The Story of the House of Cassell/Part 2, Chapter 8
CHAPTER VIII
SERIALS AND BOOKS
The House of Cassell was the pioneer of serial publication, and owed its extraordinary and rapid development mainly to the success with which it worked this vein. A "serial" is commonly an illustrated work of sufficiently wide interest to command a considerable sale in Parts—monthly Parts they were at the beginning, but afterwards, as life became more hurried, fortnightly, and, in these bustling days, more often than not, weekly. The great advantage of this mode of publication is, of course, that expensive works become available to multitudes who could never afford to pay many shillings, running it may be into pounds, in a lump sum. A number of large books were thus published during John Cassell's life. But the great period of serial productiveness was in the decade from 1871 to 1880. In those ten years at least thirty new works were issued on the Monthly Part plan, and there were many re-issues. In the next two decades, if the production was somewhat less than in the 'seventies, it was not because the serial had begun to lose its vogue but because the number of first-class subjects appealing to the serial public was not unlimited.
With the dawn of the present century the serial undoubtedly lost ground. One reason probably was the multiplication of popular weekly papers and magazines; another, the enormous scale upon which cheap reprints were produced as popular "Libraries"; and some change in the mental habits of the people, indisposing them to the long perseverance implied in subscribing to a publication over a period of many months—some of the early serials published by Cassell's ran for five years!—may also have been a contributing influence. There is still a place left for the serial form of publication, as is shown by the reception enjoyed by such works as the "New Popular Educator" and "Electrical Engineering"; but the list of publishing dates of Cassell & Co. is little likely ever again to include serials by the dozen, as it did in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
Of the many Cassell editions of Shakespeare, the most notable are those associated with the Cowden Clarkes and with Furnivall, which, in altered forms, are still in publication. The edition annotated by Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke was brought out in 1864, in weekly numbers at one penny and in monthly parts at fivepence and sixpence. It was several times re-issued, and appeared in 1886 under the title of "Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare," the illustrations being from drawings by H. C. Selous. The "Leopold" Shakespeare was a reprint of the text of Delius, and was dedicated to Prince Leopold, but colloquially it was often spoken of as "Furnivall's Shakespeare," a testimony to the impression made by the elaborate Introduction contributed by Dr. Furnivall. That famous essay was composed with difficulty. Furnivall habitually undertook more work than he could get through, and he was naturally dilatory. His copy was so often very late, or not forthcoming at all, that Manson, who was putting the book through the press, had to beard him daily in his den at Primrose Hill and insist that he should dictate something. Thus was the work, as he said in his preface, "dragged out of him when in a Hamlet-like mood of putting off," and "amid constant injunctions to be short." He was candid enough to say some years later that, but for Manson, the "Introduction" would never have been written.
The Delius text was also used for the "Royal Shakespeare," issued serially in 1880-85. The Introduction to the "Leopold" Shakespeare was published separately in 1908, under the title of "Shakespeare: Life and Work," being the preliminary volume of the "Century Shakespeare," in twenty-nine volumes, each play having an Introduction which was the joint work of Dr. Furnivall and John Monro.
Another early effort in popularization was "Gleanings from Popular Authors," a compilation by Manville Fenn, who also compiled "The World of Wit and Humour." Among the authors to whom he wrote for permission to make extracts from their works for the "Gleanings" was Thomas Hardy, who replied:
"I am so glad to perceive how successful your 'Gleanings' have been hitherto, particularly, I think, in the country, where people take them, even if they possess the original works—to save themselves the trouble of using their own judgment, I suppose. The world gets indolent in its reading, and there seems now to be quite a demand for trained minds as pioneers.
"I was not aware till now that The Echo critique was yours, and I take this late opportunity of expressing my sincere thanks for it. Indeed, if any fault could be found with your critiques at that time, it was that you were too kind.—Believe me, yours sincerely,
An important and most fortunate association of the House was that with Prof. Henry Morley. Popular and successful though he was as a teacher, it is questionable whether Morley quite succeeded in doing justice to his gifts. Like most other men of abounding energy, he was apt to undertake more work than he was able to get through without a good deal of hurry. It may not be generally known, though the fact is noted in the "Dictionary of National Biography," that he began his career as a medical man, but turned schoolmaster when the dishonesty of a partner had brought him to the brink of financial disaster. Some contributions of his to Household Words attracted the notice of Charles Dickens, who induced him to come to London, and for some years he was engaged upon the staff of that paper, and then upon All the Year Round. In 1865 he was appointed Professor of English Language and Literature at University College, and in 1882 Principal of University Hall. Between these two dates, in 1873, the House published his "First Sketch," a compendium which, several times revised by its author, and since his death by other hands, has always been, and still is, a favourite with students. Cassel's were not slow to see that Prof. Morley could do them good service, and arrangements were made with him to edit "The Library of English Literature," which was issued serially in 1878-81, and ran to five volumes. It consisted of specimen extracts from English prose and poetry, with brief comments.
HENRY MORLEYDEAN FARRAR
convincingly to the writer's breadth of knowledge, his catholic sympathy, and his insight into the moral content of literature. The venture was a signal success. More than six and a quarter million volumes have been sold, the average being 30,000 copies per title, and though the price has had to be substantially raised, selected volumes of the series are still selling. At the end of 1886 a complimentary copy of all the volumes published up to that time was sent to John Bright, who made the following acknowledgment:
"Dear Sirs,—Your wonderful Library for the year just ended has reached me. I thank you for it, and for the service you are rendering to the education of our people by giving them so much that is of inestimable value for a sum of money so trifling in amount. I hope your efforts may meet with a great and growing success.—I am, very truly yours,
Many readers will recall Mr. Arnold Bennett's reference to the National Library in "Clayhanger." He describes Edwin Clayhanger as reading a volume of a new series of reprints" which had considerably excited the bookselling and book-reading world"; while in "Mental Efficiency," expressing his gratitude "to the devisers of cheap and handy editions," he writes:
For more than thirty years before his death Henry Morley had kept before his mind the idea of a systematic History of English Literature, and it was in reference to this that he entitled his volume for students "A First Sketch." In 1864 he published the first volume of "English Writers," an account of the writers before Chaucer, with an introductory sketch of the Four Periods of English Literature. This was presently divided into half-volumes, and followed, in 1867, by a third half-volume, which brought the story down to the invention of printing. As at this time large annual additions to the knowledge of our early literature were being made, Morley decided to suspend his magnum opus until the results should become available, and it was not until 1887 that he returned to his task, having, as he characteristically says, learnt in the twenty intervening years of study that he knew "less and less." The new work was so laid out as not to exceed twenty volumes, since "no labourer plans in his afternoon for a long day's work before nightfall." His hope was that, issued in crown octavo half-yearly volumes of about 350 pages each, the work would go on steadily to its close, but the end of his active and fruitful life came when he was engaged upon the eleventh volume. Just a fortnight before his death he had written to Mr. Hutchings, who had editorial charge of the work, a letter whimsically describing his state of health and his hopes for the future of his task:
"Dear Mr. Editor,—I wasn't equal to writing a letter, or I should have explained to you, long before this, the disappearance of copy and proofs of 'E. W.' I have had a very serious breakdown in health. A chill established acute inflammation of the left lung. My old friend diabetes, who generally wakes up for a bit of mischief when anything goes wrong, complicated that, tried for the weak places, and asserted himself also at large. He struck at the nerve force, reducing the strength of my legs to a child's, and leaving to my brains the animation of a suet pudding. Time, patience, and a good doctor, with a healthy, vigorous circulation and a sound digestion that has, in spite of bad usage, helped me over many a stile, are bringing me on day by day. Diabetes seems preparing to quiet down into its usual unaggressive state, and when it will do that the storm is over. I am told that if I take right care of myself there should be another eight years' work in me. But proper care means life at Carisbrooke quietly occupied with work on 'English Writers' and allied writings. I shall resign every engagement made in London this year for meeting or lecture, resign my place on the London Library Committee, and be no more Chairman of Council at College Hall, wipe the whole slate clean except one item: I hope to complete my service with the Apothecaries by proceeding to the office of Master and doing its duties until August, 1895, when I resign finally from my work there. This arrangement of my way of life brings 'English Writers' to the front, my strongest wish will be to complete it, and, with care of health, I do not see how I could fail to produce easily the two volumes a year. I think what I have said puts you where I stand. My hope is that in about a fortnight I shall be at work again on Vol. XI. At present I only try to write each day about a letter more than on the last.
"With kind regards, believe me, dear Mr. Editor,—Yours always sincerely,
The eleventh volume was completed by one of Morley's most brilliant students, Prof. Hall Griffin, who has long since followed his teacher into the silence. He spent many days at the British Museum compiling the Bibliography which appears at the end of the volume, but it was a labour of love. In the Preface he pays a beautiful tribute to the master whose fine spirit he had caught. "To him," he writes, "a book was no dead thing. . . . He felt, and was able to make others feel, the humanity which pulsates in a true book, so that literature became instinct with life and a source of spiritual inspiration; the written words of the past he valued because he felt in them a power which could touch the life of the present and influence the future. . . . Large-hearted and broad-minded, he would not seek to trammel in others the love of literary study which he had inspired. And as one modern teacher has declared, 'No true disciple of mine will ever be a Ruskinian; he will follow not me, but the instinct of his own soul and the guidance of its Creator,' so in like spirit Professor Morley watched the growth of his literary children, rejoiced in their developing individuality, desired them reverently to follow their own bent as he had followed his, and cheered them along their chosen path, although he might not walk therein. Hence his students, though they may differ widely from him in their modes of work, will ever look lovingly towards the sacred hearth at which the vestal fire was kindled, and will strive in their day, as he strove in his, to keep the flame clear and bright."
The National Library was neither the first nor the last of The "Libraries" issued from La Belle Sauvage. So long ago as 1851 John Cassell, as we have seen, had begun the issue of "Cassell's Library of History, Biography, and Science," in sevenpenny volumes. After the National Library came the Red Library, consisting of reprints of famous works of fiction and poetry, dressed in flaming scarlet. More recently, as one of the schemes devised under the new management, was launched the "People's Library," referred to on an earlier page; it consisted chiefly of masterpieces of fiction, though not limited to them, and was designated by the Times "the last word in cheap reprints." It has run to 120 volumes, originally published at 8d. Of this Library over three million copies have been sold.
From very early days the House concerned itself with the production of dictionaries. So far back as John Cassell's time the catalogue contained French, German, and Latin Dictionaries, which have successors in the present list. The most considerable undertaking of this kind was the "Encyclopædic Dictionary," in fourteen divisional volumes, with illustrations. The editor and chief compiler was the Rev. Robert Hunter, the very type of the unworldly, reclusive scholar who finds his reward far more in his work than in what it brings. Born at Newburgh, Fifeshire, in 1823, he graduated at Aberdeen in 1840. His earliest bent was towards educational work, and he received an appointment which took him to Bermuda, where he lived for two years. During this time he became a keen naturalist, and did work so valuable that it attracted the attention of Sir William Hooker, of Kew, and Sir Richard Owen, both of whom urged him to devote himself to natural science. He, however, was irresistibly drawn to the ministry, and in 1846, having been ordained in the Free Church of Scotland, he became the colleague of Stephen Hislop, head of the Free Church Mission at Nagpoor, Central India. In 1855 he was compelled to return to England for his health, and presently was appointed resident tutor in the Theological College of the Presbyterian Church of England in London.
Dr. Hunter spent seventeen years in preparing the "Encyclopædic Dictionary." The office editor was John Williams, who chose the illustrations and exercised a general oversight of the work; the sub-editor was Henry Scherren, of whom something is said in another section of this chapter as a writer on natural history. Dr. Hunter, who also compiled for the House the "Concise Bible Dictionary," first published in 1893 as "The Sunday School Teacher's Manual," was not often seen at the Yard, but one who remembers his visits speaks of him as entering the office with bashful timidity and doffing his hat before being actually shown into Williams's room. "He was a man," says another, "of vast learning and scientific knowledge, of retiring disposition and of genuine piety."
The "Encyclopædic Dictionary" was ready for publication in 1889. Several editions were issued, among them one in 1895 by the proprietors of the Daily Chronicle as "Lloyd's Encyclopædic Dictionary." The work is now published in eight volumes, a supplementary volume having been added in 1903. From this work was compiled by Mr. Scherren, under the supervision of Mr. Williams, a one-volume English Dictionary, which remained in publication until, in 1919, it was replaced by "Cassell's New English Dictionary," edited by Dr. Ernest A. Baker.
The first of many editions of Dr. Cobham Brewer's "Dictionary of Phrase and Fable" was published in 1870. To this industrious, if not meticulously accurate compiler a room was assigned in the Yard. "He gave constant evidence," wrote Bonavia Hunt, "that he thoroughly enjoyed his work, and became quite pensive and sentimental when his allotted task was done. He bequeathed to me the china inkstand, of fountain pattern, which he had used in his work; and I kept it in affectionate memory of our editorial intercourse, using it myself until the day of my departure from the scene of our mutual labours, more than thirty years afterwards. That so fragile a memento should have escaped destruction all those years is a testimony to the careful handling of many generations of office boys." This book is known all the world over, and so long ago as 1897, when Dr. Brewer died, it had gone through twenty-five editions.
Another notable work of reference, "Cassell's Book of Quotations," narrowly escaped untimely extinction. The author, Mr. W. Gurney Benham, thus relates the story of its adventures:
"He did not keep me waiting very long. In a few weeks he had thoroughly analysed my production, and with infinite labour and care had gone through it. He made some useful and acceptable suggestions, and then strongly recommended it for publication. For some time the matter remained under consideration, but in July, 1897, the Directors decided against the book.
"In the disappointment of the moment, my chief desire, when the MS. had been deposited once more at my door, was to hide the accursed thing from sight. Luckily it was too big for consumption in an ordinary fireplace, or it would certainly have perished by fire. It was stacked away in a dark lumber cupboard, and there it survived several spring cleanings. I had almost forgotten it when, on August 14th, 1905, a letter came to me from an old friend, Mr. Arthur Spurgeon, who had recently been appointed to take control of the House of Cassell, telling me that he wanted a Book of Quotations and had been informed that I had offered such a work to the House some years before. On making inquiries, I ultimately discovered that Mr. Sam H. Hamer, a member of the staff, had written to Mr. Manson, who had retired from the House, to know if he would care to undertake a Dictionary of Quotations. Mr. Manson declined, but added that if the House meant business he could tell them where to get the best book of the kind ever compiled, practically ready for press. He referred them to his report, which was found. I was then requested to submit my work, which was in due time accepted, and published in 1907. One of the first letters of congratulation which I received on the appearance of the book was from Mr. Manson, in which he eloquently expressed his pleasure that my 'unconquerable zeal and heroic devotion had at last been fully recognized.' The book was a costly production, but the House has had no cause to regret the decisive action of its General Manager."Mr. Gurney Benham has followed his "Book of Quotations" with "Cassell's Classified Quotations," issued early in 1921.
From the time when "Picturesque Europe" was sumptuously begun and carried out in 1876, the Cassell catalogue has contained many important topographical works. The "Picturesque" series, describing in turn Europe, America, Canada, the Mediterranean, and Australia, employed many famous artists, writers, and travellers, and was on a high level of illustration and production.
"Picturesque Australasia," begun in 1888, was smaller in format, less sumptuous in style and less exclusively scenic in character than the other works; it was not, indeed, regarded as belonging to the series. Scenery, however, received due attention, and artists were sent out to provide drawings. The editor was the late Prof. E. E. Morris, of Melbourne University, a brother of Sir Malcolm Morris. His numerous contributions were among the best in the work, but he was ably supported by a large band of the most graphic writers on Australasia, among them Mary Gaunt, who has since won fame as author and traveller. The work was a mine of valuable information bearing upon Australasia, past and present, and deserved more than the moderate measure of success which it realized.
"Countries of the World," "The Story of Africa and its Explorers," and "Cities of the World," may be bracketed with "Picturesque Australasia" rather than with the "Picturesque Europe" series in that they relied for interest at least as much upon the text as upon the illustrations. The first and second were the work of Dr. Robert Brown, whose name appears among the contributors to "The Picturesque Mediterranean"; the third, in four volumes, was written by Edwin Hodder, afterwards the authorized biographer of the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury. In this group of books may be placed "Egypt: Descriptive, Historical and Picturesque," translated from the German of Ebers by Clara Bell, with notes by Dr. Samuel Birch, of the British Museum. It was embellished with reduplications of the original illustrations, and made a very handsome volume.
The "Old and New" series of volumes started gallantly with "Old and New London," in 1872. The commission was undertaken by Walter Thornbury, whose writing was so execrable that the compositors successfully demanded "time and a half" for setting the MS. In another sense his writing, for a popular work, left little cause for complaint: it was lively and graphic and epigrammatic. His health broke down when he had done only two out of the six volumes, and the narrative was finished by Edward Walford, whose elegant and leisurely style blended but ill with his predecessor's. As soon as Walford had completed this task he set to work upon "Greater London," which was well received. In 1909 the House published "London Town, Past and Present," from the pen of W. W. Hutchings, who had edited the later editions of Thornbury and Walford's works.
As a pendant to "Old and New London" may be mentioned "Living London," the idea of which was conceived by the late Ernest Foster. Mr. G. R. Sims was invited to edit the book, and no better choice could have been made, for he had an unrivalled acquaintance with bizarre, out-of-the-way phases of London, and he knew the best writers to choose for a set of vivid sketches of contemporary London life. It ran to three volumes, was lavishly illustrated from drawings by a large staff of artists and from original photographs, and enjoyed a large sale.
Naturally, the topography of the United Kingdom as a whole received attention. "Our Own Country" was begun as a serial, freely illustrated with engravings, in 1878. The chief contributor was Prof. Bonney, who was also the editor of and a leading contributor to "Cathedrals, Abbeys and Churches of England and Wales," finding in writing such as this a pleasant relief from his more exacting work as a professor of science.
"Our Own Country" contained much descriptive and historical matter of more than fugitive value, and it went through many editions. At last, in 1904, it was superseded by "The British Isles," an entirely new work, lavishly illustrated from photographs. This opened with an eloquent Introduction from a virile pen which failed to make its due impression upon an otherwise appreciative subscriber, who wrote to the editor to say that he was particularly delighted with the introductory article, and was sure, from the charming sentiment that pervaded it, that the writer was a lady! "Rivers of Great Britain" was another considerable topographical work, in three volumes, one dealing with the rivers of the East Coast, another with those of the South and West Coasts, and the third with the Thames, "the royal river." Another group of topographical works consisted of large full-page photographic reproductions, with explanatory text in the legend. They included "The Queen's London," "The Queen's Empire," already mentioned in connexion with H. O. Arnold-Forster, and "Pictorial England and Wales." With them may be included a work by a very expert amateur photographer who was fortunate in his opportunities; it was published under the title of "Sir Benjamin Stone's Pictures: Records of National Life and History," in two volumes, one devoted to festivals, ceremonies and customs, the other to Parliamentary scenes and portraits. These works also were very popular.
The "Illustrated History of England," of which something has been said already, was the first of many histories published at La Belle Sauvage. Several of them were from the pen of Edmund Ollier, who may be said to have been born into the literary life, for he was the son of Charles Ollier, well known in his day as a publisher and romance writer, and it is recorded of him that "he beheld Charles Lamb with infantile eyes and sat in poor Mary Lamb's lap." He was a man of considerable attainments, and though it cannot be claimed for him that he did original work in history, he knew to what sources to go for his material. The first piece of work he did for the House was to write a memoir of Gustave Doré for the "Doré Gallery." His historical work began with a "History of the War between France and Germany." A "History of the United States" followed in 1874–77, a "History of the Russo-Turkish War," and a "Universal History", and at the time of his death, in 1886, he was engaged upon the "Life and Times of Queen Victoria," of which he had written the first eleven chapters.
This work, published 1886–88, was concluded by the late Robert Wilson, a clever journalist who had been a god-sent assistant to Henry Kingsley when the novelist was vainly endeavouring to edit the Edinburgh Daily Review. Wilson attracted widespread attention by a powerful memoir of Sir James Young Simpson, of chloroform fame, which appeared as an obituary notice in that paper. Shortly afterwards he was invited to London by the Daily Telegraph with a view to becoming a leader-writer. He used to relate how, as a test, he was given a Government Blue Book issued that morning, and told to write a leader on it there and then in Peterborough Court. It was a simple thing to him. Wilson had already done some work for Cassell's. He had revised Louis Figuier's book on the Human Race, and later he edited "Great Industries of Great Britain," securing an unusually fine staff of writers, amongst them Dr. Rabagliati, of Bradford; James Henderson, afterwards Chief Inspector of Factories; W. D. Scott-Moncrieff, the inventor; A. E. Fletcher, who became editor of the Daily Chronicle; John Forbes-Robertson, the art critic and father of the famous actor; and Robert Smiles, brother of "Self Help" Smiles.
When Ollier died, no copy for his "Queen Victoria" had been accumulated, and it was essential to keep faith with the public. Wilson accepted the job of completing the book, and did it with all the facility of the ready journalist. Wilson was a hard worker and a great talker. He had no small change of conversation, but a Scotch passion for debating first principles which he fed even after a long night's newspaper work, if he could get any-body to listen to him, till dawn. He passed from the Daily Telegraph to the Standard, and thence to the Daily Chronicle, where his old associate Fletcher was now installed.
Another writer who did good service in this branch of the firm's activities was James Grant, most prolific as a romance writer as well as a writer of history. He was proud of his Jacobite sympathies, as he was of his blood relationship, through his mother, with Sir Walter Scott. Besides having held a commission in the 62nd Regiment for three years, he had studied military science, and was therefore able to speak with some knowledge on disputable questions in "British Battles on Land and Sea," published in 1873, and in the continuation of that work, "Recent British Battles on Land and Sea," published in 1884. In the interval between the two works he had written the "Illustrated History of India," and afterwards in 1880 came "Old and New Edinburgh." In spite of his enormous productivity—he wrote as many as fifty-six romances and novels besides a large quantity of miscellaneous literature—he died penniless.
In 1895 the war books were continued by "Battles of the Nineteenth Century," the work of a large band of contributors assembled by the office editor, Frederic Whyte, prominent among them being Archibald Forbes, G. A. Henty, Major-General Bland Strange, Colonel W. W. Knollys, Major Arthur Griffiths, Captain W. V. Herbert, of Plevna fame, D. H. Parry, and E. H. Knight. A vivid description of the defence of Rorke's Drift was contributed over the pseudonym C. Stein by the late Major-General Sir J. Cecil Russell, who had been attached to Lord Chelmsford's relieving force. In 1915 Sir Evelyn Wood undertook the editorship of a new edition of "British Battles on Land and Sea," and threw himself into the task with a zest and energy amazing in a veteran of seventy-seven.
Perhaps the most notable of the historical works produced at La Belle Sauvage was "Social England," of which the first edition appeared in six volumes in 1894–7. According to Mr. J. S. Mann, who took a leading part in the shaping and execution of the scheme, the idea originated with Sir Wemyss Reid about the end of 1890, and was suggested by the success of J. R. Green's History. It was felt from the first that it could only be carried out by the co-operation of many contributors, and H. D. Traill was invited by John Williams to take the editorship. Mr. Mann had recently given up a college lectureship at Oxford and was regularly writing for the Speaker. In February, 1891, he joined Cassell's staff, and was asked to help in producing the book.
"With the rarest exceptions, the contributors took the utmost trouble to meet our views, and I cannot be too grateful to them for their cordial and helpful co-operation. Many of them helped us in other ways, by suggesting subjects and writers on them, and other historical scholars, who did not themselves contribute, gave most valuable aid and advice. Still, we had some rather odd difficulties. Uniformity in the spelling of names was one; again, modern political controversies intruded themselves into early history. Welsh Disestablishment somehow got mixed up with the question of the primitive inhabitants of Wales; sharp divergences of views appeared as to the origin of the English and Germanic land systems; while of the religious history of the seventeenth century we despaired of getting an impartial account, so we got a Churchman and a Nonconformist to write, each from his own standpoint.
"After the book was published, the first volume was partly rewritten, as some sections of it proved to be more 'popular' and a good deal less accurate than the rest. Mr. Traill was consulted about all arrangements, and wrote the Introduction and some admirable sections on nineteenth-century literature, and I could not have wished for a better or pleasanter chief; but my connexion with Oxford enabled me to find most of the contributors, and the arrangement of the book and the details of the editing fell to my share.
"'Social England' was generally well received, and has, I have been told, proved decidedly valuable at Oxford and elsewhere, especially in suggesting new points of view and collecting information only available otherwise to those having access to large libraries. It is a history of conditions rather than of events and persons, and of society rather than politics.
"About 1898, after the book was completed, Messrs. Cassell decided to illustrate it, and asked me to superintend and re-edit the new issue. At the same time parts of it were revised or rewritten. For the first two and a half volumes we had expert aid, but later this became unnecessary. Every illustration was selected to emphasize some passage of the text—though occasionally a passage was added to give occasion for a very telling illustration—and fanciful illustrations were, very properly, rigorously ruled out by the Publishers. The wealth of material available surprised even experts, but I believe I have about three or four times as much in my old notebooks unused. Practically everyone asked was most helpful, and I do not recollect more than three or four refusals.
"When I began looking for illustrations. Sir E. Maunde Thompson significantly remarked to me that 'there were pitfalls.' There were; though we tumbled into some of them, we usually managed, with expert help, to scramble out before publication, and I cannot be too grateful to a number of people, especially the officials of the British Museum, and above all the late Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson, Bodley's Librarian, for the trouble they took to ensure that our selection and descriptions should be correct."
For the illustrated edition of "Social England," published in 1901–4, the work was reset in a larger page, but the number of volumes was six, as before. It was illustrated in colour, as well as in black and white, and was as sumptuous in style as it was valuable historically.
Another historical work of the 'nineties was Dean Spence's "History of the Church of England." This also was illustrated in part from original sources, and on a lavish scale, but the text, it must be conceded, lacked attractiveness, and the work was only a partial success.
In the previous decade the House had published, in three volumes, Charles Alan Fyffe's "History of Modern Europe," which at once gave its author a high place among living historians. The work, based on original research and moulded by much reflection, was produced slowly, and when, in fulfilment of promise, Fyffe would bring John Williams an instalment of "copy" it was often of comically small dimensions. But if rallied upon his slow output he was well able to take care of himself, and his glancing ripostes are still remembered with delight by one who was present at the interviews. The first of the three volumes appeared in 1880 and the last in 1890. Not long afterwards, under a terrible stress to which he was exposed, Fyffe's health broke down, and he died in 1892.
In more recent days the largest historical work undertaken by the House was H. G. Wells's "Outline of History." In this book the most versatile writer of his time broke new literary ground for himself and put forward a new philosophy of history which originated much piquant controversy.
Among other history books a word may be said about the "History of Music," started in 1881 as a serial. It was a translation, by Ferdinand Praeger, one of Wagner's intimates and biographers, of a learned Work by Emil Naumann, and was edited by Rev. Sir F. A. Gore Ouseley, who added to it much valuable matter on the history of English music. The success of the book was hindered by the irregularity with which the Parts appeared, owing to delay in the production of the original. A frequent visitor to the room of John Williams (who, being keenly interested in the subject, himself took charge of the work), Praeger showed himself to be a man of the sunniest disposition, whose temper was proof against all irritations.
The future historian of the last quarter of the nineteenth century will find memoirs pour servir in Sir Henry Lucy's "Diaries" of the Disraeli, Gladstone, Salisbury, and Home Rule Parliaments, which were published 1874–96. He will have to go for his material to many sources less entertaining than those witty and graphic chronicles.
As a pendant to historical works may be named a few notable works on sociology and political geography. Pride of place must be given to Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace's "Russia," of which the first edition dates from 1877. As originally written, it was not on lines that promised success, and it owes something to the insight of Teignmouth Shore, from whose suggestions many authors were glad to profit.
Sir Donald's relations with the House of Cassell began accidentally. He relates the circumstances thus:
"Much disappointed with this unsuccessful result of my prolonged labours, I determined to condense what seemed to me the most valuable portion of my big manuscript into a small volume for private circulation. While engaged on this condensation, I received one day a visit from an old friend, Mr. Ralston, of the British Museum, who was known as a writer on Russian folklore and Turgenief's novels. He had been invited, he said, by Messrs. Cassell to write a popular book on Russia, but he felt that I was much more competent for such a task, and he had spoken in this sense to Mr. Teignmouth Shore. That gentleman, he added, wished to see me, and I consented to call on him without delay.
"At first the interview was very unpromising, because what was wanted by the firm was a thoroughly popular book, and that was not at all the sort of book I wished to publish. At considerable length he explained to me that when the public are invited to a banquet the viands must be cooked to suit the tastes of the guests. Such arguments had very little effect upon me for some time, but I gradually succumbed. 'If,' I rather vainly argued in my mind, 'this gentleman imagines that my reluctance to follow his advice proceeds from inability on my part to write in a popular style, I will show him he is wrong!' Thereupon, influenced more by egotism of youth than by sound reasoning, I gradually capitulated, and before leaving the room I had undertaken to write an instructive work on Russia, in popular form, within the short space of three months.
"I fulfilled my engagement, and in the first two days of January, 1877, 'Russia' appeared in two stout volumes. Its immediate success was largely due to the fact that at that moment the Tsar was on the eve of going to war with Turkey, and the European public followed with intense interest the development and results of the struggle. In the course of a few months the two volumes were translated into half a dozen European languages—French, German, Swedish, Danish, Hungarian, Russian, Croatian—and afterwards into Finnish, Turkish, Persian, Hindustani, Bengali, and Gurmukhi. How many editions and reprints were issued in England and America I do not know, but I have been assured that the publishers have no reason to complain."
They have not. The work, it may be added, thoroughly brought up to date only two years before the outbreak of the war, will be invaluable to future historians as a description of the social and political life of Russia just prior to the great upheaval which destroyed the system it describes.
Teignmouth Shore had a good deal to do also with another book on Russia, Colonel Burnaby's "Ride to Khiva," as he records in his "Recollections." "I was dining one evening," he writes, "at Albany Street Barracks with my friend Captain Fred Burnaby, of the Royal Horse Guards. He had just returned from an adventurous tour in Russia, which afterwards became famous as 'A Ride to Khiva.' He told me some of the incidents of it, and I suggested that he should write a full account of his adventures. His only objection was that he was not an author. I begged him not to aim at authorship as if it were some sort of profession, but just write down, in the simple way in which he had repeated it to me, a description of his tour; and I offered to guarantee his work being accepted by Cassell's. He did so, and it proved one of the popular and successful books of the day." It was published in 1876 at a guinea, ran through seven "editions" in twelve months, and has been on sale at various prices ever since. There is still a demand for the adventurous recital. Yet another book which made a good deal of stir at the time of its appearance was W. T. Stead's "Truth about Russia." That so enthusiastic a democrat should play the part of interpreter of the Autocrat of All the Russias to the Western world was a circumstance of some piquancy, which, added to a fervid and picturesque style, gave the book considerable vogue.
Of the thousands of articles about travel in different parts of the world which have flowed from Sir John Foster Fraser's graphic pen, the first was published in one of Cassell's periodicals. After he had been vagabonding along the shores of the Mediterranean for six months, some twenty years ago, he returned to England with a bag full of articles and photographs. At once he started "pitching them at the heads of editors of magazines," as he himself has described the operation. The first to accept any of them was the late Holderness Gale. About this time Sir Henry Lunn was starting a little magazine called Travel, and asked Gale if he knew any writers who could supply him with suitable articles. Gale recommended Foster Fraser, who in consequence was invited to become a contributor. Out of that relationship grew the scheme for a bicycle ride round the world, and thus "F. F." became a world-wanderer. The earliest record of these journeys to be published by Cassell's was "The Real Siberia," a book which took the public fancy from the start, and has passed through a number of editions. It has been followed by many others. With the exception of the first two, all Foster Fraser's books, indeed, have been published by the House." The relationship between the firm and myself," he once said, "has been cemented because I have the highest regard for the managing director, Sir Arthur Spurgeon, whom I look upon as the finest organizer in London."
Among other books on Russia which have been produced at La Belle Sauvage are Stephen Graham's "Russia and the World," which appeared first in 1915, and soon went into a popular edition. To this have been added, from the same pen, "Through Russian Central Asia" and "Russia in 1916." Another book which proved a great success was Mrs. Philip Snowden's "Through Bolshevik Russia," issued in 1920.
"The New Far East," by Arthur Diósy, published in 1898, was the result of a proposal from the House. It was thought that one who could lecture so entertainingly on Japan ought to be able to write a popular book on the subject. This confidence was not misplaced. The book made delightful reading, and its attractiveness was enhanced by the charming illustrations with which the Japanese artist, Kubuta Beisen, embellished its pages. But the book was as accurate as it was graphic. When Mr. Diósy visited the Far East, shortly after the volume appeared, he carefully went over each chapter with the highest native authorities on the various subjects, and he found, as he playfully boasts, that it was not necessary to alter a single comma! Some critics, it is true, disliked his views and many questioned his prophecies, but the prophecies were soon fulfilled, and on all hands the book was regarded as a valuable contribution to our knowledge of China, Korea and Japan. Another valuable book on the island nation was "Everyday Japan," written by Arthur Lloyd, after twenty-five years' life and work in that country, with an Introduction by Count Hayashi, a former Japanese Ambassador in London. It went into a popular edition in 1911.
The last of the representative books of this section which need be mentioned is "Women of All Nations," by T. Athol Joyce and N. W. Thomas, profusely illustrated from photographs and from colour plates by Norman Hardy. Published in 1908–9, it was one of the first of the more important serials to be launched by the House under the new management.
Turning to biography, the House published in 1879 a "Life of William Ewart Gladstone," by G. Barnett Smith. The author had put plenty of industry into his task, but the book, it must be allowed, lacked spirit. It was, however, sufficiently well received to justify the publishers in issuing an enlarged edition serially a few years later. After Gladstone's death a much more readable biography, edited by Sir Wemyss Reid, was published. It was the work of many pens, but the purely biographical chapters were brightly written by F. W. Hirst, then at the beginning of his career as publicist and economist.
It was not without fitness that the House of Cassell should produce the authorized Life of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, for Shaftesbury was for many years a sympathetic observer of its operations. The book, in three large volumes, was written by Edwin Hodder, a Civil Servant who had done a good deal of literary work for Cassell's, including "Conquests of the Cross," a serial which told the story of missionary operations, and "Cities of the World." The Shaftesbury appeared first in 1886, and later there was a condensed edition in one volume.
The story of Charles Lowe's biography of Bismarck is curious. His association with Cassell's began in 1878, and came about through his friendship with Robert Wilson. Mr. Lowe was then a sub-editor of the Times, and Wilson, an old Edinburgh fellow-student, would go to gossip with him over a pipe in his chambers in the Temple.
"That was shortly before Christmas, 1878, about the time of the death of the Queen's second daughter, Princess Alice of Hesse; and fifteen months later, in March, 1880, I was instructed by my editor to proceed to Darmstadt and send him a special account of the confirmation of the widowed Grand Duke's two eldest daughters—Victoria and Elizabeth, one of whom was afterwards to marry her cousin, Prince Louis of Battenberg, and the other the Grand Duke Sergius of Russia. Queen Victoria herself, with the Prince and Princess of Wales, was to be present at the ceremony, and the Times wanted to have a special account of the whole affair. So off I started from Berlin, and reached Darmstadt just in time to join the four o'clock table-d'hôte dinner at the sleepy little old 'Traube' (Grape) inn, opposite the Schloss.
"On the doorstep of the inn my heart warmed at the sight of a figure who wore the garb of an English clergyman, while I could note that he, too, eyed me with evident curiosity. I concluded that he must be there in some official capacity, and that he might perhaps be useful to me in the execution of my mission. What was my delight to find myself placed beside this interesting cleric at the dinner-table!
"A newspaper correspondent can never afford to stand on ceremony with the people he comes across, and so we had hardly finished our soup before I had revealed my professional identity to my neighbour. He reciprocated by disclosing himself to be the Rev. T. Teignmouth Shore, of Berkeley Chapel, Mayfair, who had been religious instructor of the children of the Prince and Princess of Wales. It was through his Marlborough House connexion that he had become favourably known at Darmstadt, and thus received a special invitation to the ceremony which I had been sent to describe. That was how I met my literary fate at the table-d'hôte of the 'Traube,' where, in addition to being an orthodox theologian, my new clerical friend soon showed himself to be an excellent judge of Rhenish.
"After that we continued to correspond; and that same autumn—being most intelligently interested in military matters, more so than any man of his cloth I ever met—Mr. Shore came to Berlin, and accompanied me to the Army manœuvres. Soon after returning to London he wrote to me on behalf of Cassell's, asking whether I would undertake for them a work about Germany, similar to that of Mackenzie Wallace on Russia. I suppose I must have demurred to the proposal, as being less congenial to me than a regular Life of Bismarck, which I was already meditating. Anyhow, after some little correspondence my counter-suggestion was adopted, and before the year was out I had signed an agreement to write a biography of Prince Bismarck in one volume (demy octavo) of not less than 500 pages, for which I was to receive the handsome honorarium of £500, or £1 per page of about 300 words.
"One clause in our agreement stipulated that the complete manuscript was to be delivered not later than 31st December, 1881, or, in other words, within a year. But I found it quite impossible to do this, and it was not until the end of 1885 that my work was published. By this time the scope of the thing had expanded from one volume of 500 pages to two volumes, each of 640 pages—and all because, while content to let my fee remain as at first agreed, I had been bitten by the ambition, wise or unwise, to complete the work on the scale which the importance of its theme seemed to demand.
"Soon after I had severed my connexion with the Times (in 1891) and settled down in London, Archibald Forbes did me the honour of recommending me as a desirable contributor to 'Battles of the Nineteenth Century,' for which he himself wrote some noteworthy articles, and that was how I came to resume my relations with the great publishing house which had been the first to employ my humble pen."
Mr. Lowe's reference to Archibald Forbes recalls the fact that the prince of war correspondents not only contributed to "Battles of the Nineteenth Century" but wrote for the House a "Life of William of Germany" (the first Emperor), published in 1888, and afterwards a "History of the Black Watch" (1896). He was often at the Yard in those days, and always ready, in scrupulously chosen and precisely enunciated words, to draw upon his remarkable store of reminiscences.
The year 1890 was rendered memorable by the publication of the famous "Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff," translated by Mathilde Blind. This extraordinary piece of self-revelation, of which many a reader must have been reminded by Barbellion's "Journal of a Disappointed Man," soon went into a popular edition.
Early in the 'nineties was published, in two series, each consisting of two volumes, "The Diplomatic Reminiscences of Lord Augustus Loftus," which the House had induced him to write. The author was, so to speak, born into the diplomatic service. While the Court was at Brighton during the winter of 1835–36 he was presented to William IV., his mother being Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Adelaide. "To my great consternation," he writes, "I was invited with my parents, on two occasions, to dine at the Pavilion, and at the age of eighteen it is permitted for an Irishman to feel shy and nervous. On the first occasion I was summoned after dinner to approach the King, when his Majesty, with that genial kindness which was his nature, and which completely put me at my ease, asked me what profession I was destined for. I replied that I hoped to serve his Majesty in the Diplomatic Service; to which the King replied good-naturedly: 'And so you shall, my boy, and I will look after you.' These royal words, also kindly spoken, were most encouraging, and they inspired me with hope and gratitude."
To the 'nineties belong also George Augustus Sala's "Life and Adventures," written by himself. Sir Richard Temple's "Story of my Life," and Moncure D. Conway's "Autobiography." The last of these works, written by the most tender-hearted of iconoclasts, is full of generous sentiment most gracefully expressed, and abounds in appreciations of famous men on both sides of the Atlantic. It is strange that it should have been not even a moderate success.
Early in the next decade appeared the autobiography of Major Arthur Griffiths, a charming and many-sided man who had had a career in the Army, had then become Prison Governor, afterwards an Inspector of Prisons, and finally a journalist and author. From his long connexion with prisons he was an expert criminologist, but he was not lacking in humanity, and to him a criminal was something more than a mere "specimen," created in order to be dissected, classified and punished. His experiences in many parts of the world had furnished him with a store of piquant memories. One of the incidents he was fond of narrating illustrated the peculiarities of dialect which he came across in his dealings with convicts. At Wakefield a prisoner complained to him of the severity of his sentence, and on hearing from the man that the term was twelve or eighteen months for "insulting" a policeman, Griffiths was inclined to agree with him. "What did you say to the policeman?" he asked. "I said nowt," was the reply; "I knocked him down wi' a bit o' iron."
In 1898 the House published Griffiths's "Mysteries of Police and Crime," in which he told over again many stories of famous crimes. The book was afterwards issued serially, and altogether went through four editions. But it did not bring unmixed gratification to its author, for it led to an action for libel, in which the publishers were joined with him as defendants. The action failed, and a new serial issue of the incriminated work was at once begun.
More recent biographical books have included the Life of Charles Stewart Parnell, by his widow, Mr. Beckles Willson's Life of Lord Strathcona", and Sir George Forrest's "Lord Roberts." The late Sir Evelyn Wood's delightful memoirs have been published under the title of "Winnowed Memories." Sir George Reid's "Reminiscences" and von Hindenburg's "Out of My Life" were two notable volumes of political and military experience and adventure. The connexion of the House with Napoleon III, previously mentioned, is recalled by the publication of M. Augustin Filon's "Recollections of the Empress Eugénie."
Among the groups of books touched upon in this chapter none has been more successful or has won greater distinction than those issued from the medical books department. The publication of medical books by the House began in the 'seventies, but the organization of the department on its present basis dates from the early years of the next decade, when, in succession to Dr. Sidney Ringer, Mr. Malcolm Morris, who had not long entered upon his career as a dermatologist, was appointed medical editor, an office which he still fills, with the added authority of a seat on the Board of Directors. Cassell's Medical Catalogue is sufficient proof of the acumen and sound judgment which the new medical editor brought to his task. Here we see the titles of many books that have long taken their place as medical classics. At the present time, including Sir Malcolm Morris himself, who received his K.C.V.O. in 1908, the Medical List contains the names of no fewer than fifteen authors upon whom titular honours have been conferred, and in almost every instance their inclusion in this company of authors long preceded the official recognition of their claims to special distinction. One of the first to join the band was Mr. Frederick Treves. The most monumental of the medical works with which this great surgeon's name has been associated is the "System of Surgery," which he edited, and to which he was one of the chief contributors. Since Sir Frederick Treves, still in the prime of his powers, retired from active professional work, this "System" has been replaced by another, of which the general editor is Mr. C. C. Choyce, and the pathological editor. Prof. Martin Beattie. It is significant of the extraordinary development which surgery, both as a science and as an art, has undergone during the last twenty years that while two volumes were found sufficient for the earlier work, three volumes were required for the later one. Sir Frederick Treves's name still appears in the Medical Catalogue as the author of two books, of the earlier of which some sixty thousand copies have been sold. In the General Catalogue of the House will be found the titles of some of the highly successful works that have beguiled such leisure as is left to him by the public work to which, since his retirement, he has devoted himself in connexion with the reorganization of the nation's ambulance services, and in other directions. The literary skill which gave distinction to such works as "The Land of 'The Ring and the Book'" and "The Riviera of the Corniche Road" was no surprise to those who were familiar with his medical books, in which there is a happy mingling of conciseness, lucidity and grace.
Another great name that until recently shed lustre upon the Medical Catalogue was that of the late Sir Jonathan Hutchinson, whose fruitful work in many fields of medicine won for him enduring renown. Yet other notable names in the Catalogue are those of Sir Patrick Manson, the veteran authority on tropical medicine; Sir Henry Morris, sometime President of the Royal College of Surgeons; Sir George Newman and Sir Arthur Whitelegge, eminent for the service they have done the State in hygiene and public health; Sir George Savage, the alienist; Sir John Bland-Sutton, a leading authority on tumours; Sir Alfred Pearce Gould, Dr. Mitchell Bruce, Dr. William Hunter, Dr. Robert Hutchison, and Dr. Luff. More recent additions are the names of Lord Dawson of Penn, the first practising physician to be made a peer; Sir StClair Thomson, Sir Robert Jones, Dr. Raymond Crawfurd, Professor Dreyer, of Oxford, Professor Sir Arthur Keith, and Sir John Thomson Walker, among others.
In catering for medical men the House has not forgotten the claims of their loyal helpers, the nurses. Besides publishing many separate books on nursing subjects it has produced for the Waverley Book Company, under the title of "The Science and Art of Nursing," the only encyclopaedia for nurses ever issued, written by medical men and a large staff of nurses.
The well-known Manuals of the British Red Cross Society may be regarded as occupying a position midway between Cassell's medical works and those which make their appeal to the general public. Of these Manuals, four by medical authors have now been published; three of them, the First Aid, Nursing and Training Manuals, are from the pen of Sir James Canthe, the fourth, on Hygiene and Sanitation, is the work of Major-General Guise Moores, of the A.M.S. The British Red Cross Society, which now works in alliance with the St. John Ambulance Association, was inaugurated under Royal auspices in 190."), and it was to facilitate the training of its members in ambulance work, nursing, sanitation, etc., that the Society promoted these Manuals, of which hundreds of thousands of copies have been sold. The demand for them during the War was unprecedented in the history of such manuals.
The House has always had in its list a number of books that aim at the dissemination of hygienic knowledge. So long ago as 1883 it published two large volumes that come into this category—one "The Book of Health," edited by Sir Malcolm Morris, the other "Our Homes and How to Make Them Healthy," of which the editor was Mr. (now Sir) Shirley Murphy, at that time Medical Officer of Health for St. Pancras, afterwards for many years Medical Officer of Health for the London County Council. Contributors whose co-operation was enlisted included some of the most eminent medical men and civil engineers of the day, and both books made their mark. In the 'nineties the House published Sir John Simon's "English Sanitary Institutions," one of the classics of Public Health literature. Of late years it has helped to give publicity to the revelations and recommendations of the Royal Commission on Venereal Diseases, by issuing a book entitled "The Nation's Health: The Stamping Out of Venereal Disease," from the pen of Sir Malcolm Morris, who served on the Commission. Since then it has launched the English Public Health Series, edited by Sir Malcolm, who is the author of the introductory volume, "The Story of English Public Health," which sketches the evolution of our Public Health Service from its beginnings down to the creation of the Ministry of Health. Other notable works in the category of popular hygiene are Dr. Ballantyne's "Expectant Motherhood" and Dr. Woods Hutchinson's "Doctor in War," an animated account of the achievements of medical organization and surgical skill in the great conflict.
Not the least eminent of the social services rendered by the House of Cassell has been the popularization of science. Early in the 'seventies it secured the aid of one who, to a very wide knowledge of science, added a great gift of lucid exposition. He was known as Robert Brown, of Campster, in Caithness, to distinguish him from the earlier Robert Brown, the botanist. Born in 1842, he had a distinguished career in Edinburgh University, and ultimately devoted himself particularly to Botany, Geology, Zoology, and Geography in its widest sense. He carried out extensive explorations in Greenland and several of the Arctic islands, and was the first to point out the cause of the discoloration of the Arctic Ocean. He also conducted Government Expeditions into the unknown interior of Vancouver Island, and explored, at the hazard of his life, the primeval forest in vast regions of North-West America, now covered with thriving towns and villages. Brown Range, Mount Brown, and Brown's River in Vancouver Island, and the peninsula of Cape Brown in Spitzbergen perpetuate his name on the atlas. In 1870 the University of Rostock conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and Letters in recognition of his services to science and geography. Later in life Dr. Brown became one of the foremost authorities on Morocco, a country with which much travel had made him intimate, and his monograph on the subject, compiled in conjunction with Sir Lambert Playfair, is a lasting monument of his knowledge of the Moors and their land.
As an expositor, Robert Brown wielded the wand of an enchanter. The first of the great books which he wrote for the House was "Races of Mankind," in five volumes, afterwards expanded into "Peoples of the World." "Countries of the World" was published in 1876–81, "Science for All" in 1877–82, and "The Earth and its Story," based on Kirchhoff's "Allgemeine Erdkunde," in 1887–88. Mr. Thomas Seccombe, in his article on Dr. Brown in the "Dictionary of National Biography," justly says of these works that they "were commended in the Press, proved widely popular, and did much to disseminate the results of geographical science." Dr. Brown was also a spreader of the light through the daily Press, being on the staff of the Standard as a leader-writer. There can be little doubt that his life was cut short by his excessive industry. He died suddenly, in his fifty-fourth year, on October 26, 1895, and a leader which he had written the night before appeared in the Standard on that day. In private life he was one of the most charming of men. There was always a warm corner in his heart for those who had faced danger, and he was at his best when listening to other men's experiences and capping them with his own. He never paraded his erudition, and was essentially Bohemian, although a non-smoker and almost an abstainer.
With Robert Brown's books may be associated Professor Bonney's "Story of Our Planet," published first in 1893, to present to men and women of good general education, in terminology as little technical as possible, the conclusions of geology as to the processes by which the earth was built up into its present form. In the Preface the author gives a remarkable indication of his indebtedness to his favourite science. "The study of geology," he says, "has added much to the happiness of my own life; it has taught me to appreciate more fully the beauties and the marvels of Nature; it has often restored me, when weary and jaded, to bodily health; it has helped me in bearing those trials which are the common lot." The book was issued as a serial in 1897.
Another well-known man of science who did good work for Cassell's was Dr. Martin Duncan, appointed Professor of Geology at King's College in 1870 and afterwards at Cooper's Hill College. He was the editor of "Cassell's Natural History," first published in 1876–82, in six volumes, and contributed to it some of its most important sections. Like Robert Brown, he also was a tireless worker, and at his death had to his credit over a hundred scientific papers. A later writer on Natural History was Henry Scherren, who for many years was a member of the editorial staff. His "Popular Natural History" still appears in the Catalogue. He also wrote for the House a history of the Zoological Society of London, the first attempt to tell the story of that society at any length. Reference to Lewis Wright's "Illustrated Book of Poultry" and to similar works that followed in its train may be introduced here. Mr. Wright, who has been mentioned in connexion with the Live Stock Journal, joined the editorial staff in 1871 expressly to write this book, and remained a member of it until the end of the century. He was a man of vigorous mind, with a keen interest in philosophy and theology and politics, and, as his work in microscopy showed, an unusual capacity for mastering technicalities. For some years he was a reviewer for the Nonconformist, and in that capacity championed the theory of evolution in days when it had not yet found general acceptance. When the "Illustrated Book of Poultry" was published as a serial, in 1872, it had a very large sale. It confirmed its author's rank as one of the two leading authorities on poultry, the other being W. B. Tegetmeier, the ornithologist, who was for so many years on the Field. The book was revised and reissued many times during Lewis Wright's life, and since his death has been edited by Mr. S. H. Lewer. When its author's regular connexion with the House ceased, he became associated with his brother's firm, the well-known medical publishers at Bristol. A few years afterwards he met his death in an accident on the railway.
The success of the poultry book encouraged the production of other works on canaries and cage birds, in which Fulton and Lewer as well as Wright were concerned, and there were books on horses and dogs by S. Sidney and Vero Shaw, now replaced by the well-known works of Charles Richardson and Robert Leighton.
For books on wild flowers and garden flowers the House had the good fortune to find, in the late Professor Hulme, an author who was both botanist and artist, and took a genuine delight in communicating his knowledge to the public. The son of a landscape painter, he became Art Master at Marlborough College, and afterwards Professor of Geometrical Drawing at King's College, and held other art appointments. He was a lover of nature rather than a botanist in the scientific sense, and had accumulated large stores of plant folk-lore. He supplied beautiful drawings for the colour plates of his "Familiar Wild Flowers" and similar books. Professor Boulger was enlisted for a book on trees, and in later times the works of Professor Groom and Mrs. G. Clarke Nuttall in the same category were illustrated by the wonderful colour photographs of Mr. H. Essenhigh Corke.
But it is more than time to refer to the famous series of works by Richard and Cherry Kearton, who have achieved widespread fame by their nature studies of birds and beasts. Their books on bird-life are full of intimate observations of the habits of the feathered world, while the photographs are of the highest quality. Bird-life, as a study, was the "first love" of Richard Kearton, and he has never forgotten the fascination of winged life. In a communication he has been good enough to make he has recorded the beginning of his connexion with the House. "Through the kindness of Mr. Sidney Galpin," he says, "I obtained a berth on the staff of Cassell, Petter and Galpin in October, 1882. I came straight from a farm on the Yorkshire moors, and the manager of my department, J. H. Puttock, induced me to start writing on natural history subjects. My brother Cherry joined the staff of Cassell & Co. in the autumn of 1887. In April, 1892, I conceived the idea that natural history books required illustrating with greater care and fidelity. My brother purchased a cheap camera and commenced his photographic career on the 10th of that month, and our work, they say, has left its mark throughout the world."
Shortly before his death F. J. Cross, the successor of Puttock, recalled that Richard Kearton's first entrance into the field of literature was at the time Swaysland was preparing his book on Wild Birds and he has put the circumstances on record. The book was in charge of Lewis Wright, and one day he came on a voyage of discovery to the publicity region. He had heard of some young man who was an egg collector. It was Richard Kearton. Notes were wanted for the eggs which were to be the subjects of separate plates in Swaysland's book, and Kearton undertook the job, performing it, as he did all his work, with thoroughness.
The brothers had already begun to take photographs which were obviously of rare excellence. When Mr. Cross showed them to Sir Wemyss Reid he was fascinated by them. Richard had cherished very modest ideas, and would have been quite satisfied with a five-shilling or seven-and-sixpenny book. But the firm was convinced that they deserved a much better setting, and the rapid sale of the guinea book which was produced proved the firm to be right.
The life of Richard Kearton shows that things which seem disastrous may be just the reverse. His throat troubled him, and he was advised to see a physician, whose verdict was that he must leave London at once to dwell in purer air: there was no chance of a cure while he remained in the dusty City. That same day he left the office for his home in the Caterham Valley. Thus cut off from his daily work he began lecturing, and immediate success attended his efforts, while his books grew rapidly in popularity.
Cherry Kearton, without losing his interest in bird life, presently developed another ambition: he wanted to photograph big game. And before long he embarked upon that enterprise, and came back with an abundance of thrilling photographs to illustrate his adventures. Later, he journeyed across Africa on foot, from east to west, taking a number of unique camera pictures, which were published in a fascinating volume in 1915. A long succession of books written by one or other of the brothers—or both, in collaboration—has been issued from La Belle Sauvage Press, and some even of the earliest still command a steady sale.
Of works on Astronomy done at La Belle Sauvage the most popular have been those of the late Sir Robert Ball, Professor of Astronomy and Geometry in the University of Cambridge. The earliest of them was "The Story of the Heavens" (1886), a singularly lucid and entertaining exposition of the science which, of all sciences, is perhaps the most difficult to render intelligible to untrained minds. Ball's son and biographer, Mr. W. Valentine Ball, records that his earliest recollection of his father's literary life was of his lying at full length on the floor of his study writing this book; he was suffering from lumbago, and that was the only position in which he found it possible to write. The work made a great mark, and brought its author the warmest congratulations from brother astronomers such as Piazzi Smyth, at that time Astronomer-Royal. "The Story of the Sun" followed in 1893, and "The Earth's Beginning" in 1901. Between these two was interposed a smaller book, "Starland," a series of "talks for young people," which was read with delight by Mr. Gladstone, little as he was drawn to natural science. All these works were highly successful, and there is still a regular demand for the three larger ones. It was appropriate that Mr. Valentine Ball's Life of Sir Robert should be issued by the House which had published most of his works. Among the rough memoranda left by this most genial Irishman was found the injunction, "Try and give everything a kind twist!"
A work on one of the byways of astronomy, by an even more distinguished astronomer, was Sir Norman Lockyer's "Dawn of Astronomy," an ingenious study of the temple worship and mythology of the ancient Egyptians. It was written with admirable lucidity, and merited more success than it achieved.
To these notes on scientific publications may be added a few sentences about technical books. The first considerable work in this section to be issued by the House was a serial which bore the title of the "Technical Educator," first issued as "The Technical Series of 'Cassell's Popular Educator.'" The enormous success of the latter work obviously suggested a serial dealing with applied science. Among the contributors were men who afterwards rose to eminence—Professor A. H. Church, who wrote on such subjects as the chemistry of the fine arts; Professor Robert Ball, who expounded applied mechanics; Sir William White, whose subject was ship building; Professor Charles Cameron, Professor Delamotte, Philip Magnus, and T. C. Hepworth. The work found much favour, was several times re-issued, and only dropped out of the Catalogue a few years ago when technical subjects were dealt with in many separate volumes. The latest series of these separate books is that started by Mr. Bernard Jones, the editor of Work, early in the war, under the title of the "Amateur Mechanic." Both during the war and afterwards these volumes were found to meet one of the peculiar needs of the time. The dearth of workmen and the high cost of labour led to a demand by the householder for practical information on making, mending, decorating, and similar humdrum but necessary processes in which, before the war, he took but little interest. The "Amateur Mechanic" volumes met this want by means of lucid text and explanatory pictures, and so great was its success that it established what is probably a record in sales of works of this size and class.
The only other technical books which need be specifically noted are the large works on electricity. In its first form, "Electricity in the Service of Man" was a translation from the German, edited by Dr. Wormell, and was published in 1888. Of the work which now bears this title Dr. Walmsley is the author. "Practical Electricity" was the work of the late Professor Ayrton, to whom electricity is indebted for so many ingenious inventions. It would appear that his father, a considerable linguist, wished him to specialize in languages, and tried to get him to speak a different tongue (including Hebrew) on each day of the week. But the boy's bent towards science was not to be denied. Between 1887, when "Practical Electricity" first appeared, and 1908, when its author died, his book went through eleven editions. It was then committed to the charge of Professor Mather, whose name appears as joint author on the title-page of the later editions. "Electrical Engineering," from the pen of Harold H. Simmons, first appeared in volume form, in 1908, and afterwards serially. Revised and enlarged by Alfred H. Avery, it has recently been issued as a serial.
As we have seen, the House of Cassell in its early days was active in the production of religious books, publishing a large Illustrated Bible, a Doré Bible, an enormous work called "The Altar of the Household," still occasionally met with in cottage homes, and a reprint of Matthew Henry's "Commentary" in three ponderous tomes. It also issued a Bible Educator. In 1874 it produced Dr. Wylie's "History of Protestantism," written in an uncritical spirit but in a vivid, animated style which kept it in brisk demand for many years. But the firm's greatest success in this kind was secured with the books of the late Dean Farrar, beginning with the "Life of Christ." The origins of this work are told by Canon Teignmouth Shore in the book from which we have already quoted. "There was," he says, "a very feeble old book called 'The Life of Christ' which used to be sold by canvassers, who offered the work for sale at private houses. In 1873 Cassell & Co. suggested to me that a modern work on such a subject, written popularly by a real scholar, might be a success. I thought the matter over and came to the conclusion that there was an opening in this direction, and selected as the man to do it Dr. Alexander (afterwards the brilliant and revered Archbishop of Armagh). I entered into negotiations with him, having already been honoured with his friendship, and the matter was arranged. Shortly afterwards, however. Dr. Alexander was promoted to the bishopric of Derry, and felt it would be for many reasons impossible under the new circumstances for him to carry out such a task. I had again, therefore, to look around for an author, and I selected the Rev. F. W. Farrar, then an assistant master at Harrow. I spent more than one delightful day with him at Harrow discussing the matter, which was finally settled."
The book was seen through the press by John Williams, who found that his author had a schoolmaster's natural disinclination to be set right on the rare occasions when his scholarship limped. It appeared in volume form in 1874. The demand for it, both in this country and in America, was prodigious, and for months the printing presses at La Belle Sauvage could only with difficulty keep pace with it. Within a year twelve "editions," as they were then called, were exhausted, and when the first "run" upon the book had ceased it was still in such active demand that it had frequently to be reprinted. The "Life and Work of St. Paul" followed in 1879, and the series was completed by "The Early Days of Christianity," issued in 1882. The second of the three works also had an enormous sale, but the third was less successful, partly perhaps because the subject was less appealing, and partly because the author's style, under the stimulus of success, had become more and more flamboyant.
In 1890 Archdeacon Farrar, as he then was, in a paper read at the Church Congress on Commercial Morality made a reference to "sweating publishers, which was interpreted by many to be directed against the House of Cassell. It led to the appearance in the Times of October 8, 1890, of a letter from the House (it was written by Sir Wemyss Reid, who, however, had nothing to do with the making of the arrangements which he defended):
Sir Walter Besant, as chairman of the Society of Authors, entered into the correspondence and invited the Company to state what profit they had made out of the transactions. By other correspondents it was urged that this fact was irrelevant: the scheme had originated with the House, and had it resulted in a loss to them they would not have looked to the author to compensate them for their bad bargain. On October 10 Mr. Galpin, as the only surviving partner, invited Archdeacon Farrar, through the Times, to repeat to the world what he was reported to have alleged against the Company behind their backs. The appeal was not successful: all that the Archdeacon would say was that in his remarks at the Church Congress he had never dreamt of the most distant reference to himself or to them, and that he had never said anything of them which he had not said plainly to them. Repeating his appeal, Mr. Galpin asked the Archdeacon's permission to publish the letters which the latter had addressed to him personally from time to time. This request also was disregarded.
It has been necessary to take this brief notice of the correspondence lest it should be thought that the House has anything to regret in connexion with it, which is certainly not the fact. That it left no lasting ill-feeling on either side may be inferred from the fact that two years later an agreement was entered into of which the fruit was the publication, in 1900, of "The Life of Lives: Further Studies in the Life of Christ." This book was not a great success, nor, it may be admitted, did it deserve to be: probably it left most readers with the impression that in "The Life of Christ" the author had said virtually all that he had to say on the subject. Like "The Early Days of Christianity," it has now fallen out of publication, but the two earlier works are still on sale, each of them in several different forms. A smaller work of Farrar's, "The Three Homes," a "tale for fathers and sons," as the sub-title describes it, was originally published in 1873 under the pseudonym "F. T. L. Hope," which stood in the author's mind, as he long afterwards explained, for "Faintly Trust the Larger Hope." It was many times reprinted, and has only recently disappeared from the list. Yet another work from the same prolific pen was "My Object in Life," a volume in the dainty "Heart Chords" series, devised by Canon Teignmouth Shore, who himself wrote for it the volume on "Prayer."
Farrar's was not the only Life of Christ to be published by Cassel's. In 1884 Dr. Cunningham Geikie arranged with them to publish his "Life and Words of Christ" and other books, which up to that time had been in the hands of another house, and the work appeared as a serial as well as in volume form. In July, 1885, they commissioned him to visit the Holy Land and write for them "The Holy Land and the Bible," the MS. to be delivered by the beginning of 1887. Dr. Geikie was a rapid worker, and his MS. was ready by the time appointed, and the book was published in that year in two volumes, and was issued serially, with original illustrations, two years later. In both forms it did very well, remaining in publication until 1910.
Probably the most considerable enterprise of the House in religious books was the Commentaries upon the Old and New Testaments, edited by Dr. Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester, the learned Chairman of the Company of Revisers of the New Testament. Of this undertaking also Canon Shore has something to say. The Bishop, who was deep in his revision labours, confined his editing to reading the proofs, though this he did with punctilious care. "Professor Plumptre (afterwards Dean of Wells)," says the Canon, "was one of our ablest contributors ... but was given to introduce little pieces of criticism which rendered it necessary to be careful with his proofs. For example, when commentating on the passage 'Tell it to the Church,' he wrote as explanatory to it: 'i.e. Take the opinion of the general body of Christians on the subject—or as we should say nowadays. Write to the Times.' In sending the proof to the Bishop for his supervision I called his attention to this, and he wrote the following note: 'Perfectly true, but a little premature, and might be misunderstood.' I always aimed," Canon Shore adds, "at getting for such work 'coming' men, not men who had already 'come'; and thus succeeded in obtaining their best from my authors."
The Commentary on the New Testament appeared in 1878–9, in three volumes, that on the Old Testament in 1882–84, in five volumes, and a combined edition was published in 1897. An abridgment of the New Testament Commentary, in fourteen volumes, for use in schools, was issued in 1878–83.
In the 'eighties and 'nineties a good deal of attention was attracted by books written in defence of the literal accuracy, scientific and historical, of the Old Testament, by Dr. Samuel Kinns, and published on commission. Dr. Kinns, after carrying on a private school in North London for some thirty years, was ordained a priest of the Church of England in 1886. The first of his two books, "Moses and Geology," was in its twelfth thousand by 1891, when "Graven in the Rock," designed to prove the harmony between the Bible and Assyrian and Egyptian monuments, appeared. This book also had a large sale. Dr. Kinns had been industrious in beating up subscribers, and he showed immense industry also in the compilation of his books, especially "Graven in the Rock." While engaged upon it he is said to have spent six hours daily on five days in the week at the British Museum for the space of three years. His literary style was a marvel of discursiveness, and his books were pervaded from beginning to end by an entirely inoffensive egotism, which only brought into relief his enthusiastic belief in the theories he had espoused. Personally he was one of the most amiable of men, who probably never made an enemy. But the success of his books must be regarded as one of the curiosities of literature.
It is impossible to enumerate the art works produced at La Belle Sauvage, but in addition to those mentioned incidentally elsewhere two may be specified as representative, one of colour, the other of black-and-white reproduction—"The Water Colour Drawings of J. M. W. Turner" and "The National Gallery," edited by Sir E. J. Poynter. The former consisted of fifty-eight of Turner's subjects, with descriptive text by Theodore Andrea Cook; the latter contained a reproduction of every picture in the Gallery at Trafalgar Square and that at Millbank, two of the volumes being concerned with the Foreign Schools and the third with the British Schools. A numbered edition, published by arrangement with the Trustees, won unstinted admiration. As a pendant to this work appeared "The National Portrait Gallery," in two volumes, edited by Lionel Cust.
Lovers of porcelain have been delighted with exquisite reproductions of specimens of the ceramic art, such as Bahr's "Old Chinese Porcelain" and Hobson's "Chinese Pottery and Porcelain," the latter in two volumes, in a limited edition presently priced at £21.
Nor have those who want to be technically instructed in drawing and painting been overlooked. In the Catalogue appear MacWhirter's "Sketch Book" and his "Landscape Painting in Water Colours," Wyllie's "Wyllie|Sketch Book" and "Marine Painting in Water Colour," Sir Alfred East's "Art of Landscape Painting in Oil Colour," and the Hon. John Collier's "Art of Portrait Painting." The House, too, has been the medium of making Professor Duval's "Artistic Anatomy" available to English readers.
The books just named belong to the educational section, wherein are many works for schools, primary and secondary, among them Arnold-Forster's animated books, of which many hundreds of thousands of copies have been sold—his "Citizen Reader," his "Things New and Old," and his "History of England"; also expositions of hygiene for boys and girls, and delightful books on botany and nature study, including the well-known "Eyes and No Eyes" series, by Arabella Buckley (Mrs. Fisher). This gifted writer has explained how she came to undertake it. "In May, 1900," she writes, "Mr. Arnold-Forster wrote to me saying that the Education Department were going to make Nature Study a feature in the Board Schools, and that Cassell's wished to bring out at once six books on plants and animals suitable for the six school standards. I accepted the task for the love of the children, and it has been a great pleasure to me to find that it has done the work I hoped to accomplish. This was no doubt partly due to the beautiful illustrations produced by Mr. Muckley, with whom I had most pleasant relations."
There are few branches of publishing in which Cassell's have not engaged. They have produced books on Cookery and Household Management, among them the well-known works by Phyllis Browne and Lizzie Heritage; books on Nursing and Hygiene; books on Politics and Social Economics; books for boys and girls, including the adventure tales of Edward S. Ellis, the stories of Mrs. L. T. Meade, and the famous collection of songs by John Farmer; books on Sports and Pastimes, and also Guide-books. Among a multitude of books of this last genre is one that was notable from its authorship and character. This is how the House came to publish "The Governor's Guide to Windsor Castle," by the Marquis of Lorne, husband of Princess Louise, and presently ninth Duke of Argyll.
One day towards the latter end of 1894, when almost everyone was out at lunch, a clerk went to Mr. Manson's room at the Yard to say that a gentleman who called himself the Governor of Windsor Castle wished to see someone about a book. Manson did not know who was the Governor of the Castle, but asked the clerk to bring in the visitor. Thereupon he withdrew to the door and, going into the corridor, waved his hand, calling out, "Walk this way, sir." The Chief Editor noted that he was uncommonly like the Marquis of Lorne. However, they fell at once to business.
"If you will kindly run your eye through this book," Manson remarked, taking down Vol. I of Robert Wilson's "Life and Times of Queen Victoria" from a shelf, "you will see how well we could illustrate your book at small cost."
The visitor turned over the leaves and paused at the portrait of the eighth Duke of Argyll, remarking, "I see you have my father's portrait." That settled the question of the visitor's identity.
From the day the terms were settled the Marquis sent in his MS. at frequent intervals, sometimes from Windsor, at others from Osborne, or Kensington Palace, or Inveraray, or from an hotel en route to and from one of his numerous halting-places. It seemed as if he were obsessed by the work and could not rest until it was finished. He was most amenable to suggestions, and often adopted them when he would rather have followed his own bent. He was ever anxious to defer to the wishes of Queen Victoria. Manson remembered his answering some query in these terms: "I don't object to Henry VIII being called the Defender of the Faith, but I am sure the Queen would also not object to his being called the murderer of his wives!" His book has great literary charm, and faithfully reflects the simple and unassuming character of its author.
A brief paragraph may be added about War Books. Cassell's took more than a full share in ministering to the demand of the public for books relating to Armageddon. Just before the war broke out they had published a translation of von Bülow's "Imperial Germany," of which a new edition was issued in 1916, with a Foreword by J. W. Headlam that brought out the significance of the work in relation to the origins of the war. They also issued in 1918 a translation of Dr. Muehlon's Diary, in 1919 a translation of Count Czernin's "In the World War," and in 1920 translations of von Hindenburg's "Out of My Life" and of Admiral Scheer's "Germany's High Sea Fleet in the World War." Among the notable books by British protagonists are Viscount Jellicoe's "The Grand Fleet" and "The Crisis of the Naval War," Sir Frederick Maurice's "The Last Four Months," and Sir Douglas Brownrigg's "Indiscretions of the Naval Censor." Works by observers include Major Corbett Smith's "Retreat from Mons," "The Marne and After," etc., and, last but not least, "Sea Fights of the Great War," and "More Sea Fights of the Great War," depicted by the pencil of W. L. Wyllie, R.A., and described by M. F. Wren. Among books dealing with the causes and significance of the war are Viscount Haldane's "Before the War," H. G. Wells's "War and the Future," and Major Haldane Macfall's "Germany at Bay," besides several volumes from the pen of Princess Radziwill. "Mr. Punch's History of the Great War" stands by itself as an exposition of the humour and heroism of the trenches and of the home front, which richly deserves its enormous vogue.
The outstanding feature of the year 1909 was the formation of the Waverley Book Company for the development of the sale of editions deluxe of standard works, and of medical, technical, educational, and specialist "big books."
The Waverley Book Company is the natural out-growth of the old subscription book trade, when Messrs. Cassell's travelling "colporteurs" carried the firm's publications in monthly parts to places far afield, collecting the money on delivery and afterwards "lifting" the parts for binding in simple or elaborate volume form, according to the taste and means of the book-buyers. "Cassell's Family Bible," the "Illustrated History of England," the famous "Popular Educator," the "Life and Times of Queen Victoria," and many old favourites were sold extensively by these methods.
With the appointment of Mr. A. Bain Irvine as Manager in 1909, the former antiquated Subscription Department was speedily transformed into a great sales organization, efficiently staffed, dealing directly with the book-buying public and run entirely in accordance with modern business conditions.
In the autumn of that year, after the registration of the Company, offices were taken at Vulcan House, Ludgate Hill, and in a very short time thereafter—Mr. Irvine having already fully demonstrated the possibilities of his system and the certain success of his methods—the Waverley Book Company removed to larger premises in the Old Bailey, where it remained until the end of the war.
A striking feature of the Waverley's big advertising campaigns is the Free Examination Offer, whereby sets are sent for the inquirer to examine at home or in his place of business without charge or obligation to order. This earnest of the Waverley Book Company's confidence, both in the value of its books and in the honesty of its customers, has been wonderfully justified, free examination methods being now known far and wide as "the Waverley way."
An outstanding feature of the Company's success is the "Waverly History of the Great War," edited by Newman Flower, a work planned and arranged for within fourteen days of the outbreak of hostilities.
Soon after the signing of the Armistice larger premises still were secured in Farringdon Street, and here a bigger trade than ever is being done, and this in spite of strikes and frequent industrial complications which have on occasion threatened to upset Mr. Irvine's biggest advertising campaigns—for his appeals are invariably to the book-loving democracy.
The latest addition to the Waverley premises is in Tudor Street. This extension was found necessary in order that the constantly increasing volume of business might be more satisfactorily dealt with. The Company, which is the latest offshoot of Messrs. Cassell 's many activities, has become the most successful of all, due primarily to the untiring energy and daring initiative of Mr. Irvine, supplemented by the enthusiastic co-operation of a band of loyal colleagues.