I I 71-17,976 COONEY, Sondra Miley, 1936- PUBLISHERS FOR THE PEOPLE: W. § R. CHAMBERS — THE EARLY YEARS, 1832-18S0. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1970 Language and Literature, general University Microfilms, A XEROXCompany , Ann Arbor, Michigan © Copyright by Sondra Miley Cooney 1971 PUBLISHERS FOR THE PEOPLE: W. & R. CHAMBERS THE EARLY YEARS, 1832-1850 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Sondra Miley Cooney, B.A., A.M. The Ohio State University 1970 Approved by Adviser Department of English ACKNOWLEDGMENTS X wish to thank first those to whom I am indebted in Scotland. Had it not been for the assistance and co-operation of Mr. Antony S. Chambers, chairman of W. & R. Chambers Ltd, this study would never have become a reality. Not only did he initially give an unknown American permission to study the firm's archives, but he has subsequently provided whatever I needed to facilitate my research. Gracious and generous, he is a worthy descendent of the first Robert Chambers. All associated with the Chambers firm— directors and warehousemen alike— played an important part in my research, from answering technical queries to helping unearth records almost forgotten. Equally helpful in their own way were the librarians of the University of Edinburgh Library and the National Library of Scotland. Finally, the people of Edinburgh made a signif­ icant, albeit indirect, contribution. From them I learned something of what it means to a Scot to be a Scot. In this country I owe my greatest debt to my adviser, Professor Richard D. Altick, for having been all this time a patient teacher, inspiring scholar, and warm friend. For their years of unlimited faith and confidence in me— and what seems like the same amount of financial assistance— X thank my parents. I am financially indebted as well to the American ii Association of University Women for the fellowship which made one of my trips to Scotland possible. And, most of all, I am grateful to my husband, James, for having married me--and William and Robert Chambers. Because of him, I have com­ pleted this work and retained my sanity, too. VITA May 31, 1936 Born - Mt. Vernon, Ohio 1958 .... B.A., Manchester College, North Manchester, Indiana 1959 .... A.M., The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1959-1961 . Instructor, English, Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania 1962-1966 . Teaching Assistant, Department of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1966-1967 . American Association of University Women Fellow / 1967-1968 . Instructor, Department of English, The University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 1970- . Assistant Professor, Department of English, Kent State University, Stark County Branch, Canton, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: English Literature Studies in the Victorian Period. Professor Richard D. Altick TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................... ii VITA ................................................. iv INTRODUCTION ......................................... 1 Chapter I. THE SCOTTISH EXPERIENCE .................... 5 II. CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH JOURNAL .............. 38 III. CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH JOURNAL: READERS AND CONTENTS ................................ 107 f IV. CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE ........... 153 V. WILLIAM AND ROBERT .......................... 214 APPENDIX A. Chambers's Edinburgh Journal— Weekly Distribution by C i t y ..................... 265 B. Works Included in Chambers's Educa­ tional Course--1835-1849 ................. 268 v INTRODUCTION Scholars have long recognized that a new era in English political history began when the first Reform Bill was passed in 1832. A new era in English literary history also began in that year, when the first issue of Chambers"s Edinburgh Journal, the prototype of penny magazines, appeared. Because these magazines, and the cheap literature movement of which they were a part, notably assisted in democratizing the reading public, they shaped the attitudes and minds of more men than did all the literary masterpieces of the age. That t there was a significant relationship between what people read and how they lived, Charles Knight, one of the leaders of the movement, recognized when he observed, "The history of Cheap Popular Lite.ature is a long and instructive chapter of the history of the condition of the People."^ From the time Chambers1s Edinburgh Journal appeared in 1832, the name of W. & R. Chambers of Edinburgh was synonymous with cheap, popular literature. By studying the history of this publish­ ing firm much can be learned, therefore, about the tastes, interests and values of the Victorian people, especially those of the middle class. The Old Printer and the Modern Press (London, 1854), p. 179. 2 Before assessing the firm's contribution to Victorian cultural and social history, we must first acquaint ourselves with some pertinent aspects of the earlier Scottish experi­ ence. It is no mere coincidence, that the first penny weekly of the cheap literature movement came from Edinburgh, for the entire movement was rooted in Scotland. The Scots1 attitude toward the written word and reading, unique in nineteenth- century Great Britain, had its genesis at the time of the Scottish reformation. Calvinistic emphasis on individual freedom, of which the concomitants were popular education and democratic government, produced an intellectual climate which stimulated reading by all classes and a socio-political climate which minimized rigid class distinctions. But, important as this Scottish history is, in this study it is but preliminary to evaluating the various Cham­ bers publications and their readers. Popular literature speaks to particular people at a particular time. For instance, the needs and tastes of early nineteenth-century Scottish readers unquestionably determined what work the Chamberses undertook. However, from the first these publica­ tions were intended for a broadly based reading audience: the Journal was designed (in its own italics) to "suit the 1 convenience of every man in the British dominions." The needs of these readers— and the means by which W. & R. ^Chambers1s Edinburgh Journal. I (1832), 1. Chambers satisfied them— must be appreciated if we are to see the Victorians as they saw, or wanted to see, themselves. The history of this firm affords yet another perspec­ tive from which to examine the age. This institution was truly the lengthened shadow of not one, but two men. William and Robert Chambers were, in the words of a contemporary, men who, "rising from the people, knew their wants and served them nobly and well . Because they were of the people, the story of how they lived in their times is, in large measure, the story of a significant portion of Victorian people. Testifying to che extent of their identi­ fication with the people is the fact that they chose to serve their fellow man, not only through their publishing work, but in other ways as well. To learn about the social problems which concerned William and the intellectual questions which occupied Robert is to understand how intimately involved in the condition of the Victorian people the firm of W. & R. Chambers was. Although William was a general printer as well as— to use the term broadly— the publisher of Robert's writings as early as 1819, I have decided to concentrate on their joint activities which began in 1832. The rationale for this decision I trust the following chapters will make clear. The ■^Obituary of Robert Chambers, Publishers' Circular, April 1, 1871. year 1850 is a natural point for concluding this examination of the firm, for in the 1850's significant changes took place in both periodical and book publishing which amply justify the decade's being regarded as a turning point in the history of the trade. Although there were many successful productions by W. & R. Chambers during this eighteen-year period, I have discussed only two in detail— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal and Chambers's Educational Course. Their People's Editions, the Miscellany of Useful and Entertaining Tracts and other ephemeral works which also appeared during these years were not markedly different from what other publishers put out. Chambers's Information for the People, in some respects a Chambers innovation, should be treated as a precursor of Chambers's Encyclopedia, which is to be a major topic of my projected larger study of the firm to the death of William in 1883. Unless I have indicated otherwise, the papers, records, and correspondence which I cite in the footnotes are those in the possession of W. & R. Chambers Ltd and its chairman, Mr. A. S. Chambers. The manuscript materials I have consulted in the collections of the National Library of Scotland are designated by the abbreviation NLS. CHAPTER I THE SCOTTISH EXPERIENCE The first issue of Chambers's Edinburgh Journal appeared on February 4, 1832, the very moment when Great Britain was entering the last crucial period of Reform Bill agitation. ,It was not by chance that a periodical designed "to take advantage of the universal appetite for instruction which at present exists; to supply to that appetite food of the best kind, and in such form, and at such price, as must suit the convenience of every man in the British dominions"^ would be published in Scotland. For nearly three centuries, there had been developing within Scottish culture a demo­ cratic sensibility which had fostered, among other things, the Scottish preoccupation