The Years of Felicity, 1871–5

Abstract

By the end of 1870 Stephen had made a name for himself, not only as the conqueror of Alpine peaks, but as a writer of wit, grace and power. Though the Saturday Review still paid him a retaining fee and though his work was regularly accepted by J. Anthony Froude, the editor of Fraser’s Magazine, his favoured employer was George Smith, the Apollonaris Water magnate, publisher of the Pall Mall Gazette, The Cornhill Magazine, and of major Victorian authors such as Thackeray, the Brontë sisters, Darwin, Ruskin, and Matthew Arnold, among others. Besides, Smith was a friend of the Thackeray sisters, and it was at Smith’s home that Stephen had dined with Minny more than once during their engagement. Though the age of patronage was over, it sometimes continued in a form different from that rejected by Dr Johnson in his famous letter to Lord Chesterfield. A publisher could well take an interest in and promote the career of a promising writer, which is what Smith did for Stephen. When Longman & Co. seemed to be offering the editorship of Fraser’s to Leslie, Smith promptly made a counter offer of the editorship of the Cornhill, Longman dilly-dallied; Leslie closed with Smith. His acceptance is in some ways surprising. By his own admission the Cornhill was a household magazine in which one could find nothing to do with politics or religion or philosophy, whereas Fraser’s lived on intellectual fare and controversy on a variety of subjects.