Bibliographic Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English LiteratureKent, Henry Watson
History
Bibliographic Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature
Kent, Henry Watson
Best books; English literature -- First editions -- Bibliography; English literature -- History and criticism
This was the only edition of _Men and Women_ published
separately. The poems it contained were afterward incorporated
in collected editions; with the exception of _In a Balcony_,
they were distributed under the respective headings of
_Dramatic Lyrics_, _Dramatic Romances_, and _Men and Women_.
The book was issued in a green cloth binding, at twelve
shillings a copy.
Octavo.
COLLATION: _Two volumes._ Volume I: _iv, 260 pp._ Volume II:
_iv, 241 pp._
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
(1814-1877)
94. The Rise | Of The | Dutch Republic. | A History. | By John Lothrop
Motley. | In Three Volumes. | Vol. I. | New York: | Harper & Brothers,
| 329 & 331 Pearl Street. | 1856.
Motley wrote a letter to his wife, dated at London, May 10,
1854, in which he says that he has had the matter of copyright
looked up, and finds that the English law will protect him
if he publish his book recently completed, first, by however
small an interval, in England. He then carried the manuscript
to Murray, who received him civilly, and professed interest
in his subject, promising an answer in a fortnight. But the
answer, when it came, was unfavorable, and, being of the mind
that "if Murray declines ... I shall doubt very much whether
anybody will accept, because history is very much in his
line," he seems to have tried no farther, but to have arranged
with Mr. John Chapman to publish the _Dutch Republic_ himself.
Throughout the transaction Motley was very modest and not at
all sanguine for the success of his venture.
"It cannot take in England," he says to his mother in 1855,
"and moreover the war, Macaulay's new volumes, and Prescott's,
will entirely absorb the public attention." And again to his
father, May 13, 1856, he says:
"I have heard nothing from Chapman since the book was
published, but I feel sure from the silence that very few
copies have been sold. I shall be surprised if a hundred
copies are sold at the end of a year."
In reality, the book, as Dr. Holmes said, was "a triumph."
Seventeen thousand copies were sold in England alone during
the first year, and in America, where it was issued by the
Harpers, just long enough after the English edition to fulfill
all the demands of the copyright law, it was equally popular.
Mr. Murray afterward asked to be allowed to publish _The
History of the United Netherlands_, and expressed his
regret "at what he candidly called his mistake in the first
instance." Prescott, Motley's friend and generous rival, wrote
from Boston, April 18, 1856:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account