The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 4, March, 1903-December, 1903Oregon Historical Society
History
The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 4, March, 1903-December, 1903
Oregon Historical Society
Oregon -- History -- Periodicals
When speaking in the Literary Industries of work done for him by
others, Mr. Bancroft shows a habit which is derived from his long
experience as manager of a business concern. His constant tendency is
to speak of work done by those in his employ as his work, neglecting
a distinction between a publisher and an author, which is a vital one.
The reputation of a publishing house depends upon the workmanship of
its employés, but that of an author depends solely upon his own
talents and the work of his own hands. While a publisher may with all
propriety speak of work done by agents as his printing, for him to say
that writing done for him by others is his writing is a positive
misstatement. When Mr. Bancroft paid his writers for their manuscript,
he became its owner with full rights of publication, but no one will
say for a moment that he thereby became the author. In speaking of the
Native Races, as well as the History of the Pacific States, Mr.
Bancroft often does so in such terms as to indicate that writing was
done by him when it was his only by purchase. (Compare statements in
Literary Industries, 303, 568, 571, and in Native Races I, preface
xiii, with the facts as shown by the statements of different members
of Bancroft's literary corps as to the work actually done by each
writer and as given later in this article.)
The division of responsibility for collating and arranging facts for
the various divisions of the Native Races was made apparently toward
the latter part of the year 1872. We are told that routine work was
laid aside for three or four weeks in the middle of the summer, and
this time devoted to placing the library in order and cataloguing the
new books which had been added. This was obviously done preparatory to
entering upon the new work. To a young Englishman who called himself
T. Arundel-Harcourt, and who entered the library in November, was
assigned the preparation of that portion of the work devoted to the
manners and customs of the civilized nations. (This man's true name he
did not reveal. His collaborator Nemos says that he attended a
boarding school, and then continued his studies in Germany, at
Heidelberg, according to his own account. He claimed to have come to
America with $5,000 in pocket money, and found his way first to
Montana. On his arrival at San Francisco he entered the library.
Leaving in 1874 to assume editorship of the _Overland Monthly_ with
Fisher, he was soon back in Bancroft's employ. Naturally he was the
most able of the library corps. But while he was brilliant, handsome,
and witty, he was at the same time erratic and unreliable. He died in
1884.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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