Macmillan: A Publishing Tradition

300 Pages·2002·3.573 MB·English

by  Elizabeth James (eds.)

Macmillan
A Publishing Tradition
Edited by
Elizabeth James
Macmillan: A Publishing Tradition
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Macmillan: A Publishing
Tradition
Edited by
Elizabeth James
Curator of British Collections, 1801–1914
The British Library
Editorial matter and selection © Elizabeth James 2002
Individual chapters © the contributors 2002
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2002 978-0-333-73517-6
All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90 Tottenham Court
Road,London W1T 4LP.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified
as the authors of this work in accordance with the
Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2002 by
PALGRAVE
Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS and
175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010
Companies and representatives throughout the world
PALGRAVEis the new global academic imprint of
St.Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and
Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd).
ISBN 978-1-349-40824-5 ISBN 978-0-230-52345-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230523456
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and
made from fully managed and sustained forest sources.
Cataloguing-in-publication data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the Library of Congress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02
Contents
List of Plates vii
List of Tables viii
List of Figures ix
Notes on the Contributors x
Acknowledgements xiii
Abbreviations xv
Foreword John Sutherland xvii
Macmillan Biographies, 1843–1965 John Handford xxi
Macmillan Chronology, 1843–1970 John Handford xxv
Introduction Elizabeth James 1
1. ‘To You in Your Vast Business’
Some features of the quantitative history of Macmillan,
1843–91 11
Simon Eliot
2. From Parnassus to Grub Street
Matthew Arnold and the House of Macmillan 52
Bill Bell
3. Thomas Hardy and the House of Macmillan
A comedy in chapters 70
Michael Millgate
4. Margaret Oliphant and Macmillan’s Magazine 83
George Worth
5. Letters to Macmillan: an Addendum
Sir Samuel White Baker’s letters to Macmillan 102
Michael Bott
6. ‘And Sacred is the Latest Word’
Macmillan and Tennyson’s ‘final’ text 131
Michael Millgate
vi Macmillan: APublishing Tradition
7. Macmillan in India
A short account of the company’s trade with the
sub-continent 153
Rimi B. Chatterjee
8. Letters from America
The Bretts and the Macmillan Company of New York 170
Elizabeth James
9. W. B. Yeats on the Road to St Martin’s Street, 1900–17 192
Warwick Gould
10. A Risk-bearing Author
Maynard Keynes and his publishers 218
D. E. Moggridge
11. ‘Not a Tear or a Prayer in It’
Gwen Raverat’s illustrated edition of The Runaway 230
Frances Spalding
12. From Carroll to Crompton
The work of a children’s publisher 242
Michael Wace
13. Macmillan: or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since 257
Nicolas Barker
Index 266
List of Plates
Frontispiece: The first issue of Macmillan’s Magazine, November 1859.
1. Frederick Macmillan as a young man.
2. The main staircase, St Martin’s Street, showing the busts of
Shakespeare and Archdeacon Julius Hare.
3. The post room at St Martin’s Street where the letterbooks were
compiled and indexed.
4. Thomas Hardy’s letter of 18 March 1902, in which he
reintroduces himself to Macmillan.
5. A page from the Macmillan visitors’ book, signed by authors
attending one of the tobacco parliaments.
6. ISSD Press, Madras, printers to Macmillan in India, ca. 1960.
7. Headquarters of the Macmillan Company of New York,
Fifth Avenue.
8. George Platt Brett, President of the New York Company
1896–1931.
9. Sir John Squire’s report on Gone with the Wind.
10. T. Sturge Moore’s cover design for Yeats’s Reveries over
Childhood and Youth, New York 1916.
11. T. Sturge Moore’s cover and spine design for Reveries over
Childhood and Youth, London 1916.
12. T. Sturge Moore’s cover design for American editions of several of
Yeats’s works, and the English edition of Per Amica Silentia Lunae.
13. Cover of the Roman cloth issue of Yeats’s Selected Poems,
New York 1929.
14. Thomas Mark, director of Macmillan and Co. 1944–62.
Plates 1–14 appear between pages 130 and 131.
vii
List of Tables
1.1 Monthly distribution of titles 1856, 1866, 1876, 1886 17
1.2 Summary of non-reprint and reprint titles 1856, 1866, 1876,
1886 23
1.3 Dewey subject classification of Macmillan titles 1846–86 28
1.4 Dewey subject classification of titles 32
1.5 Macmillan titles: Literature 1846–86 33
1.6 Prices and their percentage share 1846, 1856, 1866, 1876,
1886 34
1.7 Price structure: low, medium and high 42
1.8 Term books 1893, 1896, 1899 45
viii
List of Figures
1.1 Title production 1843–89 and five-year moving average 13
1.2 Distribution of title production 1856 18
1.3 Distribution of title production 1866 19
1.4 Distribution of title production 1876 19
1.5 Distribution of title production 1886 21
1.6 Distribution of non-colonial title production 1886 22
1.7 Dewey subject classification 1846–86 29
1.8 Percentage share by price, 1846 36
1.9 Percentage share by price, 1856 37
1.10 Percentage share by price, 1866 38
1.11 Percentage share by price, 1876 39
1.12 Percentage share by price, 1886 40
1.13 Prices: low, medium and high 41
1.14 Negotiating literary property 1893, 1896, 1899 46
11.1 The Runaway, headpiece to Chapter II 235
11.2 The Runaway, pp. 52–3 236
11.3a The Runaway, p. 154 238
11.3b The Runaway, p. 155 239
11.4 The Runaway, right front endpaper 240
ix