IN the nineteenth-century business records of the publishing
house of John Murray, in London, are data not elsewhere
available regarding the publication by Murray of George
Crabbe's works after the poet's death.[1] These records contain an account of
the reprints of both the eight-volume edition which first
appeared in 1834 and the edition complete in one volume
which was published first in 1847. The information
concerning the number of copies received from the printer,
the dates when they were received, and the rapidity of the
sales should be useful to students of Crabbe's success and
reputation as well as to librarians, collectors, and
bibliographers. For the present this information must be
regarded as a means of checking bibliographical evidence
rather than as definitive material, since even a
superficial preliminary survey reveals discrepancies
between the publisher's records and the bibliographical
facts which can hardly be accounted for without a thorough
study of the extant volumes themselves.[2]
The Murray stock books make clear, however, that the
eight-volume edition came out originally in monthly
numbers, as the dating, February-September, in Huchon's
list of the publications of Crabbe suggests.[3] The original printings of the first
two volumes are dated in the stock book February and
March, respectively; and those of the other volumes are
dated specifically the first day of each succeeding month.[4] Apparently, Huchon did not make use
of the Murray stock books. I find no mention of them in
his study, the scope of which, indeed, hardly includes the
history of the Murray editions published after Crabbe's
death.
The dates recorded in the stock books for the reprints of
these individual volumes throw doubt upon Bartholomew's
listing of the reprints of 1835 and 1836, in which it is
indicated that the set was reprinted in
toto in
both of these
years.
[5] The stock books show
that all of the volumes were reprinted once during 1835,
but in three different groups.
[6] There is no
record in the stock books, moreover, of any reprint of
Volumes III and VIII during 1836. At the moment it is
impossible to say whether any copies of these two volumes
were issued with cancel titles bearing the date 1836. This
seems improbable on account of the variety of dates in
extant copies of this eight-volume set, which suggests
that no effort was made to achieve the appearance of
uniformity.
This variety of dates is accounted for by the indication in
the stock books that between December, 1834, when the
entire set was reprinted, and February, 1847, when it was
reprinted again, there were many reprints of individual
volumes or groups of volumes, but none of the set as a
whole.[7] Thus the suspicion of
numerous cancel titles is somewhat allayed, and the
impulse to assume frequent reprints of the whole set with
numerous shiftings, by booksellers and other owners, of
copies from one issue to another is held in check. The
table below summarizes the facts as to the dates of the
reprints.
The records of the number of copies disposed of are a little
less clear than those of the dates of the various
reprints, because some of the entries showing numbers of
copies disposed of seem to represent an accumulation and
not to belong specifically to the dates assigned to them.
This is indicated by several facts: first, that there is
only one entry showing the number of copies of Volume I
presented as gifts; second, that this number and the
numbers of copies in the entries showing coffee-house
sales are comparatively large; third, that these figures
representing accumulations are rather infrequent for some
of the years covered by the records; and fourth, that in a
few cases the number of copies recorded as having been
sold by a certain date exceeds the number recorded as
having been printed by that date. It is possible, however,
to get a fairly trustworthy idea of the rapidity of the
sales of the various volumes of this edition as well as of
the issues that were printed together as sets, for the
total number of copies disposed of plus the number not
disposed of corresponds exactly to the number printed. I
shall give the record of the number of copies printed as
it appears in the stock books, because these entries are
intelligible without interpretation. But instead of
putting down all the various entries in the records of
sales, I shall summarize these and relate them to the
records of printings.
The reprints of the individual volumes of Crabbe's works are
recorded in the stock books as follows:
THE EIGHT-VOLUME EDITION OF CRABBE'S LIFE AND
WORKS INDIVIDUAL VOLUMES
Table of Printings[8]
| Date |
Number of Copies Printed |
|
Volume I |
II |
III |
IV |
V |
VI |
VII |
VIII |
| Feb., 1834 |
7,090 |
| March, 1834 |
|
5,062 |
| April 1, 1834 |
|
|
5,062 |
| May 1, 1834 |
|
|
|
5,040 |
| May, 1834 |
|
504 |
| June 1, 1834 |
|
|
|
|
5,098 |
| July 1, 1834 |
|
|
|
|
|
5,092 |
| Aug. 1, 1834 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
5,100 |
| Sept. 1, 1834 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5,064 |
| Sept., 1834 |
504 |
|
502 |
| Dec. 1, 1834 |
|
506 |
506 |
504 |
504 |
506 |
506 |
1,000 |
| Dec., 1834 |
502 |
| Feb. 25, 1835 |
|
502 |
|
490 |
| June 19, 1835 |
505 |
|
|
|
500 |
506 |
506 |
506 |
| Sept. 19, 1835 |
|
|
504 |
| April, 1836 |
252 |
250 |
|
502 |
252 |
250 |
252 |
| June 7, 1836 |
|
|
|
|
250 |
| June 7, 1837 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
250 |
| Jan., 1838 |
250 |
252 |
252 |
|
|
254 |
250 |
| Feb., 1839 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
250 |
| July, 1839 |
|
|
|
250 |
| Feb., 1840 |
252 |
252 |
252 |
252 |
252 |
252 |
252 |
| Sept., 1841 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
250 |
| Dec., 1842 |
|
|
|
|
250 |
250 |
250 |
| Dec., 1843 |
|
252 |
252 |
| Jan. 1, 1844 |
234 |
| March, 1844 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
252 |
| Dec., 1845 |
|
|
|
|
252 |
252 |
252 |
| March 1, 1846 |
|
|
|
252 |
|
9,589 |
7,580 |
7,330 |
7,290 |
7,358 |
7,362 |
7,368 |
7,572 |
Although the column for each of the volumes in the 1832 stock
book ends with the notation "To new book," I have found no
entries in the next book, the one opened in 1844, for any
of the volumes except the first, and only one for that,
i.e., the one for January 1,
1844, given in the table above. Perhaps the phrase "To new
book" refers to the records of the reprints of the set as
a whole, which do appear in the 1844 book; or perhaps when
the new book was opened it was contemplated that there
might be further reprints of the individual volumes. In
any case, I believe that these records as I have given
them are complete, since they extend through 1846, the
year before the set as a whole was reprinted. Regrettably,
the stock books do not indicate whether the type for any
of the volumes was distributed
and
re-set between 1834 and the last reprint of the set.
[9] Nor do they show whether all of the
printing was done by Spottiswoode. This writer has seen no
copies of any of the volumes bearing the imprint of any
other printer; and Spottiswoode is mentioned in the 1844
stock book as the printer of the 1847 issue.
The records of sales indicate that up to and including the
year 1846 the individual volumes were disposed of as
follows:
THE EIGHT-VOLUME EDITION OF CRABBE'S LIFE AND
WORKS INDIVIDUAL VOLUMES
Table Showing Disposal of Copies[10]
| Year |
|
Taken Over by Booksellers, Sold at the
Murray Shop, or Presented |
|
Volume I |
II |
III |
IV |
V |
VI |
VII |
VIII |
| 1834 |
7,751 |
5,914 |
5,671 |
5,477 |
5,377 |
5,357 |
5,316 |
5,551 |
| 1835 |
541 |
455 |
444 |
509 |
501 |
481 |
506 |
573 |
| 1836 |
273 |
256 |
246 |
252 |
316 |
308 |
298 |
324 |
| 1837 |
250 |
217 |
214 |
224 |
232 |
236 |
242 |
225 |
| 1838 |
150 |
137 |
131 |
113 |
134 |
161 |
148 |
147 |
| 1839 |
122 |
131 |
52 |
123 |
116 |
139 |
141 |
139 |
| 1840 |
12 |
22 |
22 |
16 |
17 |
17 |
17 |
27 |
| 1841 |
82 |
77 |
72 |
82 |
76 |
75 |
75 |
84 |
| 1842 |
118 |
117 |
122 |
110 |
120 |
126 |
125 |
123 |
| 1843 |
17 |
15 |
14 |
17 |
12 |
22 |
23 |
10 |
| 1844 |
167 |
128 |
136 |
142 |
136 |
163 |
166 |
146 |
| 1845 |
43 |
82 |
32 |
28 |
38 |
23 |
31 |
31 |
| 1846 |
24 |
8 |
46 |
45 |
48 |
58 |
58 |
52 |
|
9,550 |
7,559 |
7,277[11]
|
7,138 |
7,123 |
7,166 |
7,146 |
7,432 |
| To new book |
39 |
21 |
53 |
152 |
235 |
196 |
222 |
140 |
|
5,589 |
7,580 |
7,330[11]
|
7,290 |
7,358 |
7,362 |
7,368 |
7,572 |
The rather extreme fluctuation of sales for the
eighteen-forties suggests the possibility that some of the
sales may have been recorded for the wrong year, perhaps
on account of the use of a lump figure representing
transactions over a period of time; but, as I have already
said, the total number of copies disposed of corresponds
exactly to the total number printed. I have not found any
record of the disposal of the copies which are designated
as
carried over to the new book, but the
general trend of the demand for these volumes is clear
enough nonetheless.
It is interesting to note that the Volume I, containing the
memoir of Crabbe, sold better than any of the volumes of
his poetry except Volume II, which contained the poems
that appeared first in 1807, and that Volume I maintained
its position fairly consistently throughout the period
represented by the figures. This fact is accounted for
partly, of course, by the fact that the memoir was a new
work. Although Crabbe's biography can scarcely be expected
to have had a sale comparable with that of Boswell's Life of Johnson, also chronicled
in the Murray stock books, it may nevertheless be worth
mentioning that from 1835, when the house of Murray
brought out the latter in ten monthly volumes, until 1839,
these volumes sold roughly at the rate of 900-1000 copies
each per year.
The superior popularity of Volume VIII is doubtless due also
to the fact that its contents, the Posthumous Tales, were
appearing for the first time. It is to be noted that
Volume VIII tends to lag behind the others after the first
three years following publication.
The principal significance of these figures, of course, is
that they indicate how rapidly the popularity of Crabbe
declined in the years following his death. It is to be
remembered, however, that what we have here is only a
partial record. The publication of Crabbe by other houses
doubtless contributed to the decline of the sale of the
Murray edition; but we cannot say how much.[12] Unfortunately no figures are at the
moment available showing the rapidity of the sales of the
editions brought out by other publishers.
The story is carried forward by the record of the printing and
disposal of the eight-volume set as a whole. The stock
books indicate that it was printed as follows:
| February, 1847 |
Life and Works Complete, 8 vols. |
Spottiswoode |
|
Fcap 8 vo |
252 |
| January 1, 1849 |
Reprint |
252 |
|
Returned by Trade |
24 |
|
|
--- |
|
|
528 |
| 1853 |
Reprint |
250 |
|
|
--- |
|
|
778[13]
|
The probable meaning of the item "Returned by
Trade" is that some of the copies which had been taken
over by booksellers or coffee houses and recorded as
having left the stock room were returned, so that when
these were again disposed of their number was again added
to the record of copies taken from the stock. The number
of copies returned had to be added to the record of stock
received from the printer in order to make the books
balance. The number of copies of the set printed, then,
was 754 instead of 778.
The 1849 and 1853 reprints have not been listed by Crabbe's
bibliographers, nor have I seen copies of them.[14]
The following table is derived from the stock book record of
the disposal of these complete sets:
THE EIGHT-VOLUME EDITION OF CRABBE'S LIFE AND
WORKS COMPLETE SETS PRINTED IN 1847, 1849, AND
1853
Table Showing Disposal of Copies[15]
| Year |
Copies Disposed of |
Year |
Copies Disposed of |
| 1847 |
240 |
1858 |
9 |
| 1848 |
20 |
1859 |
30 |
| 1849 |
50 |
1860 |
9 |
| 1850 |
131 |
1861 |
7 |
| 1851 |
51 |
1862 |
7 |
| 1852 |
119 |
1863 |
1 |
| 1853 |
1 |
1864 |
2 |
| 1854 |
23 |
1865 |
8 |
| 1855 |
24 |
1866 |
2 |
| 1856 |
19 |
1867 |
4 |
| 1857 |
21 |
|
--- |
|
|
|
778 (total) |
Since the last recorded sale is dated April 4,
1867, and since the total number of copies disposed of
equals the number received, the eight-volume set must have
gone out of print at that time, except for a few copies of
volumes printed individually before 1847 which may
possibly have been left.
[16] Since the
eight-volume edition was in competition with the
one-volume edition as early as 1847, the significance of
the record of sales of the former will not appear until
after I have given the figures for the latter.
The Murray records show printings and reprintings of the
one-volume edition as follows:
|
Crabbe's Life & Works |
Clowes |
| March, 1847 |
One Volume, Royal 8 vo |
2000 |
|
Overplus |
23 |
|
|
----- |
|
|
2,023 |
| Nov. 13, 1850 |
Returned by trade |
46 |
| Feb., 1851 |
" " " |
38 |
| Dec., 1850 |
Second edition |
1,011 |
| July, 1854 |
Returned from shop |
2 |
|
|
----- |
|
|
3,120[17]
|
|
Crabbe's Works |
Clowes |
| Aug. 11, 1854 |
1 vol. royal 8vo |
1,010 |
| June, 1860 |
Returned from trade |
10 |
| Mar., 1861 |
................ shop |
4 |
|
|
----- |
|
|
1,024 |
|
|
999 |
|
|
---- |
|
To other edition with plates |
25[18]
|
|
1901 |
1,010 |
I have not seen the stock book entry for the 1901
reprint; it was transcribed for me by Mr. James
Farquharson, of the house of Murray, who has told me that
the volume has not been reprinted since that time, and has
given me the following additional information from records
accessible to him:
The Poetical Works of
Crabbe with his Letters and Journals and his
Life was published by Murray, with
illustrations, in seven parts royal octavo at one shilling
each in 1860;
[19] then in 1866 a
one-volume edition made up of previously published monthly
parts was issued with a new volume title.
[20]
The Murray records add one reprint, that of December, 1850, to
the list of reprints of the one-volume Murray edition
given by Crabbe's bibliographers. The reprint listed by
Huchon as belonging to the year 1867 may be the title-page
edition of 1866, as the date on the title-page would
probably be 1867 if the edition was issued late in the
year 1866. Bartholomew, however, lists a one-volume
edition for 1866.
The records of the disposal of the one-volume edition which I
have seen extend only through the year 1854. They show the
following:
THE ONE-VOLUME EDITION OF CRABBE'S LIFE AND
WORKS
Table Showing Disposal of Copies[21]
| Year |
Copies Disposed of |
| 1847 |
1,765 |
| 1848 |
72 |
| 1849 |
132 |
| 1850 |
502 |
| 1851 |
238 |
| 1852 |
125 |
| 1853 |
269 |
| 1854 |
17 |
|
----- |
|
3,120 |
These figures account completely for the first
and second issues of the
one-volume
edition, but for no others. The belief has been expressed
to me by Mr. Farquharson that the one-volume edition is
not even yet quite out of print.
The demand for Crabbe's works in the forties and fifties of
the nineteenth century can be seen more clearly from a
combination of the sales figures for the eight-volume set
with those which are available for the one-volume edition.
These combined figures are given below:
THE EIGHT-VOLUME AND THE ONE-VOLUME EDITION
OF CRABBE'S LIFE AND WORKS
| Year |
Copies Disposed of |
| 1847 |
2,005 |
| 1848 |
92 |
| 1849 |
182 |
| 1850 |
633 |
| 1851 |
289 |
| 1852 |
244 |
| 1853 |
270 |
| 1854 |
40 |
It is regrettable that this series cannot be
continued, for it would be interesting to know whether the
slump of sales in 1854 represented a trend. Perhaps it did
not do so any more than did the low figure for 1848.
On the whole these data do not give the impression that all
interest in Crabbe ended with his life. To be sure, the
number of purchasers of his works was small in the years
immediately preceding 1847, when Murray's two complete
editions were published, and in the following years as
well; but the sale of two thousand copies by a single
publisher in 1847 and the comparatively steady sale in the
following years are impressive.
