NINETEENTH CENTURY LITERARY MANUSCRIPTS

Part 2: The Correspondence and Records of Smith, Elder & Co from the National Library of Scotland

Detailed Listing

REEL ONE

Correspondence (MSS.23171-84) and Records (MSS.23185-92) of George Smith (1824-1901), publisher and founder of the Dictionary of National Biography, and his successors as heads of the firm of Smith, Elder & Co, 1846-1924, nd, relating mostly to the publication of articles in The Cornhill Magazine (which he founded) and of books published by the firm.

MS.23171 Correspondence: Matthew Arnold, 1862-1875
MS.23172 Correspondence: Matthew Arnold, 1876-1886

There are over 200 letters from Matthew Arnold to George Smith, exhibiting the close relationship between the author and the publisher. In addition to correspondence concerning essays, articles, and books, Arnold asks Smith’s advice about a variety of subjects including lecture tours and private financial arrangements. There is also much on royalty payments and discussions of contemporary literary society. There are also some letters at the end of the sequence (f223ff) from Frances Arnold, 1889-1893

MS.23173 Correspondence: Thomas Hardy, 1869-1910

There are letters concerning The Poor Man & the Lady, Far from the Madding Crowd (including exchanges with Henry Holt regrading the US edition) and other works. There are also autograph poems including At Casterbridge Fair (f197), Let Me Enjoy (f199) and The Pine Planters (f201).

REEL TWO

MS.23174 Correspondence: John James Ruskin and John Ruskin, 1853-1873
The sequence begins with a number of letters between Ruskin’s father, a close neighbour of Smith, and the publisher concerning John Ruskin’s early publications. There are many letters between Ruskin and William Smith Williams (1800-1875), Smith’s ‘reader’, including Ruskin’s plan to issue cheap editions of some of his works by forgoing royalties.

MS.23175 Correspondence: Sir Leslie Stephen, 1865-1887
MS.23176 Correspondence: Sir Leslie Stephen, 1888-1902

Leslie Stephen was the first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, and most of the c200 letters relate to this. There are a number of letters from Julia Stephen (f164ff) at the end of the sequence.

REEL THREE

MS.23177 Correspondence: William Makepeace Thackeray, 1851-1863
The correspondence starts with a large number of letters written to and from Thackeray in his role as editor of The Cornhill Magazine. These include a fine letter from Thackeray to Trollope saying “I don’t know whether you ought to be pleased or sorry to hear that since the sad end of Framley Parsonage our magazine has dropped a thousand or more. We hope Orley Farm is being very productive; and shall be very glad if the Orley Farmer can do some more work for us.” (MS.23177 f25) There are also letters from Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Adelaide Procter, George Sala and others to Thackeray concerning stories, poems and illustrations for the magazine.

Also included is a manuscript portion of Denis Duval (No III, Ch VI, 37pp), many amusing drawings by Thackeray, agreements between Thackeray and Smith for a 3 volume novel, an account of a journey from Cornhill to Cairo, and posthumous material concerning the copyright for Thackeray’s novels.

MS.23178 Correspondence: Anthony Trollope, 1854-1879, and Queen Victoria, 1854
There are c40 letters from Trollope including one in which he declares: “I do not think that I have any objection to the terms you propose about my new novel. I should wish there to be an understanding as to the period of publication, - viz that it shall all appear in the course of 1867 & 1868; - also as to the payment which you will probably not object to make by instalments of £150 a month from 1 January 1867 to 1 August 1868, - on condition of course that so much of the novel is in your hands.”

The material relating to Queen Victoria starts at f72 and concerns the publication of Leaves from the Journal of Our life in the Highlands from 1848 to 1861. There are long extracts from the manuscript, some delightfully illustrated.

MS.23179 Correspondence: A - Bri

Featuring correspondence by:

• Gilbert à Beckett
• William Harrison Ainsworth
• Helen Allingham
• Edwin Arnold
• H Asquith
• Sarah Austin
• James M Barrie
• Arthur Benson
• Laurence Binyon
• William Black
• R D Blackmore
• E Boyle
• Charles Bradlaugh
• Robert Bridges

and others (The use of bold type indicates a substantial series of letters)

REEL FOUR

MS.23180 Correspondence: Bro - C
Featuring correspondence by:

• Dr John Brown
• Robert Browning
• R Barrett Browning
• Fanny Kemble [Butler]
• Hall Caine
• Thomas Carlyle
• Robert Cecil
• John Collier
• Dolly Stanley [Curtis]
• Marian Lewes [Cross] (George Eliot)
• S R Crockett
• Wilkie Collins

and others

MS.23181 Correspondence: D - Ga
Featuring correspondence by:

• Charles Darwin
• Charles Dickens
• Frank Dicksee
• Alfred Dornett
• Arthur Conan Doyle
• Richard Doyle
• George Du Maurier
• Juliana H Gatty
• Millicent Garrett Fawcett
• Edward Fitzgerald
• Elizabeth Gaskell

and others(The use of bold type indicates a substantial series of letters)

MS.23182 Correspondence: Gi - Lee

Featuring correspondence by:

• H S Gifford
• George Gissing
• Sabine Baring Gould
• Anstey Guthrie
• James Hannay
• Bret Harte
• Anthony Hawkins
• W E Henley
• Hubert Herkomer
• Octavia Hill
• John Hollingshead
• Thomas Hood
• R H Horne
• Laurence Houseman
• W D Howells
• Mary Howitt
• Thomas Hughes
• Leigh Hunt
• C P Ilbert
• W W Jacobs
• Henry James
• Charles Keene
• Sidney Lee

and others (The use of bold type indicates a substantial series of letters)

REEL FIVE

MS.23183 Correspondence: Lef - O
Featuring correspondence by:

• Sheridan Le Fanu
• Richard Le Gallienne
• Frederick Leighton
• Charles Lever
• Marian Lewes (George Eliot)
• G H Lewes
• W J Locke
• H W Longfellow
• J R Lowell
• George MacDonald
• W C Macready
• Helena Martin
• Theodore Martin
• Harriet Martineau
• A E W Mason
• M E Braddon [Maxwell]
• George Meredith
• John Everett Millais
• Lord Milner
• John Morley
• Florence Nightingale
• Alfred Noyes
• Laurence Oliphant
• Margaret Oliphant

and others (The use of bold type indicates a substantial series of letters)

MS.23184 Correspondence: P - W
Featuring correspondence by:

• Gilbert Parker
• Coventry Patmore
• Lord Rosebery
• Adelaide Procter
• Charles Reade
• Lord Roberts
• Christina G Rosetti
• Dante Gabriel Rosetti
• W M Rosetti
• George Sala
• John Simon
• Robert Louis Stevenson
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Algernon Swinburne
• J A Symonds
• Horace Vachell
• Frederick Walker
• Mary Ward
• William Watson
• H G Wells
• Stanley Weyman
• Robert Wilson
• Miss Ellen Wood
• Bill Wortley

and others (The use of bold type indicates a substantial series of letters)

REEL SIX

MS.23185 Account Books, January 1860 - December 1861
and an account of costs, contributors and sales

MS.23186 Account Books, January 1862 - December 1863
and an account of costs, contributors and sales

MS.23187 Account Books, January 1864 - December 1865
and an account of costs, contributors and sales

MS.23188 Account Books, January 1866 - December 1867
and an account of costs, contributors and sales

MS.23189 Account Books, January 1868 - December 1869
and an account of costs, contributors and sales

MS.23190 Register of Contributors to The Cornhill Magazine, 1880-1901

REEL SEVEN

MS.23191 George Smith’s The Recollections of a long and busy life, c1895. Unpublished.
MS.23192 George Smith’s The Recollections of a long and busy life, c1895. Unpublished.

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