lt�ll�lililfl flllllll�lll�lillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll 3 4067 01788092 2 in The University of Queensland Library Peter Edwards Andrew Dowling VICTORIAN z FICTION . 8990 RESEARCH .7 GUIDES 21 · .E33 1993 I ( 2. - �qqo Already published in Victorian Fiction Research Guides: ·1 Series 1 Sarah Grand 2 Jessie Fothergill 3 Edmund Yates 4 Indexes to Fiction in Time (1879-91), Murray's Magazine (1887-91), and The Quarto (1896-98) Series 2 5 Indexes to Fiction in The Lady's Realm 6 Mary Cholmondeley 7 Indexes to Fiction in Tinsley's Magazine, later The Novel Review (1867-1892) 8 Frances Cashel Hoey Series 3 9 Indexes to Fiction in Pall Mall Magazine (1893-1914) 10 Indexes to Fiction in The Harrnsworth Magazine, later The London Magazine (1898-1915) 11 Margaret Oliphant 12 Indexes to Fiction in Cassell's Family Magazine, later Cassell's Magazine (1874-1910) Series 4 13 Mrs Humphry Ward 14 Indexes to Fiction in Belgravia 15 Rosa Praed 16 Rosa Nouchette Carey Series 5 17 Indexes to Fiction in Chambers's Journal 1854 - 1910 18 Philip Meadows Taylor 19/20 Letters of G.A. Sala to Edmund Yates (double-volume) Series 6 21 The Edmund Yates Papers in the University of Queensland Library Forthcoming: Eliza Lynn Linton Ada Cambridge Francis Adams 5EK7VY llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll/1 3 4067 01788 092 2 THE EDMUND YATES PAPERS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND LIBRARY THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND A CATALOGUE LIBRARY This book should be returned not later than the last date stamped below. Points/fines may be imposed for late return. compiled by Pet Victo1 Vic L36/84 copyright Peter Edwards and Andrew Dowling 1993 ISBN 0 86776 492 9 ISSN 0 15 3921 Published by Department of English University of Queensland Australia 4072 VICTORIAN FICTION RESEARCH GUIDES Victorian Fiction Research Guides are issued by the Victorian Fiction Research Unit within the Department of English, University of Queensland. The Unit concentrates on minor or lesser known writers active during the period from about 1860 to about 1910, and on fiction published in journals during the same period. Among the writers on whom Guides are being prepared are G.D Brown, Victoria Cross, Ethel M. Dell, Elizabeth Robins, Beatrice Harraden, and Sara Jeannette Duncan. Indexes are being compiled to fiction which appeared in the Queenslander between 1866 and 1900. We would be interested to hear from anyone working in these or related areas, and any information about the locations of manuscripts, rare or unrecorded editions, and other material would be most welcome. Information about gaps or errors in our bibliographies and indexes would also be appreciated. The subscription for the sixth series of Victorian Fiction Research Guides, which commences with this volume, is $40 (Australian) for four Guides. Individual volumes $12. Copies of earlier Guides are available at the following prices: Series 1,2,3,4, $25 (single volumes $7); series 5, $34 (single volumes $10). Orders should be sent to Barbara Garlick and editorial communications to the general editor, Professor Peter Edwards, both cj- Department of English, University of Queensland, Australia 4072. i The Founder of "The World." HEPRODUCED FROM A HITHERTO UNPUBLISHEf1 W,.\TF2-COL.OUn DRAWING BY THE LATE ALFHED BRYAN, THE WELL-KNOWN CAHTOONIST. WHO CCLLATED IN IT ..\ SELECTION OF PORTRAIT-SKETCHES AND CAHICATUI�ES OF: ED�•1UND Y/>.TES WHI('I1 H:\D APPEARED IN VARIOUS QUARfERS AT DIFFEF�ENT r:�:.::i?IUDS Ut� HIS CAHEEH. DEDICATION This catalogue is dedicated to Rosemary Kaplan, Edmund Hodgson Yates's great-granddaughter and Edmund Smedley Yates's granddaughter, and to the late Ralph Kaplan, in appreciation of their kind and ready help. Illustration (opposite ) : "The Founder of 'The World"'· It was published in the 2000th number of The World, 29 Oct 1912: 633, with the following caption: " Reproduced from a hitherto unpublished water-colour drawing by the late Alfred Bryan, the well-known cartoonist, who collated in it a selection of portrait-sketches and caricatures of Edmund Yates which had appeared in various quarters at different periods of his career." iii Edmund Hodgson Yates (c 1886?) v L CONTENTS Introduction 1 Catalogue Abbreviations 13 Section A: Letters, Postcards and Telegrams 17 Section B: Other Items 33 Section c: C.1 Chronological List of Letters, Postcards and Telegrams 43 C.2 Index of Personal Names in Letters, Postcards and Telegrams 57 C.3 Notes on Authors of Letters, Postcards and Telegrams 73 vii INTRODUCTION i The papers catalogued in this volume were collected by Edmund Hodgson Yates (1831-94) and his son Edmund Smedley Yates (1855-1934 ). In the catalogue father and son are generally referred to by their initials (i.e. "E.H.Y." and "E.S.Y." respectively); in this introduction the father is referred to as Edmund Yates and the son as Smedley Yates, the name he frequently adopted to distinguish himself from his father. (Indeed, during his brief career as a professional actor, he generally used Smedley as his surname.') The bulk of the collection consists of 627 letters, postcards and telegrams. Of these all but a handful were written to or by Edmund or Smedley, or to or by other members of the family including their wives and Edmund's father. The vast majority are autograph letters. All these items are indexed alphabetically (by author) in section A of the catalogue. Section B lists the items in the collection other than letters, postcards and telegrams, including a manuscript of Edmund Yates's Recollections and Experiences, manuscripts of two shorter unpublished pieces, one by Edmund and one probably by Smedley, diaries that Edmund kept in 1878 and 1881, and autographs, scrapbooks, and cuttings from newspapers. Section c provides a chronological list of the letters, postcards and telegrams in Section A, an alphabetical index of all the people named in them, and brief biographical notes on the authors. Edmund Yates was the subject of an earlier Victorian Fiction Research Guide (No 3, 1980; Addenda and Corrigenda 1982) and a fuller outline of his life and work may be found there. He was in his day a well-known novelist, a famous and controversial journalist, a noted lecturer and after-dinner speaker, an adept and admired comic versifier, and a moderately successful playwright. His best novels showed some originality and are still very readable, but he is remembered nowadays chiefly for his contributions to the development of journalism, particularly "personal journalism", and for his friendship with Dickens, who became embroiled in the "Garrick affair" on his behalf (see below). He came of a distinguished and well-loved theatrical family and throughout his life retained close ties with many theatrical people, both professional and amateur, as well as with fellow members of the Dickens circle. His greatest achievement was the weekly newspaper the World, which he founded with another journalist, ·' Smedley had three siblings: an elder brother, Frederick Henry Albert ("Daddy"); a twin-brother, Charles Dickens Theodore ("Charley") and a younger brother, Arthur du Pasquier. 1 Grenville Murray, in 1874 and owned and edited for the remaining twenty years of his life (having bought Murray out after a few months). In its heyday the paper was widely read and influential, particularly in political, cultural, and upper-middle and upper class social circles. Neither Smedley nor any of Edmund's other sons achieved comparable success. A plaintive article in the World early in 1878, "What Are We to Do with our Sons", bemoaned the lack of job-opportunities for the sons of the middle class and suggested that they would have to follow the example of the aristocracy and stoop to seeking work in the City ( 23 Jan 1878: 7-8). In 1874 Smedley's twin-brother Charley, then aged 18, had gone out to Japan to make his fortune with the help of a cousin of Edmund's, Henry Brunton, who was working there as an engineer. After Charley found what looked like a promising opening, Edmund at least toyed with the idea of sending Smedley out to join him.2 But for whatever reason - perhaps because his health suffered - Charley was soon back in England, and a dozen, or even fifteen years, later he was apparently still far from settled in life. At some stage, presumably not long afterwards, Smedley too spent a short time in the east, but in India and possibly as a member of a theatrical company rather than in a business house. 3 For although he may have tried other occupations first, perhaps at his father's behest, it was clearly the family profession of acting that beckoned to him most persuasively. As the letters in this collection show, he pursued it doggedly for ten years or longer, both in London and in the provinces; but, with a growing number of mouths to feed and probably not much more than a handful of appearances in the West End to his credit, he finally had to give it up. Like Charley (his twin), he had evidently begun helping out on the World some time before, presumably to make ends meet when no other employment was offering. They and other young men like them, educated as gentlemen, but unable or unwilling to study for one of the learned professions, were slow to find their feet during the long recession that began in the 1870s. Smedley seems to have joined the staff of the World on a regular basis, and no doubt a salary, about the time he left the stage. In 1891, with his father's support, he established a sixpenny monthly magazine, Groombridge's, but it lasted for only three numbers. From December 1891 to October 1892 he edited a weekly theatrical paper, the Players, before it too collapsed.