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
The story is told of how Defoe's manuscript was refused by
many of the London publishers before William Taylor, one of
the most esteemed and successful of them, accepted it. The
book came out April 25, and its success was immediate; a
second edition was called for only seventeen days after the
first; a third followed twenty-five days later, and a fourth
on the 8th of August. _The Farther | Adventures | Of Robinson
Crusoe; | Being the Second and Laſt Part | Of His | Life ...
To which is added a Map of the World_ ... was issued in August
of the same year, and was followed on August 6, 1720, by a
sequel called _Serious Reflections | During | The | Life ...
of Robinson Crusoe_. Further evidence of the popularity of the
work is furnished by the piracies, numerous imitations, and
translations that appeared within a short time after its
publication.
Lowndes and others repeat an error of Dibdin's in saying that
_Robinson Crusoe_ first appeared in the _Original London
Post, or Heathcot's Intelligence_, from No. 125 to No. 289
inclusive, the latter dated October 7, 1719. The story
was _reprinted_ in that paper, "with a care to divert and
entertain the reader," but _beginning_ October 7, 1719, and
ending with No. 289, dated October 19, 1720. The unsigned
folding map was used in this last as well as in the fourth
edition of the first part. An engraving representing the hero
of the story is placed sometimes as a frontispiece. It is
signed, like the map of the island, "Clark & Pine Sc.," and,
while not remarkable for artistic merit, is certainly notable
as having been the model of all future conceptions.
Defoe sold all his property in _Robinson Crusoe_ to Taylor,
who gained a very large fortune by it and its successors. When
that worthy man died, only five years after the publication of
the book, he was reputed to be worth between forty and fifty
thousand pounds. He added an introduction to _The Serious
Reflections_, in which he says:
"The ſucceſs the two former Parts have met with, has been
known by the Envy it has brought upon the Editor, expreſs'd
in a thouſand hard Words from the Men of Trade; the Effect
of that Regret which they entertain'd at their having no Share
in it: And I muſt do the Author the Justice to ſay that
not a Dog has wag'd his Tongue at the Work itſelf, nor has a
Word been ſaid to leſſen the Value of it, but which has
been the viſible Effect of that Envy at the good Fortune of
the Bookſeller."
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