Living as an Author in the Romantic Period: Remuneration, Recognition and Self-Fashioning Matthew James Robert Sangster Royal Holloway, University of London Ph.D. 1 Declaration of Authorship I, Matthew James Robert Sangster, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. 18 th July 2012 (Version with amendments submitted 8 th November 2012) 2 Abstract The early nineteenth century was a transitional period for conceptions of authorship, which was not yet established as a solid profession or seen as the special province of the inspired genius. Authors therefore focused their ambitions on various different objectives, some seeking primarily to achieve the difficult goal of earning a living by publishing, some pursuing critical acclaim, others looking to access influential networks and a few attempting to redefine and reify conceptions of authorship. Achieving any of these ends was usually contingent on social connections, which dominated and validated the tightly-networked literary milieu. After an introduction giving an overview of the ways in which authors and authorship were apprehended in the period, the thesis examines the financial and social aspects of building a career as an author, considering in three chapters the publishing industry contexts in which writers worked, the struggles faced by those who sought to prosper by the pen, and the methods employed by those exceptional figures who managed to achieve significant successes through literary labours. The fourth chapter focuses on the politicised reviewing culture of the period, looking at the ways in which ambitious quarterly critics sought to propagate political, professional and institutional authority through defining and censuring literary authors. The fifth chapter examines the networks in which authors were embedded and valued, paying particular attention to issues of publicity and privacy and to reciprocal processes of self-definition. The thesis concludes by briefly examining the ways in which the canonical Romantic poets’ responses to the environment depicted in the rest of the thesis paved the way for kinds of enduring success which eluded many of the authors with whom they competed for popularity and plaudits during the 1800s and the 1810s. 3 Contents Declaration of Authorship p. 2. Abstract p. 3. Contents p. 4. ote on Abbreviations and Attributions p. 6. Acknowledgements p. 8. Introduction: What was an Author in the Romantic Period? Calamities of Authors p. 9. Social Readers, Social Writers p. 26 Romanticism and Retrospection p. 34. Continuities and Discontinuities p. 38. Chapter One: Publishers, Book Production and Profits The Costs of Literature p. 49. Common Publishing Arrangements p. 54. The Costs of Production p. 63. The Life of a Successful Book: The World before the Flood p. 66. Co-operation in the Book Trade p. 72. Chapter Two: The Working Writer The Foundation and Philosophies of the Literary Fund p. 80. The Unfortunate Robert Heron p. 95. Eliza Parsons: ‘Compelled by dire necessity to become an Author’ p. 106. Robert Bloomfield, Patronage and Fashion p. 116. Southey’s Critique and the Profession of Authorship p. 129. Chapter Three: Succeeding in ‘the Worst Trade’ Status and Connections p. 133. Robert Southey: Entire Man of Letters? p. 138. Thomas Moore and Sociable Authorship p. 153. 4 Walter Scott: The Wizard of the North p. 169. Byron: Transcending Commerce p. 181. Chapter Four: The Oligarchs of Literature: Authority and the Quarterly Reviews Paradigm Shift p. 186. Enlightenment vs. The Anti-Jacobin p. 193. The Edinburgh’s New Methodology p. 202. Disciplining Authors and Readers p. 208. The Quarterlies and Canonical Romanticism p. 219. Chapter Five: Sociability, Resistance and Self-Definition Friends, Groups and Networks p. 229. Character in Pen and in Print: Elizabeth Hamilton vs. Mary Hays p. 239. Relational Self-Fashioning: Leigh Hunt’s Correspondence p. 249. Women, Networking and Audiences p. 258. Coda: Where the Romantics Fit (or fail to) p. 270. Bibliography p. 288. 5 ote on Abbreviations and Attributions As this investigation ranges widely rather than focusing intensively on a single author or group, I have given the references for books, periodicals and online resources fully in the footnotes rather than abbreviating. I have, however, made extensive use of certain manuscript repositories, which I have abbreviated thus: BL – London, British Library NLS – Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland NYPL Berg – New York Public Library, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature NYPL Pforzheimer – New York Public Library, Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle RUL – Reading University Library I have made particularly extensive use of the Archive of the Royal Literary Fund, held at the British Library (Loan 96 RLF). When referring to parts of this archive, I have generally omitted ‘BL’ and provided the title and the full number for the relevant series, file or item as given on the online catalogue (<http://searcharchives.bl.uk>). Following standard conventions, I have abbreviated the Oxford English Dictionary as OED and the Oxford Dictionary of ational Biography as ODB. In both cases, I have worked from the online versions (<www.oed.com> and <www.oxforddnb.com>). In discussing poorly-documented figures I have often drawn heavily on the ODB ; to provide appropriate credit, I have cited article references and access dates in the footnotes. I have deviated from the MHRA style slightly when referring to periodicals, as the Volume (Year) system is less well-adapted to online repositories than it is to bound volumes. To aid looking-up, therefore, I have given enough relevant information to clearly identify the specific issue to which I am referring, generally adding, for example, the month of publication for monthlies or quarterlies. When referring to period Reviews, I have given the running title for longer articles where the journal 6 itself provides one; for all reviews I have given the page range to indicate their scope. Unless otherwise indicated, attributions are taken from the Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900 (originally edited by Walter Houghton; now maintained online at <http://wellesley.chadwyck.com>) for the Edinburgh Review and from Jonathan Cutmore (ed.), The Quarterly Review Archive , Romantic Circles , <http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/qr/> for the Quarterly . 7 Acknowledgements This thesis could not have been completed without the Royal Literary Fund, who provided the funding for my research and for my cataloguing their archive at the British Library, a project which has had an enormous influence on my thinking about authorship in the early nineteenth century. I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to the Committee and to Eileen Gunn, the Fund’s Chief Executive, for their interest and support. My supervisor, Judith Hawley, has provided invaluable guidance and trenchant criticism throughout the composition of this thesis; I am profoundly grateful for her many contributions. I am also very grateful for the helpful feedback and encouragement provided by my advisor, Vicky Greenaway. I would like to thank the curators and staff at the following institutions for their generous assistance: New York Public Library (particularly Elizabeth Denlinger and Charles Carter), the National Library of Scotland (particularly Rachel Beattie) and the Special Collections Department at the University of Reading. I am also hugely indebted to Jamie Andrews and all my other colleagues at the British Library, especially Chris Beckett, Rachel Foss, Kathryn Johnson, Helen Melody, Rachel Stockdale, William Stockting and Zoë Wilcox, for their help and advice. This thesis has benefitted enormously from the wisdom and encouragement of colleagues and friends; conversations with Daniel Cook, Jeremy Davies, Elizabeth Eger, Margot Finn, David Higgins, Jon Mee, Anne Mellor and William St Clair have been especially important to my progress. I would particularly like to thank Lynda Pratt for kindly allowing me access to the proofs of the fourth part of The Collected Letters of Robert Southey before its release. Finally, I wish to extend a general thank-you to all those who have organised and spoken at the conferences and seminars I have attended. The scholarship and conviviality on display at such events have both played huge parts in bringing me and my research to this point. 8 Introduction What was an Author in the Romantic Period? Calamities of Authors By the beginning of the nineteenth century, increasing numbers of men and women were seeking to pursue authorship as if it were a professional career. They were drawn by the wealth, influence and social cachet of high-profile successes and by the glorification of writing engendered through education and the periodical press, both of which were becoming increasingly accessible. However, while a few writers, mostly socially-advantaged gentlemen, were able to make their fortunes and reputations through literature, for most aspirants the realities of the writing life proved disappointing. Rather than receiving plaudits, their works were passed over by a censorious and hierarchal print culture. Rather than being showered with wealth, they received at best modest payments, seldom sufficient to serve as a sole means of support. As David Williams, the founder of the Literary Fund, lamented, those who believed that their talents would enable them to