“The pleasure of writing is inconceivable”: William Hutton (1723-1815) as an Author SUSAN WHYMAN Abstract: William Hutton started life as a child labourer, but rose to become a bookseller, stationer, and wealthy paper merchant. Like many autodidacts, he longed to be an author and published 15 popular books. This article examines Hutton’s remarks on ‘writing’, which reveal his motives, methods, and goals of authorship. It also gauges his impact on the literary marketplace by analysing 65 periodical reviews of his works. Hutton’s books were based on personal experience, and mixed memoir and biography with historical, topographical, and travel writing. They suited the nation’s thirst for entertaining formats and established him as a new kind of writer, who produced lively, unlearned books for a commercial age. Hutton’s breach of polite norms and opinionated style horrified the literary establishment. But they also attracted readers lower down the social scale, who enjoyed irreverent views on political, religious, economic, and social issues. Hutton thus had an impact on two contrasting groups of readers and put Birmingham and northern regions on the national literary map. Together this author and his critics offer a portrait of the evolution of authorship, the spread of knowledge and taste, and the creation of cultural identity in a time of literary change. Contributor Biography: Susan Whyman holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University, a Masters in Library Science fom Rutgers University, and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She is the author of The Pen and the People: English Letter Writers, which won the Modern Language Association prize in 2010; Sociability and Power: The Cultural Worlds of the Verneys; and co-editor of Walking the Streets of Eighteenth-Century London published by Oxford University Press. Her current project is about the industrial revolution and provincial enlightenment as seen through the eyes of William Hutton of Birmingham. In 1780, William Hutton composed the preface to his first book, An History of Birmingham. ‘As I am not an author by profession’, he wrote, ‘it is no wonder if I am unacquainted with the modes of authorship’ ([1783] v-vi).1 By his death in 1815, however, Hutton had become a celebrated writer of 15 books. Hutton assumed that writing was a distinct profession with accepted methods and norms. Yet this did not deter him from plunging into the literary marketplace. Nor would he beg for the ‘indulgence of the public’. ‘The judicious world’, he knew, ‘will not be deceived by the tinselled purse, but will examine whether its contents are sterling’ (ix). Neither would he slavishly follow conventions of town chronicles, but would ‘quit the regular trammels of history’ (xiv) and offer opinions on topics he enjoyed. He would also write about ‘men of mean life’, for they were equal to those who served in the senate (xv). ‘Every author has a manner peculiar to himself’, he insisted. ‘Nor can he well forsake it’ (xiv). Hutton’s birth into abject poverty and lack of formal education boded ill for a career as an author. Nonetheless, he rose in the world, and became a wealthy bookseller, stationer, and paper merchant through his own hard work. He had suffered 1 All references are to the 1783 edition (reprint, E. Ardsley: EP Publishing, 1976). Whyman, Susan. “‘The pleasure of writing is inconceivable’: William Hutton (1723-1815) as an Author.” Authorship 4.1 (2015). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21825/aj.v4i1.1107 Copyright Susan Whyman. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Whyman 2 great hardship as the youngest child labour in a Derby mill. Then he was apprenticed to a Nottingham stockinger, but he hated the drudgery and the frame. In 1749 he settled in Birmingham with a basket of second-hand books as his stock in trade. The town of 24,000 inhabitants was the booming hub of England’s metalworking trades. It would soon become the driving force of the nation’s industrial revolution.2 Birmingham offered Hutton the opportunity to become a wealthy bookseller, paper merchant, and owner of a circulating library. He also held public office and purchased land at cheap prices both inside and out of town. Like many autodidacts, he longed to become an author, and wrote his 15 books late in life. He married and had two children and became heavily involved in local affairs. But in 1791, his shop and house were destroyed in the Priestley riots. Birmingham let him acquire money and status, but its mob snatched them away. Hutton’s last years were spent defending his reputation through his many popular writings. ‘The predominant features of my life’ he claimed, were ‘writing poetry, from [ages] 24-29, reading to 56; writing history to 69; and from thence to poetry again’ (qtd. in Sumner 105). His greatest accomplishments, wrote his daughter, were the books he composed (BCL MS 168/49). Later, descendants collected his manuscripts and reverently called him ‘William Hutton, the Historian’.3 Hutton based his books on personal experience, and mixed memoir, poetry, and biography with historical, topographical, and travel writing. They suited the nation’s thirst for entertaining formats and useful information, and established him as a new kind of author who produced lively, unlearned books for a commercial age. Yet Hutton’s rise to fame complicates the traditional model of authorship that depicts a shift from a literary culture based on patronage to a profession marked by the commodification of writing. Critics including Dustin Griffin, Jody Greene, Mark Rose, Adam Rounce, and Martha Woodmansee have challenged this teleological tale. Nonetheless, their criticisms remained focused on London and conventional types of authors and audiences. In contrast, Hutton’s career opens a window on provincial memoirs, histories, and travelogues penned by self-educated authors writing later in the century, when a mass readership was emerging with new literary needs. Hutton believed that history and literature belonged to everyone, not just to the elite, and his work appealed to an expanding middle-class audience. His promise of self-improvement at low prices was accompanied by interesting accounts of manners, customs, and recreations, as well as broad themes about society that expanded the scope of historical writing. New consumers and powerful periodical reviewers read his work and gave him serious attention. Still, it was a time of uneasiness between writers, critics, and readers, who were coming to terms with the commercialization of literature. Despite his fame, Hutton could never claim membership in the leisured, literary elite. In their eyes, he was a 2 Birmingham Central Library (BCL), MS 3166/D/16, Birmingham in 1748 (1898); Benjamin Martin, ‘Description of Birmingham in 1759’, General Magazine of Arts & Sciences, (1759):133-43; W. B. Stephens, ed., A History of the County of Warwick, Vol. VII: The City of Birmingham (University of London, 1964). 3 Documents in the Birmingham Central Library are endorsed with this expression. Whyman 3 perfect example of the dreaded rising author, who might ‘encourage the Spirit of writing for Money; which is a Disgrace to the Writer, and to the very Age’.4 This article examines Hutton’s remarks on ‘writing’, which reveal his motives, methods, style, and goals. Indeed, Hutton was preoccupied with the concept of authorship and he constantly discussed it in his writings. His impact is assessed by analysing 65 reviews of his books. Hutton’s critics were distinctly divided, either admiring or loathing his work. Together this author and his critics offer a portrait of the evolution of authorship, the spread of knowledge and taste, and the creation of cultural identity outside London in a time of social, economic, and political change. ****** We can see how Hutton wrote An History of Birmingham (1782) by examining his private notebooks, public autobiography, correspondence with publishers, and prefaces to his books. Though there was little in print, Hutton had access to parish, church, and manorial records. His greatest assets were 30 years of town residence, and relationships with aged inhabitants, antiquarians, lawyers, printers, and booksellers. Another advantage was the knowledge he gained running a bookshop and circulating library in the 1750s, though he left them for greener pastures of selling paper and buying land. Hutton wrote his History to publicize the success of Birmingham (and himself). ‘To venture into the world as an Author without a previous education’, he admitted, ‘was a daring attempt’. ‘Fearing my ability, I wrote with dread’ (Life 1998, 65).5 Yet the History reveals a confident writer, who refused to write a dedication or ‘polish up a … title-page, dignified with scraps of Latin’ (vi). His true dedication was to Birmingham’s inhabitants, who fed him when he was hungry, gave him drink when he was thirsty, and accepted him as a stranger (viii). ‘It is remarkable’, he opined, ‘that one of the most singular places in the universe … never manufactured an history of herself, who has manufactured almost everything else’ (x). Hutton’s History cost 7s. 6d. and contained 280 pages, a town plan, and handsome plates. Though its statistics might err, Hutton produced ‘a spirited portrait of a great commercial and industrial town in the most vigorous phase of its growth’ (Oxford DNB). His style was to mix humour and blunt asides with opinionated digressions about his favourite topics. Instead of noting landed estates, he praised Birmingham’s workers, ‘who spread our tables and oil the wheels of our carriages’ (71). They ‘lay a stronger claim to civilization than in any other place’ (62).