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Tennyson's Troubled Years with Moxon & Co.: A Publishing Relationship
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
Extract
Alfred Tennyson was often reluctant to put his poems into print. In fact, early in his career only the efforts of persuasive friends like Arthur Hallam and Edward Fitz Gerald and the dedication of a committed poetry publisher like Edward Moxon enabled the poems ever to see publication. It was only after the appearance in 1850 of In Memoriam, for which Moxon particularly pressed, that the forty-one-year-old Tennyson felt sure enough of his own work to make such decisions by himself. After this success, he seldom allowed the conviction of others to undermine his own judgment in the practical details of publication.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979
References
NOTES
1. Cuthbertson, Evan J., Tennyson: The Story of His Life (London and Edinburgh: Chambers, 1898). p. 127.Google Scholar
2. Portions of this article also appear in the Preface and Chapter Four of the author's Tennyson and His Publishers, which is being issued in late 1979 by Macmillan Press. My study of these Moxon & Co. years is mainly based on Sir Charles Tennyson's unpublished typescript on Tennyson and his publishers; Sir Charles's notebooks for the Tennyson biography; and various accounts and letters. This material is in the Tennyson Research Centre, Lincoln, England, and is used by kind permission of Lord Tennyson and the Lincolnshire Library Service. Unfortunately, all correspondence before 1851 between Tennyson and Edward Moxon and the accounts for 1832–33, 1842, 1855, and 1857 are, inexplicably, missing. The firm of Ward Lock, who bought Moxon's in 1871, reported to me that much correspondence and all accounts with Moxon & Co. after Edward Moxon's death, that is, from 1858 to 1868, were lost in the fires of World War II.
3. Merriam, Harold G., Edward Moxon: Publisher of Poets (New York: Columbia University Press, 1939), p. 181.Google Scholar
4. Tennyson Research Centre (hereafter TRC).
5. Typescript, pp. 7–8.
6. TRC. Tennyson, Emily to Weld, Charles, 2 11 1858.Google Scholar Also in Hoge, James O., ed., The Letters of Emily Lady Tennyson (University Park and London: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1974), p. 121.Google Scholar
7. TRC. N.d., but before 18 July 1857 by another letter.
8. TRC.
9. Routledge, Kegan Paul Publication Books, Vol. 3. Also, see Weld's, letter of 27 10 1858 below.Google Scholar
10. TRC. Incomplete letter in Weld's, hand, 27 10 1858.Google Scholar
11. TRC. Copy in Emily's hand, labeled on verso, “Copy of Alfred's letter to Bradbury & Evans Oct 29th 1858.”
12. Typescript, p. 9.
13. Years later, when Kegan Paul took over the Henry S. King business without Tennyson's prior knowledge, Tennyson was so upset that he insisted that all his books be issued with the note that Kegan Paul was King's successor.
14. Typescript, p. 10.
15. TRC.
16. Emily's Idylls receipts list includes this; Sir Charles's typescript uses rounded-off figures based on her list. I verified Emily's list by checking it against the TRC'S collection of Tennyson's bank-books, which give sources of deposits.
17. Merriam, , p. 194.Google Scholar
18. SirTennyson, Charles, Alfred Tennyson (New York: Macmillan, 1949), p. 354.Google Scholar
19. Ibid.; my figures, however, are from Emily's Idylls list.
20. Merriam, , p. 186.Google Scholar Taken from Literary Autographs and Manuscripts, both English and American, Forming Part III of the Collection of Louis J. Huber of New York City, p. 67.Google Scholar
21. TRC. 17 Apr. 1867.
22. Typescript, p. 13.
23. Notebook 8.
24. TRC. Shrove Tuesday, 1868.
25. Tennyson, Hallam, Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir by His Son (New York: Macmillan, 1897), II, 63.Google Scholar
26. Alfred Tennyson, p. 376.Google Scholar
27. Merriam, , p. 194.Google Scholar