Ephemeral Publishing 1792-96
Richard Edwards of New Bond Street had a hand in—or at
least an
imprint on the titlepage of[11] —at
least thirty-seven publications from 1792 through 1798:
-
Richard Edwards's Publications in Chronological
Order
- 1792
- 1. Anon., History of the Reign of George the Third
2.
Anon., Review of . . . the Parliament of 1784 3. Anon.
(Plain
Man), Ten Minutes' Caution 4. [William Cooke]
Memoris
of Hildebrand Freeman 5. [C. E. De Coetlogon] Hints to the
People of England 6. [C. E. De Coetlogon] The Nature . .
. of
Human Reason; also 2nd Edition 7. C. E. De Coetlogon, The
Peculiar Advantages of the English Nation 8. Magazin des
Savans, I (Jan-May) 9. [Francis Wrangham] Reform: A
Farce
- 1793
- 10. Anon., A Brief Review of Parliamentary
Reformation 11. Anon., Opinions . . . for the Support of
Government 12. Anon. (Philo-Patriae), A Letter to a Friend
Concerning the Effects of the French Revolution on the People of
England 13. L. C. Bigot de Saint-Croix, Histoire de la
Conspiration du 10 Aout 1792 14. [E. D. Clarke] A Tour
through the South of England 15. ?C. E. De De Coetlogon,
A
Concise Sketch of the Life and Character of Moses 16. ?C. E. De
Coetlogon, Essay on the Nature of True Virtue 17. C. E. De
Coetlogon, The Patriot King, and Patriot People 18. [C. E.
Coetlogon] Reflections . . . on the Murder of Louis the
Sixteenth 19. C. E. De Coetlogon, Ten Sermons 20.
Mrs
Thomasen Head, The Pious Mother
- 1794
- 21. D. Alexander, Treatise on the Croup; also 2nd
Edition 22. J. R. Brissot, To his Constituents [Tr Wm Burke,
perhaps assisted by his cousin Edmund]
- 1795
- 23. Anon., A Collection of . . . Tracts . . . from the
Sommers-Collection 24. Anon., Lodowick, 6 vols.
25.
[Archibald Cochrane] Earl of Dundonald, A Treatise . . .
[on] Agriculture and Chemistry
- 1796
- 26. Anon., An Address to both Houses of
Parliament,
2nd Edition 27. William Cooke, Conversation: A Didactic
Poem 28. [J. Merigot] Views and Ruins in Rome, 2 vols.
(1796-98) 29. Joseph Strutt, The Dress and Habits of the People of
England, Vol. I 30. [Charles Symmons] Inez, a
Tragedy
31. John Vancouver, An Enquiry into . . . Poverty 32.
Edward
Young, Night Thoughts prospectus
- 1797
- 33. [J. Merigot] Views and Ruins in Rome
(1796-98)
34. Edward Young, Night Thoughts
- 1798
- 35. [J. Merigot] Views and Ruins in Rome
(1796-98)
36. A New and General Biographical
Dictionary, 15 vols. 37. George Vancouver, A Voyage
.
. . to the North Pacific Ocean, 3 vols.
For a few of these works, Richard Edwards was merely the
co-publisher of a book probably initiated by his prosperous elder brother
James (No. 28-29, 34), and in later years he joined a few congeries
independent of his brother (No. 24, 36). However, for most of them
Richard Edwards acted a remarkably independent rôle: For nine of
them he is the only publisher (No. 3-4, 6, 12-13, 22, 25-26), for fourteen
more the titlepage says the work was Printed for R. Edwards (No. 2, 5,
7-11, 14, 18, 23, 30-32), and in three more (No. 17, 20, 28), Richard
Edwards's name is listed first in a congery, in defiance of the apparent
convention that booksellers were named in chronological order of their
membership in the City companies. For most of these works, the chief
commercial initiative and risk was probably that of Richard Edwards.
This is not to say, of course, that most of these works are of
independent or significant importance. An unusually high proportion (fifteen
of thirty-seven) appeared anonymously. Seven of Richard Edwards's
publications (No. 1, 4, 15-17, 19, 27) are so fugitive that no copy appears
to have survived in The British Library, Bodley, the hundreds of North
American collections covered by The National Union
Catalog,
The Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, or anywhere else I have
looked. At first, 1792-93, the works he initiated were very modest in size
(only five are over one hundred pages) and in price (averaging
2s 3d), and the highest price of a work for
which
Richard Edwards bore the prime responsibility was £1.5.0, or
£1.1.0 for the first part (the only part printed) of Young's Night
Thoughts (1797), one of the last works he issued.
Perhaps his first act in the publishing business was to establish his
own journal, the Magazin des Savans: or Literary Miscellany,
in part to puff his own publications. A proposal was evidently issued in the
late Autumn of 1791, to which a correspondent replied on Christmas day
in a letter published in the January 1792 number. This first number was
probably accompanied by the engraved titlepage indicating that it was
"Printed for R. Edwards N.142. New Bond
Str.t &
Halifax Yorkshe & J. Parsons
Paternoster-Row".[12] The editor gave his name as James
Merlin, but this may be a pseudonym, perhaps for Richard Edwards.
The editor of the Magazin des Savans had a strong
biographical bent and sponsored, if he did not write, the accounts of Dr
John Brown, the Duchess of York, the Duke of Argyll, the Earl of Bute,
and the King of Sweden. The author of biographical anecdotes of the Duke
of Argyll was so "violently indisposed" [in April 1792] that
he
could not continue the biography in the May number, and this indisposition
may have given the restive co-publishers an opportunity to reorganize their
somewhat infirm journal. In the June issue there was an abrupt change of
publisher and, apparently, of editor. A letter to Literary Correspondents in
the June issue announced great improvements in the manner of arrangement
and variety of matter, several
series were abruptly discontinued, the title was altered on the typeset
titlepage (probably issued with the June number) to
Monthly Register
of Literature, or Magazin des Savans, and in Vol. II-III (July
1792-Feb 1793) the
Magazin des Savans title was dropped
entirely. Coincident with these changes, Richard Edwards, whose name
appeared on the engraved titlepage and in the imprint for May 1792,
disappeared from the imprint for June 1792 and thereafter, being replaced
by J. Owen as publisher in Piccadilly opposite Bond Street. The coincidence
of change of style (?and editor) and change of publisher suggests that
Richard Edwards was at least closely associated with the editor of the
Magazin des Savans, if he was not himself the editor, as well
as the publisher, and that the putsch which removed him (or his
protégé) as editor drove him from among the publishers as
well.
The Magazin des Savans was neither very enterprizing
nor
very interesting as a journal. From the dedication to Her Royal Highness
the Princess Frederica-Charlotta-Ulrica-Carolina, Duchess of York and
Albany, Princess Royal of Prussia, &c.&c.&c. to its
anecdotal
biographies of monarchs and noblemen, it had decidedly aristocratic
tendencies. It clearly proposed to teach and inform through its monthly
moral essays ("on Moral Honesty", "On Gaming", "on Natural and Political
Liberty", "on Pride"), its sections on Antiquities and on Arts and Sciences,
and in its historical extracts from foreign and domestic publications, and to
delight with anecdotes, engravings, and poetry. One of its poetical
correspondents was "W. B.", whom one would like to think was William
Blake, then working for Richard's brother James on engravings for
Stedman's Surinam, though no verse by him was printed in
the
Magazin des Savans. The journal's sentiments were
benevolent
rather than
political, as in the constitution proposed for the African colony of Bulam,
later published in Wadstrom's generous Essay on
Colonization,
Part II ([?J. Edwards], 1795). The closest approaches to politics in these
first four numbers are in the account of the trial of a Gordon rioter (1780)
and a speech by Fox (two pages) balanced by Burke's reply (nine pages).
The works seem derivative even by the standards of magazines, with
sections in the first four numbers copied from Barrett's History of
Bristol, Coxe's Travels, Col. Humphry's life of
Putnam,
speeches of Burke and Fox, the New York Daily Advertiser,
The Times, and the Transactions of the Royal
Irish
Academy (to name only those which are identified explicitly). Despite the
French title, which might have alarmed anti-Jacobins, the only explicitly
Gallic subject is the two-page list of "New Books just Imported" from
France which appears in the last number bearing Richard Edwards's
imprint.
It was probably not a very profitable journal, as its brief life and
departing publishers may suggest, and today it is very uncommon, no
complete run of it having been located.
The first part (24 pp.) of the anonymous History of the Reign
of George the Third was published by Richard Edwards and John
Parsons with the April number of their Magazin des Savans.
Richard Edwards may have been the author of the History,
for
the publication of the book ceased in April
1792, after 24 pages, when Edwards lost control of its vehicle of
publication.
Almost all Richard Edwards's publications advertise their Church and
King fervour. In his most prolific years, 1792 and 1793, when he published
nineteen works, Richard Edwards gave no author on the titlepages of eleven
of them, and eight were by the vocal royalist Charles Edward De
Coetlogon. It seems at least possible that one or more of the anonymous
works is by Richard Edwards. Among the works which he initiated or was
a prime mover in, only Merigot's Views and Ruins in Rome
(1796-98) and Young's Night Thoughts (1797) are works
worthy of much remark.
A few details about Richard Edwards may be gleaned from these
works. He was probably a private friend of his chief author, Charles
Edward De Coetlogon, and he seems to have been one ("R. E.") of the
"small circle of [five] friends" who signed the dedication to
De
Coetlogon's Human Reason (1792), along with Charles De
Coetlogon himself ("C. D."). He was evidently the editor or author of
several of his own publications, such as the Magazin des
Savans
(Jan-May 1792), History of the Reign of George the Third
(1792), Tracts . . . from the Sommers-Collection (1795),
Merigot's Rome (1796-98), and Young's Night
Thoughts (1797), and he probably entered into his publications in
this
respect more extensively than any other member of his family. He was
evidently on friendly terms with others of his authors besides De
Coetlogon, and Vancouver wrote the Advertisement to his Enquiry
into . . . Poverty (1796) in his shop. Young E. D.
Clarke was in such a hurry to publish his Tour (1793) that he
did not read the proofs for it—presumably Richard Edwards did so
for
him.
Richard Edwards doubtless had his share of difficulties with his
authors and books. De Coetlogon "hoped the Booksellers will
wa[i]ve their usual profits" in sales of his Patriot
King (1793) for the benefit of the exiled French clergy, and most
copies of Clarke's Tour (1793) were "destroyed or lost",
evidently at the instigation of their embarrassed author.
Most of these works are, of course, remarkably fugitive. Doubtless
they were of sufficient interest to contemporaries to return the publisher's
investment on most of them but scarcely justifying another edition or the
attention of posterity. A few of Richard Edwards's publications were in the
public domain, such as Mrs Head, The Pious Mother (1650,
1793), Tracts . . . from the Sommers-Collection (1795),
Strutt,
Dress . . . of England, I (1796), and Young's Night
Thoughts (1742, 1797), but most originated with Richard Edwards.
Only three achieved popularity sufficiently rapidly to justify a second
edition by Richard Edwards—Alexander, Croup (two
editions,
1794), [De Coetlogon] Human Reason (two editions, 1792),
and
Anon., Address to both Houses of Parliament (2nd Edition,
1796)—but several were later reprinted by other publishers: Anon.,
Ten Minutes Caution (1792), Bigot de Saint Croix,
Histoire de la Conspiration
(1793), Cooke, Conversation (1796), Strutt,
Dress,
Vol. I (1796), [Symmons] Inez (1796), [Merigot]
Views
and Ruins in Rome (1796-98), Vancouver, Voyage
(1798), and Young's Night Thoughts (1797). In the last list,
the
works of importance are Strutt's Dress, Merigot's
Rome,
Vancouver's
Voyage, and Young's
Night
Thoughts,
and of these Richard played an important rôle only in Merigot and
Young.
It is a small list, rather narrowly focused on politics, history, and
religion, but there are a few publications of a more liberal or practical
interest. Richard Edwards's commercial independence as a publisher is
noteworthy. He published fifteen works entirely by himself, and he called
on the assistance of other publishers for only ten. Further, he never
published with the same group twice.
In all, Richard Edwards had twenty-three co-publishers for the works
he initiated, but with fifteen of these he was associated only once, and six
of them (including Edwards of Halifax) were provincial booksellers. He
appeared twice or more with only eight of them, but these were the most
distinguished in the list, including Debrett (four times), James Edwards
(four), Edwards of Halifax (two), Egerton (two), Rivington (four),
Robinson (two), and White (three). It is striking that he only cooperated in
publishing with his brother James in 1796-98, after he had finished his
apprenticeship, as it were, in the second half of his publishing career, and
that these are among the more respectable and non-political of his
publications. Richard Edwards was not often associated with distinguished
publishers, but during the latter part of his career he was in better
company.
Richard Edwards had comparatively slight interest in the appearance
of his volumes during most of his career. In the majority of them the
typography and presswork are, at best, indifferent, and in only six of
1793-1797 is the identity of the printer even recorded: No. 13 ([John Lane]
At the Minerva Press), No. 20 (J. Brook of Huddersfield), No. 22
(Sampson Low), No. 27 (J. Nichols), No. 29 (At the Philanthropic
Reform), and No. 30 (R. Noble). Of these, Richard Edwards probably had
little to do with the production of No. 20, 22, 27; Sampson Low is a
distinctly humble practitioner of his art and mystery; and the Minerva Press
was notorious for the intellectual and typographical slovenliness of its
publications. Of the works for which Richard Edwards bore a prime
responsibility, only Merigot's Rome (1796-98) and Young's
Night Thoughts (1797) are ambitious or distinguished in
appearance.
Not only were Richard Edwards's publications not elegant in
appearance; most of them were not even illustrated. Only six works which
he originated had plates, and most of these were negligible: Magazin
des Savans, I (1792): 11 plates, mostly technical—portraits
and
music—rather than beautiful; Wrangham, Reform
(1792): 1
plate, a learned joke; De Coetlogon, Reflections . . . on the Murder
of Louis the Sixteenth (1793): a sentimental frontispiece; Clarke,
Tour (1793): 11 aquatints, mostly unsigned; Merigot,
Views and Ruins in Rome (1796-98): 62 handsome and
ambitious aquatints; Young, Night Thoughts (1797): 43 plates
designed and engraved by William Blake.
Only in the last years of his publishing career was Richard Edwards
much concerned with the elegance or beauty of his publications, and it is
chiefly for these that he should be remembered.
