Editing the correspondence of a Victorian editor: William Hepworth Dixon Masterproef voorgedragen tot het behalen van de graad van: Master Vergelijkende Moderne Letterkunde 2013-2014 Joke Pattijn Supervisor: Prof. Dr. M. Demoor Table of Contents 1 Acknowledgements 4 2 Introduction 6 3 Nineteenth-century Press 8 3.1 History 8 3.2 Difficulties of nineteenth-century editorship 9 3.3 Reviews 11 4 The Athenaeum 13 4.1 Frederick Denison Maurice and John Sterling 14 4.2 Charles Wentworth Dilke 14 4.3 T. K. Hervey 15 4.4 William Hepworth Dixon 15 4.5 John Doran 16 4.6 Norman Maccoll 16 4.7 Vernon Rendall 16 4.8 Arthur Greenwood 17 4.9 John Middleton Murray 17 5 Biography: William Hepworth Dixon 19 6 Analysis of the Correspondence 23 6.1 Editorial Note 23 6.2 Analysis 25 7 Concluding Remarks 94 8 Works Cited 97 Words: 24 670 2 1 Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Marysa Demoor, for valuable help and feedback, and for lending me a few of her books. Secondly, I wish to acknowledge Lut Baten and Marieke Pattijn for proofreading this master paper. Thirdly, I am grateful to Lorian Desmet for the support during the writing process of this thesis. 4 2 Introduction During the nineteenth century, many British periodicals and newspapers aimed to achieve excellence within the publishing world to be able to compete with each other. Some newspapers that we know even now, such as the Times, have succeeded to exist up to the present. Other periodicals, however, prominently popular during the nineteenth century, did not succeed to prolong their publication. One of those periodicals is the Athenaeum. This journal, which launched its first publication in 1828, was a weekly, entertaining its readers with critical reviews and articles on fine arts, literature, sports, politics, etc. The weekly knew many editors who each put their own stamp on it since every one of them had their own view on how to run and edit the journal. Editors such as Charles Wentworth Dilke were famous for being excellent editors who possessed the qualities that were required for making the Athenaeum a first class journal. Then again, the weekly was edited under less competent editors e.g. in light of that observation the present study and annotated edition of the correspondence of William Hepworth Dixon will be an interesting exploration of this editorship of the Athenaeum and of Victorian editorship in general. Importantly, this research focuses on the correspondence of W.H. Dixon with close friends, fellow authors or contributors to the Athenaeum. Scholars have studied many editors identical to W.H. Dixon and research shows to “have a growing respect for the achievements of the journal in every realm that it claimed for its own” (Marchand 2). Dixon was one of those editors who enjoyed a period of time as editor of the Athenaeum. Despite the fact that he was not the most successful one, he managed to remain the editing chief from 1855 until 1869. Furthermore, Hepworth Dixon contributed many articles, comments and reviews to the Athenaeum. But, surprisingly, he did not share the views of the proprietor Charles Wentworth Dilke, on what the Athenaeum should strive for. Therefore, his contribution to the periodical was less the subject of research when scholars investigated the Athenaeum. In essence, the subject of my master paper is the correspondence of William Hepworth Dixon with several authors during the period 1855-1869. During his editorship, Dixon corresponded with a wide range of authors regarding meetings, reviews and articles. Consequently, this investigation will edit the correspondence and additionally clarify and examine the authors of the letters, relevant places and references to relevant texts, objects or people. 6 This study is completed by an analysis of the letters, which W.H. Dixon received. In the first place, I transcribe the letters by preserving the original lay out of the epistles. After the word as found on the manuscript, I add, if necessary, the correct spelling or punctuation by using square brackets containing the alteration. That is to say, I did not alter any sentence structure from the original letters. In this light, the sections I could not reproduce due to material damage or unclear handwriting I referred to as ‘X’. Due to the word limit of the master paper I narrowed the entire sample of correspondences to a sample of letters from 1855 until 1869. Every letter is accompanied by an additional note, in which I explain the content and provide further details. When the author is not anonymous, I will provide a biography that originates, with a few exceptions, from the online Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. This source will reappear within my analysis but will not be stated repetitively, unless I employed a citation. My motivation for this investigation arises from my personal interest for the publishing world. To conclude my studies, I find it interesting to gain more knowledge of the nineteenth- century press. Clearly, discussing one of its most prominent journals and editors seemed challenging to me. To draw a parallel, my research paper focuses on the early nineteenth century and my internship with a publishing house, as part of the master Vergelijkende Moderne Letterkunde concerns the present-day publishing world. Thus, both my internship and my thesis cater to my interest in the publishing world. I start my exploration with introducing the field of the Nineteenth Century Press and editorship. Chiefly, the first section examines the history of the periodical press and the difficulties nineteenth century editorship encounters. Accordingly, it points out the problems reviewers and editors had to cope with. The second section, on the Athenaeum, presents an overview of the Athenaeum’s history. Following this, an overview of the Athenaeum’s editors and their views towards the Athenaeum and the general aspects that are characteristic for the weekly are discussed. Next, in the Analysis, I look further into the life of William Hepworth Dixon, and the works he wrote and edited. Next, the Analysis clarifies the transcription of the correspondence with additional notes on the sender of the letter. Furthermore, places and names mentioned in them, which contributed to the understanding of the letters, are discussed. Lastly, I present my Concluding Remarks of the analysis. This section discusses the relevance of Dixon’s correspondence and the concept of networking in relation the same correspondence. 7 3 Nineteenth Century Press 3.1 History This section clarifies the innovations and regulations that were implemented in the nineteenth century, beginning with a recap of the nineteenth-century press and expounding on the circumstances of the periodical press were before the new century arrived. All in all, with the 16th century in hindsight, press liberty was not obvious. Especially for newspapers and journals, it was difficult to publish an uncensored opinion. First, in 1819, there was the need of an act for taxable commodity, which was legislated and amended in 1836, though this decision coincided with strong political and social turmoil. Before the act was enacted, the debate on liberty of press and freedom of speech was a prominent subject of public debate. (Jones) Confirming this, Jones mentions an author who states the following: had there been no stamps on newspapers, no obstruction to the free use of the press, there would have been no riotous assemblages of husbandry labourers, no destruction of agricultural machines, no burnings, no expensive proceedings, no trials, no transportations, no hangings, and consequently none of the terrible evils which ignorance and the administration of the law have occasioned. (Jones 20) In other words, this author declares that if there had never been use of stamps on newspapers and no hindrance to free press use there would never have been so many strives and riots in order to obtain these primary rights. In fact, the law could have prevented a number of problems by allowing freedom of press use and the abolition of the stamp. As a result of all this, new policies were instructed but be that as it may, agitation was not the cause but a solution to the evolving economic, political and moral needs in the English society. Altick explains in The English Common Reader (1957) that at the end of the 18th century the population underwent a massive growth, which had a considerable influence on the book market. All these changes that came forth from the population growth influenced “the availability of reading matter, educational opportunities, the conditions under which reading could be done, and the popular attitude toward print” (Altick 81). Concerning literature, it was the highest rank of the population who responded to this new phenomenon. Nevertheless, at one point the lower ranks acquired the ability to read and, as a consequence, their interest in 8 literature was inflamed to such an extent that the highest rank went out of its way to prevent a levelling of high and low classes. Furthermore, the rate of reading was entangled with the amount of leisure people had. Naturally, in the nineteenth century it depended on which class you belonged to if you had any spare time. It should be noted that the creation of the railway transport made a huge difference. Consequently, this kind of travelling created more leisure time for people to read. As a result, those who required this kind of transport for work as well as those who wished to visit relatives benefited from this innovation. Obviously, reading was an excellent recourse from being bored from looking out to endless landscapes. More importantly, periodical press underwent an increase as these publishers had a new spot to sell periodicals for people who were actually interested.