A Treatise on Wood Engraving, Historical and PracticalChatto, William Andrew
History
A Treatise on Wood Engraving, Historical and Practical
Chatto, William Andrew
Wood-engraving
It will be seen by the two distinct prefaces which accompanied the
former edition, and are here reprinted, that there was some existing
schism between the joint producers at the time of first publication. Mr.
Jackson, the engraver, paymaster, and proprietor, conceived that he had
a right to do what he liked with his own; while Mr. Chatto, his literary
coadjutor, very naturally felt that he was entitled to some recognition
on the title-page of what he had so successfully performed. On the book
making its appearance without Mr. Chatto’s name on the title-page, and
with certain suppressions in his preface to which he had not given
consent, a virulent controversy ensued, which was embodied in a pamphlet
termed “a third preface,” and afterwards carried on in the _Athenæum_ of
August and September, 1839. As this preface has nothing in it but the
outpourings of a quarrel which can now interest no one, I do not
republish any part of it; and looking back on the controversy after the
lapse of twenty years, I cannot help feeling that Mr. Chatto had
reasonable ground for complaining that his name was omitted, although I
think Mr. Jackson had full right to determine what the book should be
called, seeing that it was his own exclusive speculation. It is not for
me to change a title now so firmly established, but I will do Mr. Chatto
the civility to introduce his name on it, without concerning myself with
the question of what he did or did not do, or what Mr. Jackson
contributed beyond his practical remarks and anxious superintendence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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