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The Life of Publisher Henry Colburn

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The Life of Publisher Henry Colburn ‗HALF FASHION AND HALF PASSION‘: THE LIFE OF PUBLISHER HENRY COLBURN by VERONICA MELNYK A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of English School of Humanities The University of Birmingham September 2002 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis focuses on some of the most significant and least understood aspects of the life of London publisher Henry Colburn (c.1784-1855). Its purposes are to correct the misinformation currently in circulation, to introduce new information, and to reassess Colburn‘s reputation and accomplishments in light of this evidence. The thesis first examines the errors and limitations of previous appraisals of Colburn and how various primary sources can be used to correct and augment them. It next considers Colburn‘s early years before surveying his periodical publications and his controversial publicity methods. The thesis briefly recounts Colburn‘s involvement with the ‗silver-fork‘ school of fiction and then examines in greater depth his relationships with writer Benjamin Disraeli and one-time business partner Richard Bentley. Colburn‘s two marriages are also studied as the focus of the thesis moves onto the latter half of his career, his retirement, and his death. The final chapter tenders some general conclusions based on the foregoing matter and suggests further avenues of study concerning Colburn, his role in the history of publishing, and his place in the traditional paradigms of Romantic and Victorian literary culture. Word Count: 71, 637 DEDICATION To my grandparents, George and Josephine Reinhart. Requiescant in pace. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the following individuals for generously sharing their research and materials with me: Richard Ford; Patrick Leary, Indiana University; Nicholas Mason, Brigham Young University; Michael Turner, Bodleian Library; and Henry Vivian-Neil, Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery. My own research would not have been possible without the kind assistance of the staff at the Birmingham & Midland Institute; Birmingham Central Reference Library; Bodleian Library, Oxford University; British Library Manuscripts Reading Room; Hertfordshire Archives, Hertford; Jewish Museum London (Camden Branch); Knebworth House; London Library; London Metropolitan Archives; National Art Library at the Victoria & Albert Museum; National Portrait Gallery, London; Newberry Library, Chicago; Public Records Office, Kew; St. Mary‘s Church, Bryanston Square, London; Society of Genealogists, London; University of Birmingham Main Library; University of Iowa Libraries, Special Collections; and the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill Wilson Library, Manuscript Department. The School of Humanities at the University of Birmingham, the Overseas Research Students Awards Scheme, and the London Library Trust provided much- appreciated financial awards. I owe a debt of thanks to practically everyone in the Department of English at the University of Birmingham, staff and postgraduate students alike. I am most grateful to my supervisor, Maureen Bell, for her help, advice, and unwavering confidence in me. Finally, I offer my warmest thanks to all my family and friends for their support, encouragement, and touchingly feigned interest in Henry Colburn. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. ‗A Disposition to Be Troublesome‘: Re-evaluating Colburn‘s Reputation 1 The State of the Art 3 Primary Sources 10 Primary Objectives 19 2. ‗The Power of Ballyhoo‘: Periodicals, Puffery, and Profits 28 Private Life, Public Library 29 Colburn‘s Early Periodicals 38 Colburn‘s Later Periodicals 52 ‗His Puffing Vocation‘ 59 Moving On 69 3. The Virgin and the Bawd: Disraeli‘s Relationship with Colburn 76 Silver-Fork Polishers 78 ‗The Master‘ 86 ‗A Kindly Feeling‘ 92 ‗A Run of Luck‘ 98 Friends and Family 106 4. ‗The Burlington Street Delphos‘: The House of Colburn and Bentley 111 The Advent of Richard Bentley 112 ‗One of the Best Businesses in London‘ 118 Standard Practice and Standard Novels 124 Romantic Interlude 133 Dissolution and Aftermath 137 5. ‗Colburnius, alias the Great Marlboro‘: His Post-Bentley Comeback 146 The Old and the New 147 Domestic Affairs 156 ‗Sultan Bungay‘ 161 ‗Successors to Henry Colburn‘ 166 Where There‘s a Will… 172 6. ‗The Result of Our Labours‘ 183 ‗This Singular Man‘ 185 ‗Popular Fallacies‘ 190 ‗Defacers of Paper‘ 193 ‗Crede Byron‘ 201 ‗The Spirit of the Age‘ 208 Appendix A: Colburn Chronology 215 Appendix B: Unpublished Letter from Henry Colburn to Thomas Campbell 217 Appendix C: Colburn‘s Major Byronic Publications 218 Appendix D: Unpublished Obituary of Henry Colburn by Richard Bentley 219 Bibliography 225 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Plate 1 Facing page 1 Map of Henry Colburn‘s Mayfair, by David Rush, 2002. (Author‘s collection.) This map shows Colburn‘s primary business locations in London, listed in the order he occupied them. It depicts Mayfair before the construction of Regent Street, which subsumed Swallow Street, in the 1820s. Plate 2 Facing page 28 Thomas Campbell, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, c.1820. (National Portrait Gallery, reference 198.) In his Literary Reminiscences of Thomas Campbell, Cyrus Redding noted that Colburn had a high-quality copy of this portrait hanging in his home (II, 125). Plate 3 Facing page 76 Benjamin Disraeli, by Alfred, Count d‘Orsay, 1837. (National Portrait Gallery, reference D7814.) This portrait of Disraeli is one of a series the Count d‘Orsay made of his many literary friends; all the sitters faced left and affixed their autographs. His portrait of Colburn in this series, dated 18 July 1845, is the only known likeness of the publisher and is now in the private collection of Miss Sybilla Jane Flower of London. Plate 4 Facing page 111 Richard Bentley, by Charles Baugniet, 1844. (National Portrait Gallery, reference D11247.) This is perhaps the earliest portrait of Bentley and thus is closest to depicting the publisher as he looked during his ill- fated partnership with Colburn, 1829-1832. Plate 5 Facing page 146 Eliza Forster, by Sir William Boxall, date unknown. (Victoria & Albert Museum Picture Library, reference HJ793.) This portrait of Colburn‘s second wife appears to have been painted after her 1856 remarriage to John Forster. The only other known portrait of Eliza Forster is Boxall‘s preliminary sketch for this painting Plate 6 Facing page 183 Lord Byron, by Henry Hoppner Meyer, after George Henry Harlow, 1815. (National Portrait Gallery, reference D1158.) Colburn was the first to publish Meyer‘s attractive engraving of Byron, based on Harlow‘s sketch, in the August 1815 issue of his New Monthly Magazine. Plate 7 Facing page 215 Photographs of Henry Colburn‘s grave, by the author, 2002. (Author‘s collection.) Colburn‘s grave, in Kensal Green Cemetery, London, is now mostly obscured by the bush growing at its head. The grave is on the west side of South Branch Avenue. ABBREVIATIONS BDL Benjamin Disraeli, Letters—Refers to letter number, not page number BL British Library—Includes the Bentley Papers BO Bentley Obituary—Refers to Richard Bentley‘s unpublished obituary of Henry Colburn (provided here as Appendix D) DLB Dictionary of Literary Biography DNB Dictionary of National Biography GM Gentleman‟s Magazine HP Hughenden Papers—Benjamin Disraeli‘s papers ILN Illustrated London News LP Lytton Papers—Edward Lytton Bulwer‘s papers NAL National Art Library—Includes the Forster Papers PRO Public Records Office SP Sadleir Papers Sutherland Refers to John Sutherland‘s article ‗Henry Colburn, Publisher‘ unless otherwise stated A NOTE ON NAMES Edward Lytton Bulwer‘s name went through so many permutations during his lifetime that he was variously known as Bulwer, Lytton, Bulwer-Lytton (with and without the hyphen), and Baron Lytton of Knebworth. His association with Colburn centred on the time before the changes began to take place, so I have retained his original appellation: Edward Lytton Bulwer, or just Bulwer. Benjamin Disraeli dropped the apostrophe from his surname early in life, while his father Isaac and other relatives maintained it (viz., D‘Israeli). I have maintained these different spellings throughout this thesis, though Colburn, Bulwer, and other correspondents apostrophised the name at whim. ‗We have long been induced to suspect that the seeds of true sublimity lurk in a life which, like this book, is half fashion and half passion‘. Benjamin Disraeli, The Young Duke 1. ‗A DISPOSITION TO BE TROUBLESOME‘: RE-EVALUATING COLBURN‘S REPUTATION On 14 February 1830, Benjamin Disraeli wrote a letter to his publisher, Henry Colburn, extolling the virtues of his forthcoming novel, The Young Duke. He wrote in the informal, even impertinent tone that had gradually become acceptable during his four- year association with Colburn: ‗I have been fool enough to be intent upon a novel—But such a novel! It will astound you, draw tears from Princesses, and grins from Printers devils [sic] […]. In a word to give you an idea of it. It is exactly the kind of work which you wo[ul]d write yourself, if you had time‘ (BDL 76). As Disraeli went on ruefully to admit, his novel‘s chief flaw was that it was as yet only half finished. When this was rectified and the book finally published, at its heart was a chilling recitation of things that are bitter. At the heart of that lay the assertion, ‗It is bitter to be neglected; it is more bitter to be misunderstood‘ (Bk. II, Ch. XIV). Would Henry Colburn have written that line, if he had had the time? There is a hardly a line in the book more applicable to the publisher, then or now.
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