NINETEENTH CENTURY LITERARY MANUSCRIPTS

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

Publisher's Note

The aim of this series is to make available significant manuscript sources for the study of Nineteenth Century Literature from libraries across the world.  It will include:

• Autograph manuscripts of literary texts
• Writers’ “Quarries”, Commonplace books, and notebooks
• Manuscript autobiographies and biographical sources
• Correspondence - including in-letters which have not been included in published editions
• Records relating to the “business” of literature - publishing and publishing

Part 1 featured examples from the first four of these categories and covered the British Library’s holdings of manuscripts relating to Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61); Robert Browning (1812-89); George Eliot (Mary Ann, later Marian, Cross née Evans) (1819-80); William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63); and Anthony Trollope (1815-82).

This Second Part features examples from the latter two categories by offering the business papers and correspondence files of Smith, Elder & Co, one of the most important publishing houses in 19th Century Britain.

Smith and Elder was founded in 1816 by George Smith (senior) (1789-1846) and Alexander Elder.  Both were born and raised in Scotland, but had moved to England to pursue opportunities in the publishing industry.  Their first publication registered with the Stationer’s Company was Sermons and Expositions of interesting portions of scripture by the Revd Dr John Morison.

In 1824 Smith & Elder moved from its original premises in Fenchurch Street, London, to 65 Cornhill, an address that was to give its name to the company’s magazine.  A third Partner was added and the business took on the permanent name of Smith, Elder & Co.  1824 also marked the birth of Smith’s first son, also named George Smith, who was later to take over the business from his father.

The development of an Indian agency was central to the expansion of the Company. This started with the export of stationery and books to the East India Company, but soon embraced a wide range of commodities.  Smith, Elder & Co also published a number of pamphlets relating to Indian trade for English consumption.

A notable early success was a literary annual, Friendship’s Offering, which they took over from the publisher Lupton Relfe, and which was issued from 1828 to 1842.  This featured poetry  and prose by  Coleridge, Hogg, Macaulay, Mitford, Norton, Ruskin, Southey, and Tennyson and achieved sales of 10,000 copies at its peak.  The annual also brought the company into contact with the noted journalist, Leitch Ritchie (the third editor after Thomas Kibble Hervey and Thomas Pringle), who was to prove an important personal and professional contact for the firm. He instigated the Library of Romance that featured works such as The Ghost Hunter and His Family by John and Michael Banim (1833) and The Slave King by Victor Hugo (1833), which won a popular audience.

Other successful publications included: the New Greek and English Lexicon by James Donnegan (1826); Chronicles of London Bridge by Richard Thomson (1828); The Comic Offering, or Lady’s Melange of Literary mirth (another annual, 1831-1835, edited by Louisa Henrietta Sheridan); James Grant’s Random Recollections of the House of Commons (1836); the Works of Sir Humphry Davy (1838-1839); and Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa by Sir Andrew Smith (1838-1847).

George Smith (junior) (1824-1901) joined the Company in 1838, aged 14.  He was given a thorough grounding in all aspects of the business from sharpening quills to dealing with the post.  He was thus present when the Company embarked upon The Zoological Report of the Expedition of HMS Beagle (published 1840-1848) by Charles Darwin, which attracted world-wide interest.

In 1843 Smith, Elder & Co began another enduring relationship with an author.  They were offered the chance to publish a work on contemporary art entitled Modern Painters, by a Graduate of Oxford.  The young graduate in question was, of course, John Ruskin, and the publication of this seminal work was the start of a 30 year connection between the publisher and the author.  Modern Painters was not initially successful, selling only 105 copies in the first year, but the Company’s investment in this work paid handsome dividends in the long run.

A few months after the appearance of Modern Painters, George Smith, took over responsibility for the firm’s publications, leaving his father to concentrate on the increasingly important Indian agency.  The first publications overseen by the younger Smith were The New Spirit of the Age (a handsomely illustrated collection of essays edited by R H Horne, 1844); Our Actresses, or Glances at Stage Favourites Past and Present by Mrs Wilson (1844); and Leigh Hunt’s Imagination and Fancy (1844).  These returned a good profit and Smith became an established figure in literary society, developing friendships with Browning, Leigh Hunt, Ruskin and George Henry Lewes.

It was a time for optimism and the young George Smith could look forward to taking over his father’s share of the business in 1845, when he reached the age of 21. Unfortunately, the happiness of the situation was destroyed when his father fell seriously ill in 1844, dying in 1846.  To make matters worse, Alexander Elder announced his retirement and the third partner was found guilty of misusing the Company’s credit and capital.  As such, the newly come of age George Smith was left alone at the helm of the Company and was also expected to provide for his mother and younger siblings.  That the business prospered is proven by the records provided here.

George Smith expanded the Company’s agency business, supplying commodities not only to India, but also to Africa.  He also took on an able “reader” to assist with the publishing business - William Smith Williams (1800-1875).  Charlotte Brontë described Williams as “my first favourable critic” and he was widely admired by authors for his thorough but sensitive editing.  With Smith’s connections and Williams’ skill, the publishing side of the business gradually took off.  Ruskin had now acquired a considerable reputation and  Modern Painters, Volume II (1846) and The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) were issued.  Another coup was the publication of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847) (on Williams’ commendation).

The connection with Charlotte Brontë was to prove to be very fruitful, both in terms of the success of Jane Eyre and later novels, but also because it brought the Company into contact with her literary circle, including Harriet Martineau, Mrs Gaskell and William Thackeray.  The first work by Thackeray issued by the firm was The Kickleburys on the Rhine (1850), followed by The History of Henry Esmond (1852).  Ruskin’s output continued with The Stones of Venice (1851-53), Pre-Raphaelitism (1852) and Examples of the Architecture of Venice (1852).

In 1853 Smith was joined by a second partner, Samuel King, a Brighton bookseller.  This eased the pressures of business on Smith and in 1854 he married Elizabeth Blakeway.

At Thackeray’s suggestion, Smith, Elder & Co, now moved into the business of periodical publishing.  This started with The Overland Mail and The Homeward Mail in 1855, which built on their colonial enterprises.  However, it was The Cornhill Magazine, widely acknowledged as one of the great literary periodicals, and The Pall Mall Gazette, which established the Company’s fortunes and reputation in this field.

The Cornhill Magazine (1860-1975) began with Thackeray as Editor and specialised in the combination of writing by leading authors with fine illustration by leading artists. The first issue featured the opening instalment of Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope, with illustrations by Millais (introduced to Smith by Ruskin) and sold 120,000 copies.   The seventh number featured Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Great God Pan with illustrations by Leighton. The serialisation of novels by Thackeray and Trollope became a mainstay of the magazine, but other writers who graced its pages were Robert Browning, George Eliot, Mrs Gaskell,  Thomas Hardy,  George MacDonald, George Meredith, Charles Reade, John Ruskin, Algernon Swinburne and Alfred Tennyson.   Later editors included G H Lewes (1862-64, with F Greenwood) and Leslie Stephen  (1871-1882).   Contact with these authors was also of benefit to the book publishing side of the firm which published: After Dark by Wilkie Collins (1856); Modern Painters, Volumes III & IV by Ruskin(1856); the Life of Charlotte Brontë by Mrs Gaskell (1857); Household Education by Martineau (1861); and Romola by George Eliot (1863).

The Pall Mall Gazette was also based on an idea by Thackeray (in Pendennis) of a paper “written by gentlemen for gentlemen.”   Launched in 1865 it combined a love of literature with news reporting.  Contributors included Arnold, Stephen, Symonds and Trollope and it also brought Smith into contact with Sir Arthur Helps.  Helps, in turn, was instrumental in securing for Smith the rights to print that Victorian publishing sensation,  Leaves from the Journal of our life in the Highlands by Queen Victoria (1867).

In 1868, aged 44, Smith decided to split up the firm.  King took over the agency and banking business (as Henry S King & Co) and Smith concentrated solely on the publishing business which he relocated to Waterloo Place.  The firm issued Browning’s Poetical Works (1868), The Ring and the Book (1868-69), and embarked on a series of collected works for Thackeray and others.  The last major publishing enterprise founded by Smith was the Dictionary of National Biography (from 1882)  with Leslie Stephen as Editor. This brief account of the publishing history of Smith, Elder & Co is largely based on  Sidney Lee’s DNB memoir of  George Smith, who died in 1901.

The manuscript records covered by this microfilm edition include a set of Account Books spanning from 1860 to 1869 and a Register of Contributors to The Cornhill Magazine from 1880 to 1901.  The correspondence runs to fourteen substantial volumes and reads like a Who’s Who of Victorian Literary Society.   This second part also includes a substantial and unpublished autobiography by George Smith entitled The Recollections of a long and busy life (written c1895). This second part is an invaluable source for understanding the relationship between publishers, editors and authors, and will  be of interest to all those studying Victorian Literature.

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