspondence between Cadell and Constable, 1811-1826; correspondence with Longman & Co, 1802-1805; correspondence with Hurst, Robinson & Co, 1813-1827; correspondence of David Constable, 1808-1856; and correspondence with Walter Scott, 1816-1827.

Constables contributions to literary culture were significant. the Edinburgh Review, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and Scotts Waverley novels alone would guarantee a publisher a lasting place in literary history, but Constable also published the works of many of the best-known authors of the day, from Archibald Alison to Henry MacKenzie, from poets and philosophers to historians and divines.
Raymond N MacKenzie
University of St Thomas, writing in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol 154 (1995)



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