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III
In June 1882 Douglas printed his first of Howells' novels, A Chance Acquaintance and A Foregone Conclusion. Both volumes met with so cordial a reception, as Douglas said, that they had to be reprinted during the course of the year. By year's end, Douglas had added to his list A Counterfeit Presentment, Their Wedding Journey, The Lady of the Aroostook, Out of the Question, The Undiscovered Country,
Howells had not been widely read in Britain before the 1880's, so he could hardly appear as anything other than an upstart brother Jonathan when, in the Century Magazine, he dismissed the lares of British fiction while praising his countryman Henry James: "The art of fiction has, in fact, become a finer art in our day than it was with Dickens and Thackeray."[16] It was this assertion and the outrage with which it was greeted that initially shaped Howells' reputation in England.[17] But by 1884 the fuss had subsided enough so that the Temple Bar was ready to recognize Howells' "European reputation" in a review concerned with the new school of fiction Howells had announced, and the Westminster Review suggested that Howells, with the help of his British publisher, might even deserve the recognition he had won: "Mr. Howells has had as friendly a reception from the British public within the past two or three years as he could well wish; the attractions of Mr. Douglas's pocket editions combining with those of the novelist's style, humour, and piquant narrative to lead even temperate novel-readers into prolonged dissipation."[18]
The question of Howells' merits aside, Douglas had clearly earned his share of this praise. He printed his American Author series on good paper and bound it in illustrated paper covers at 1s., in printed calico at 1/6, and in a strikingly handsome blue cloth with gilt tops at 2s. per volume. It rankled the Blackwood's reviewer that an American author received such treatment:
It was not only Howells on whom Douglas lavished his publisher's care, for it was in bringing out other writers (see the list, pp. 123-4 in the same format that he created the American Author series. Howells acted occasionally as Douglas's advisor here, and on 12 November 1883 Douglas wrote to thank Howells for "the great service you have done me in my business by sending the marked index [of the Atlantic Monthly] which I have already read rapidly over & shall very shortly read all the papers I can get hold of. . . . Your keeping me acquainted with anything good that appears will be of much service." During 1883 and 1884 Douglas added seventeen titles by nine different American authors, describing his intentions to Howells on 5 February 1885 as an endeavor "to give the very best specimens of your literature in the little series & [illegible word] make it of permanent value to our people."[19] Howells' influence is visible in the series; some of the authors were his friends and acquaintance — like Holmes, Curtis, Mitchell, and Aldrich — and it is likely that he would have drawn them to Douglas's attention, as he may also have recommended to him some of the books that came his way in reviewing for the "Editor's Study."[20]
If Douglas did not secure all the best American writing for his series, he did publish much that was very good, and with Howells, Cable, Holmes, and John Burroughs represented on the list with several titles each he had reason to be proud of the quality of his series. More than that, the emphasis on local color richly validated the promise of the series' title to be American. It is worth adding, finally, that the surviving evidence indicates that Douglas won the gratitude he deserved for his efforts on behalf of American writers. When, for instance, he brought out a four-volume collection of Holmes' poetry in 1892, he asked Holmes to write a preface for it. He got more than he asked for, as is evident from Douglas's letter about the preface to Holmes on 25 June 1892: "what you say of my work gratifies me extremely, but these words of praise however pleasant to me personally will I fear look egotistical in my own publication. I have always avoided any notice of this Head[?] preferring that the workmanship should speak for itself. If you agree with me perhaps you will delete the second paragraph, which however I am vain enough to tell you I shall preserve in my own private copy." Holmes made the change Douglas asked for but left a still generous compliment intact: "The proposal of Mr. Douglas to print an edition of my Poems gave me much pleasure, and I feel confident that they will be printed correctly and handsomely. The reader may find fault with them, but I am sure he will find pleasure in the form in which they are presented to his eye."[21]
Douglas lavished care on these books because it was in this cheaper form, aimed at a popular audience,[22] that he was most interested in publishing American writings. His correspondence with Howells makes it clear that if the trade editions of Howells' novels had had a disappointingly small sale, Douglas was all the more satisfied to keep on with the American Author series, about which he was optimistic from
The surviving royalty statements are spotty and sometimes not very informative because Douglas often paid Howells lump sums rather than a specified percentage on sales. In 1906, when Douglas was compiling his Scrap Book, he estimated that his total expenditure had been £16,000 and that he had divided the total profits of about £3000 evenly between himself and the authors. The only surviving records of payments made to Howells during the 1880's are those made in
This chart indicates two general factors about the basis of Howells' reputation in Britain and raises a question about how Douglas's judgment as a publisher may have helped to shape that reputation. The first and most obvious factor in the record of Howells' sales in Britain is that three novels, Their Wedding Journey, A Chance Acquaintance, and A Foregone Conclusion, were vastly more popular than any of the other titles. Thirteen other of Howells' books appeared in the series, but these three novels alone account for about forty-three percent of the total sales and are the only ones to have any popularity after 1900. This suggests that Howells was, for many British readers, a one or two novel author; indeed, two of these novels — Their Wedding Journey and A Chance Acquaintance — share some of the same characters. A second factor is more striking: virtually all of Howells' popularity in Britain rested on what he had written in the 1870's, in the early part
The question of why Douglas did not publish works like Annie Kilburn or A Hazard of New Fortunes in the American Author series is an important one, because his decision not to include them kept Howells' most mature work out of the hands of most of his British readers. Unfortunately, the question cannot be answered with certainty. When Douglas added The Rise of Silas Lapham to the series in 1885, after two years during which nothing new by Howells had been offered, his print order was the largest initial one he had placed up to that time. He must have been optimistic about the book — as its subsequent reprintings indicate he had some reason to be. It is hard to imagine that the novels that followed, it, bespeaking a similar and maturing social concern, would not also have found readers in Britain. It may be, however, that the sales of Indian Summer, the next book of Howells' published in the series, discouraged Douglas from adding more of his works. Unfortunately, that novel, for all its excellence, lies outside Howells' main accomplishment as a novelist in the 1880's and offered no adequate measure of his potential popularity. If Douglas decided against publishing Annie Kilburn, April Hopes, and A Hazard of New Fortunes in the American Author series because Indian Summer was not successful, he made the mistake (visible only through the glass of hindsight) of measuring unlike novels against one another — a mistake the more regrettable because of the evident interest in The Rise of Silas Lapham.
However the fact is to be explained that so few of the books Howells wrote in the 1880's were published in the American Author series, it is fitting to emphasize that Howells himself was always more than satisfied with what Douglas could do for him and returned his loyalty in kind. On 28 February 1897 Howells wrote to tell Douglas he did not want to transfer his books to Harper's London office unless Douglas were losing money on them,[25] and a year later when Howells
1882 | W. D. Howells | A Chance Acquaintance, A Foregone Conclusion, The Lady of the Aroostook, Their Wedding Journey, The Undiscovered Country, A Fearful Responsibility, A Counterfeit Presentment, Out of the Question |
1883 | G. W. Cable | Old Creole Days |
G. W. Curtis | Prue and I | |
John Burroughs | Winter Sunshine | |
O. W. Holmes | The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, The Poet at the Breakfast Table, The Professor at the Breakfast Table | |
Blanche Willis Howard | One Summer | |
W. D. Howells | Venetian Life, Italian Journeys | |
F. R. Stockton | Rudder Grange | |
R. G. White | Mr. Washington Adams in England |
1884 | John Burroughs | Locusts and Wild Honey, Wake-Robin, Birds and Poets, Fresh Fields, Pepacton |
J. C. Harris | Mingo and Other Sketches in Black and White | |
G. P. Lathrop | An Echo of Passion | |
F. R. Stockton | The Lady or the Tiger? and Other Stories | |
1885 | T. B. Aldrich | The Queen of Sheba, Marjorie Daw and Other People |
W. D. Howells | The Rise of Silas Lapham | |
Brander Matthews and H. C. Bunner | In Partnership | |
1886 | T. B. Aldrich | Prudence Palfrey, The Stillwater Tragedy |
William Winter | Shakespeare's England | |
1887 | G. W. Cable | Madame Delphine |
W. D. Howells | Indian Summer | |
F. R. Stockton | A Borrowed Month and Other Stories | |
1888 | William Winter | Wanderers |
1889 | T. B. Aldrich | Wyndham Towers |
1890 | W. D. Howells | The Shadow of a Dream |
M. E. Wilkins | A Humble Romance and Other Stories, A Faraway Melody and Other Stories | |
1891 | W. D. Howells | An Imperative Duty |
William Winter | Gray Days and Gold | |
1892 | James Lane Allen | Flute and Violin and Other Kentucky Tales, Sister Dolorosa and Posthumous Fame |
Matt Crim | In Beaver Cove and Elsewhere | |
O. W. Holmes | Poetical Works | |
Helen Jackson | Zeph: A Posthumous Story | |
1893 | T. B. Aldrich | Two Bites at a Cherry and Other Tales |
1896 | W. D. Howells | Idylls in Drab |
1898 | W. D. Howells | An Open-Eyed Conspiracy |
1902 | T. B. Aldrich | A Sea Turn and Other Matters |
1904 | S. Weir Mitchell | A Comedy of Conscience |
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