Macmillan A Publishing Tradition Edited by Elizabeth James Macmillan: A Publishing Tradition This page intentionally left blank Macmillan: A Publishing Tradition Edited by Elizabeth James Curator of British Collections, 1801–1914 The British Library Editorial matter and selection © Elizabeth James 2002 Individual chapters © the contributors 2002 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2002 978-0-333-73517-6 All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90 Tottenham Court Road,London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2002 by PALGRAVE Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVEis the new global academic imprint of St.Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 978-1-349-40824-5 ISBN 978-0-230-52345-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230523456 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Cataloguing-in-publication data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 Contents List of Plates vii List of Tables viii List of Figures ix Notes on the Contributors x Acknowledgements xiii Abbreviations xv Foreword John Sutherland xvii Macmillan Biographies, 1843–1965 John Handford xxi Macmillan Chronology, 1843–1970 John Handford xxv Introduction Elizabeth James 1 1. ‘To You in Your Vast Business’ Some features of the quantitative history of Macmillan, 1843–91 11 Simon Eliot 2. From Parnassus to Grub Street Matthew Arnold and the House of Macmillan 52 Bill Bell 3. Thomas Hardy and the House of Macmillan A comedy in chapters 70 Michael Millgate 4. Margaret Oliphant and Macmillan’s Magazine 83 George Worth 5. Letters to Macmillan: an Addendum Sir Samuel White Baker’s letters to Macmillan 102 Michael Bott 6. ‘And Sacred is the Latest Word’ Macmillan and Tennyson’s ‘final’ text 131 Michael Millgate vi Macmillan: APublishing Tradition 7. Macmillan in India A short account of the company’s trade with the sub-continent 153 Rimi B. Chatterjee 8. Letters from America The Bretts and the Macmillan Company of New York 170 Elizabeth James 9. W. B. Yeats on the Road to St Martin’s Street, 1900–17 192 Warwick Gould 10. A Risk-bearing Author Maynard Keynes and his publishers 218 D. E. Moggridge 11. ‘Not a Tear or a Prayer in It’ Gwen Raverat’s illustrated edition of The Runaway 230 Frances Spalding 12. From Carroll to Crompton The work of a children’s publisher 242 Michael Wace 13. Macmillan: or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since 257 Nicolas Barker Index 266 List of Plates Frontispiece: The first issue of Macmillan’s Magazine, November 1859. 1. Frederick Macmillan as a young man. 2. The main staircase, St Martin’s Street, showing the busts of Shakespeare and Archdeacon Julius Hare. 3. The post room at St Martin’s Street where the letterbooks were compiled and indexed. 4. Thomas Hardy’s letter of 18 March 1902, in which he reintroduces himself to Macmillan. 5. A page from the Macmillan visitors’ book, signed by authors attending one of the tobacco parliaments. 6. ISSD Press, Madras, printers to Macmillan in India, ca. 1960. 7. Headquarters of the Macmillan Company of New York, Fifth Avenue. 8. George Platt Brett, President of the New York Company 1896–1931. 9. Sir John Squire’s report on Gone with the Wind. 10. T. Sturge Moore’s cover design for Yeats’s Reveries over Childhood and Youth, New York 1916. 11. T. Sturge Moore’s cover and spine design for Reveries over Childhood and Youth, London 1916. 12. T. Sturge Moore’s cover design for American editions of several of Yeats’s works, and the English edition of Per Amica Silentia Lunae. 13. Cover of the Roman cloth issue of Yeats’s Selected Poems, New York 1929. 14. Thomas Mark, director of Macmillan and Co. 1944–62. Plates 1–14 appear between pages 130 and 131. vii List of Tables 1.1 Monthly distribution of titles 1856, 1866, 1876, 1886 17 1.2 Summary of non-reprint and reprint titles 1856, 1866, 1876, 1886 23 1.3 Dewey subject classification of Macmillan titles 1846–86 28 1.4 Dewey subject classification of titles 32 1.5 Macmillan titles: Literature 1846–86 33 1.6 Prices and their percentage share 1846, 1856, 1866, 1876, 1886 34 1.7 Price structure: low, medium and high 42 1.8 Term books 1893, 1896, 1899 45 viii List of Figures 1.1 Title production 1843–89 and five-year moving average 13 1.2 Distribution of title production 1856 18 1.3 Distribution of title production 1866 19 1.4 Distribution of title production 1876 19 1.5 Distribution of title production 1886 21 1.6 Distribution of non-colonial title production 1886 22 1.7 Dewey subject classification 1846–86 29 1.8 Percentage share by price, 1846 36 1.9 Percentage share by price, 1856 37 1.10 Percentage share by price, 1866 38 1.11 Percentage share by price, 1876 39 1.12 Percentage share by price, 1886 40 1.13 Prices: low, medium and high 41 1.14 Negotiating literary property 1893, 1896, 1899 46 11.1 The Runaway, headpiece to Chapter II 235 11.2 The Runaway, pp. 52–3 236 11.3a The Runaway, p. 154 238 11.3b The Runaway, p. 155 239 11.4 The Runaway, right front endpaper 240 ix