American Books and English Readers
American Literature in Nineteenth-Century England. By Clarence Gohdes. ' (Oxford University Press. 16s. 6d.)
THIS book is one of the admirable Columbia Books on Literature— a series affording evidence of the long lead which American scholar- ship has now unquestionably won in the study of English literature, and especially in the field of English literary history. We owe to the American scholars a number of editions and of comparative or critical studies which are of the utmost value and which abundantly display their supreme competence in these matters. Indeed, it is not too much to say that the most important studies of our eighteenth and rhieteenth century literature are those which come to us from American Universities.
Professor Gohdes does not attempt, in his excellent survey, deal fully with a study of enormous extent and implication. examines, first of all, the Victorian view of the United States. then turns to the British book trade, and shows how profitably publishers exploited the curiosity and eagerness of an unsophisticai public, a public entirely regardless (and rightly so) of critics, review and intellectuals. Then, most adroitly, he deals with Ameri magazines, which, in the later decades of the century, were into parably superior to their counterparts in England. This is follow by an examination of what is probably the most individual influential of all the American contributions to English literary taste the impact upon our shocked or delighted audiences of the " funn fellows," from the Broad Grins and the Yankee Notions to Artem Ward, Leland (the inventor of Hans Breitmann), Max Adeler, Br Harte and the incomparable Mark Twain. I cannot help regrew that he does not mention the book which made merry so many my childish hours : it was called Helen's Babies, and I have for gotten the author. From humour, Professor Gohdes passes to reception in England of a single American poet—Longfellow- he concludes with a slightly didactical essay upon criticism influence. One might have wished, I think, for a more compr hensive and' a more widely illustrated summary, and it would has been pleasant if Professor Gohdes had slyly drawn attention to t discrepancy between free public opinion and the supposed infallibili of superior taste.
The influence of imported American literature must have be tremendously potent in helping to mitigate the hostility with whi • the English regardecj the United States during the either period the nineteenth century. And ;f Longfellow and Emerson made th chief appeal to the more refined audience, it was Brudder Bones a the Darkies, it was the crude hilarity of the Slicks and the Jonath and the drolleries of Artemus Ward that engaged the affection the ordinary people. Nothing in the world can promote such wealth and honesty of good feeling as the mutual enjoyment a joke.
When the demand of the English public for American books h become a factor of immense importance in the turnover of th English trade, our publishers were not unduly scrupulous in the methods, although one cannot accuse them indiscriminately of illeg dealing. In 1854 no foreign author, even if he published his first in England, was in a position to claim a British copyit unless he was resident in the United Kingdom at the actual t of publication. This proviso was extended by the House of Lor in 1868 so as to cover the British dominions, but it was not un 1891 that laws enabling the American author to secure internatio. copyright were put ihto operation. Up to this time a certa ambiguity in the copyright situation and a convenient haziness moral principle may perhaps allow us to avoid the harsher implic2 tions of such a word as piracy. In 1856 the firm of Sampson Lo' brought out an authorised edition of Mrs. Beecher Stowe's Drea and 165,000 copies were sold within a year. From this time onwaret there was a regular flood of popular " Libraries," " Classics " an " Series " in which there was a large proportion Of American It is interesting to observe that in i866 theological titles were m numerous than any other in Triibnees list of books imported fr America. By the end of the century, however, novels were eas winners. The more shameless examples of piracy are to be foun among the popular magazines, and there is nothing to surpass r11 effrontery of the Home Circle, which printed the names of Willi Cullen Bryant, Hawthorne and Longfellow in its list of contributo while it " merely pirated their work as it saw fit." This bad exatnpi I regret to say, was followed by the more respectable Quarter, Journal of Education. In the 'seventies Mark Twain was in In foremost rank, and The Spectator had to admit that " the Unit States are taking a lead in the humorous literature of the day. Longfellow's position as by far the most widely-read poet in Engla may seem today a little strange. (But I may recall the petula of the Saturday Review in 1858, which declared that there va "probably not a single line in Mr. Longfellow's voluminous composi- tions which gave out the characteristic ring of poetry.")
Professor Gohdes adds to his book a most valuable appendix : list of representative articles on American literature appearing British periodicals from 1833 to 1901. This is an important
Previous page
