The Life of John RuskinCollingwood, W. G. (William Gershom)
Philosophy
The Life of John Ruskin
Collingwood, W. G. (William Gershom)
Authors, English -- 19th century -- Biography; Ruskin, John, 1819-1900
"Modern Painters" had been also on the condemned list. The aggressive
Protestantism and the geological theories involved in his description of
mountains he condemned as errors; moreover, at the time of the last
edition published by Messrs. Smith & Elder (1873), he had been told
that the plates, which he considered a very important part of the work,
would not stand another impression; and so he destroyed nine of them, in
order that no subsequent edition might be brought out in the original
form. He reprinted vol. ii. in a cheap edition, and began to recast the
rest, with annotations and additions, as "In Montibus Sanctis," and
"Coeli Enarrant", while Miss S. Beever's selections ("Frondes Agrestes")
found a ready sale. But this did not satisfy the public, and there was a
continual cry for a reprint, to which, at last, he yielded. Early in
1889 the "Complete Edition" appeared; with the cancelled plates
reproduced.
He had always felt it a grievance that the enormous popularity of his
works in America meant an enormous piracy. Towards the end of the
"Fifties," Mr. Wiley of New York had begun to print cheap Ruskins; not,
indeed, illegally, but without proper acknowledgment to the author, and
without any reference to the author's wishes as to form and style of
production. An artist and writer on art, insisting on delicacy and
refinement as the first necessity of draughtsmanship, and himself
sparing no trouble or expense in the illustrations of his own works, was
naturally dissatisfied with the wretched "Artotypes" with which the
American editions caricatured his beautiful plates. Not only that, but
it was a common practice to smuggle these editions, recommended by their
cheapness, into other countries. Mr. Wiley sent, on an average, five
hundred sets of "Modern Painters" to Europe every year, the greater
number to England. His example was followed by other American
publishers, so that in New York alone there came to be half a dozen
houses advertising Ruskin's works, and many more throughout the cities
of the States. Mr. Wiley, the first in the field, proposed to pay up a
royalty upon all the copies he had sold if Ruskin would recognise him as
accredited publisher in America. The offer of so large a sum would have
been tempting, had it not meant that Ruskin must condone what he had for
years denounced, and sanction what he strongly disapproved. The case
would have been different if proposals had been made to reproduce his
books in his own style, under competent supervision. This was done in
1890, when arrangements were made with Messrs. Charles E. Merrill & Co.,
of New York, to bring out the "Brantwood" edition of Ruskin, under the
editorship of Professor C.E. Norton.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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