Abstract
Edward Moxon’s half yearly accounts allow a detailed understanding of Tennyson’s early career. Sales of the 1842 Poems began to rise in about 1845, suggesting that Tennyson had started to reach a new audience. A dramatic increase in sales followed the publication of the fifth edition in 1848, aided by Moxon’s repackaging of the text. Cloth covers and mechanically produced decoration transformed the appearance of Moxon’s books in the mid-1840s. Patterns within the sales figures show that Tennyson’s fame was an important factor in creating demand from 1847, when The Princess was published. In the 1860s, Tennyson’s poetry connected with a mass readership in a way not seen since the Romantic period, Idylls of the King, Enoch Arden and A Selection from the Works of Alfred Tennyson sold in very large numbers. Tennyson’s early poetry created the conditions through which he could reach a mass audience.
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Notes
- 1.
‘Tennyson’s Idylls’, The National Review, 9.18 (October, 1859), 369–70, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 13 April 2016].
- 2.
The half yearly accounts are TRC/LETTERS/7912-36.
- 3.
The cash books up to 1878 are: TRC/A/1 ‘Bank Book Olding Sharpe and Co. 1858–65’; TRC/A/2 ‘Account with National Westminster Bank 1866–71’; TRC/A/3 ‘Account Book with Coutts and Co. 1869–72’; TRC/A/4 ‘Account book with London and Westminster Bank 1871–5’; TRC/A/5 ‘Account with Coutts & Co 1872–8’.
- 4.
TRC/LETTERS/7919.
- 5.
Alfred Tennyson, The Letters of Alfred Lord Tennyson, ed. by Cecil Y. Lang and Edgar F. Shannon Jr. 3 vols (Oxford: Clarendon, 1982–1990), I, p. 80 (Tennyson 1982–1990).
- 6.
June Steffensen Hagen, Tennyson and his Publishers (London: Macmillan, 1979), pp. 83–4 (Hagen 1979). Hallam Tennyson, Alfred Lord Tennyson A Memoir, 2 vols (London: Macmillan, 1898), I, p. 328 (Tennyson 1898); Charles Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson (London: Macmillan, 1968), pp. 247–8 (Tennyson 1968). Charles Tennyson suggests that Moxon took an extra ‘5 % on the gross sales’: here he seems to be referring to the ‘incidental expenses’, which were actually distribution costs, and his assumptions were based on the erroneous presumption that profits had previously been divided equally between Tennyson and Moxon.
- 7.
Little detailed information in relation to Moxon survives in the Bradbury and Evans business records, part of the ‘Punch Archive’ in the British Library, Add Ms 88937. Add Ms 88937/19/2 the ‘General Ledger’ lists sums owed by Moxon between 1830 and 1836 but they are not itemised against authors and so this would seem to be just a total bill for all the work that they carried out for Moxon. The only works that are described in detail are those that Bradbury and Evans published themselves.
- 8.
TRC/LETTERS/7919.
- 9.
TRC/LETTERS/7918.
- 10.
William St Clair, The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 170 (St Clair 2004).
- 11.
Harold G. Merriam, Edward Moxon Publisher of Poets (New York: Columbia University Press, 1939), p. 77 (Merriam 1939).
- 12.
James A. Davies, ‘Fonblanque, Albany William (1793–1872)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [online] http://www.oxforddnb.com/article/9798 [accessed 6 April 2016].
- 13.
John Sutherland, The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction (London: Longman, 1988), p. 32.
- 14.
‘Advertisement’, Examiner, 1295 (25 November 1832), 766, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 22 April 2015].
- 15.
‘Advertisement’, The Athenaeum, 272 (12 January 1833), 32, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 23 April 2015].
- 16.
‘Advertisement’, Examiner, 1255 (19 February 1832), 26, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 31 March 2015].
- 17.
‘Advertisement’, The Athenaeum, 528 (9 December 1837), 902, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 25 March 2015].
- 18.
‘Advertisement’, Examiner, 1773 (22 January 1842), 64, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 30 March 2015].
- 19.
‘Advertisement’, The Literary Gazette: A Weekly Journal of Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts, 1305 (22 January 1842), 72, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 18 March 2015].
- 20.
‘Advertisement’, Examiner, 1895 (25 May 1844), 336, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 19 March 2015].
- 21.
‘Advertisement’, The Athenaeum, 1205 (30 November 1850), 1236, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 3 April 2015].
- 22.
For example see ‘Advertisement’, The Athenaeum, 1207 (14 December 1850), 1299, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 20 April 2015].
- 23.
‘Advertisement’, Examiner 2279 (4 October 1851), 640, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 4 June 2015]; ‘Advertisement’, The Athenaeum 1252 (25 October 1851), 1128, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 5 June 2015]; ‘Advertisement’, The Athenaeum, 1260 (20 December 1851), 1353, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 26 May 2015]; ‘Advertisement’, The Athenaeum, 1261 (27 December 1851), 1385, British Periodicals, [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 26 May 2015]; ‘Advertisement’, The Athenaeum, 1264 (17 January 1852), 89, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 25 May 2015]; ‘Advertisement’. Examiner, 2294 (17 January 1852), 48, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 22 May 2015].
- 24.
Simon Eliot, ‘Some Trends in British Book Production’, in Literature in the Marketplace, eds J. O. Jordan and R. L. Patten (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 33–5 (Eliot 1995).
- 25.
‘Advertisement’, Examiner 1403 (21 December 1834), p. 816, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 5 May 2015].
- 26.
‘Advertisement’, Examiner 1978 (27 December 1845), p. 832, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 7 May 2015].
- 27.
‘Advertisement’, Examiner 2002 (13 June 1846), 384, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 5 May 2015].
- 28.
‘Advertisement’, The Athenaeum 1415 (9 December 1854), p. 1501, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 1 May 2015].
- 29.
‘Advertisement’, The Literary Gazette 828 (1 December 1832), p. 767, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 4 June 2015].
- 30.
‘Advertisement’, The Literary Gazette 834 (12 January 1833), p. 30, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 2 June 2015].
- 31.
‘Advertisement’, Examiner, 1819 (10 December 1842), p. 800, British Periodicals, [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 5 June 2015].
- 32.
This book is normally referred to by the confusing name the ‘Moxon Tennyson’.
- 33.
TRC/LETTERS/7917 and TRC/LETTERS/7934; for the print run of the first edition see Hagen, Tennyson and his Publishers, p. 63 (Hagen 1979).
- 34.
TRC/LETTERS/7927.
- 35.
- 36.
Letters of Tennyson, I, pp. 209–10.
- 37.
The more detailed chronological breakdown, supplied from Tennyson’s correspondence, reinforces this pattern but with higher definition: high demand followed by a significant drop is evident within just the first edition.
- 38.
A List of Books Recently Published by Edward Moxon, 44, Dover Street (London: Moxon, 1 January 1846), p. 7.
- 39.
Bernard Warrington, ‘William Pickering and the Development of Publishers’ Binding in the Early Nineteenth Century’, Publishing History, 33 (1993), 59–76 (Warrington 1993); See also Edmund M. B. King, Victorian Decorated Trade Bindings 1830–1880 (London: British Library and Oak Knoll, 2003), p. xi (King 2003).
- 40.
Warrington, William Pickering, p. 60.
- 41.
Warrington, William Pickering, p. 59.
- 42.
George Dodd, Days at the Factories (London: Knight, 1843), pp. 363–84 (Dodd 1843).
- 43.
Just Published by Edward Moxon, 64, New Bond-Street (London: Moxon, c. 1832).
- 44.
Just Published by Edward Moxon, Dover Street (London: Moxon, c. 1835).
- 45.
A List of Books Recently Published by Edward Moxon, 44, Dover Street (London: Moxon, 1 November 1847), p.7.
- 46.
TRC/LETTERS/7934, the statement for third edition shows that Moxon sold 1,263 copies at 8s 4d and a further 225 copies at 8s 1d: there is no explanation for this difference.
- 47.
Costs for printing, paper, binding and pressing were taken as production costs for a given edition and then divided by the print run of the edition. The unit cost of the second and third editions was 2s 6d, the unit costs of the fifth, sixth and seventh editions was steady at between 1s 6d and 1s 7d.
- 48.
A List of Books Recently Published by Edward Moxon, 44, Dover Street (London: Monxon, 1 Nov 1847), p. 7.
- 49.
‘Advertisement’, The Athenaeum, 1103 (16 December 1848), 1252, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 5 May 2015].
- 50.
TRC/LETTERS/7912 shows that three printings of In Memoriam totaling 5,000 copies were ordered between May and August 1850, with the account settled in December.
- 51.
As late as September 1848, Rogers, Campbell, Lamb and Wordsworth were thought worthy of their own heading in Moxon’s list while Poems and The Princess were just listed under the general ‘Poetry’ heading see ‘A List of Books Recently Published by Edward Moxon, 44, Dover Street’ (London: Moxon, 1 September 1848).
- 52.
For an overview see Lou Taylor, Mourning Dress: a Costume and Social History (London: Routledge, 2009), pp. 89–134 (Taylor 2009).
- 53.
Moxon listed In Memoriam separately in his list for February 1853 (A List of Books Published by Edward Moxon, Dover Street (London: Moxon, February 1853), p. 8, but advertised the poem under Tennyson in February 1854: ‘Advertisement’, The Athenaeum, 1374 (25 February 1854), p. 253, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 21 April 2016].
- 54.
After Edward Moxon’s death the patterns changed again: a meander or Greek key pattern formed the border for Idylls of the King and Enoch Arden was published with a simple linear border with the ‘EM & Co.’ monogram stamped in the centre.
- 55.
Editions of In Memoriam are complex, compounded by an error in Moxon’s accounts. Editions 1–3 are reprints from standing type of the same edition TRC/LETTERS/7912; TRC/LETTERS/7913 outlines an edition of 3,000 described in the accounts as the ‘fourth edition’. TRC/LETTERS/7914 is also described as the ‘fourth edition’ but this must be an error as it is clearly the fifth edition of 5,000 also documented in TRC/LETTERS/7915-6. The fact that TRC/LETTERS/7914-6 all describe the fifth edition of 5,000 copies is corroborated by figures for respective batches of binding and sales that carry over between the documents. In summary TRC/LETTERS/7914 describes the printing of the fifth edition and the binding of the first batch of the fifth edition (2,107 copies) but mistakenly identifies this as the fourth edition. TRC/LETTERS/7915-6 document the binding and sales of the remaining copies of this edition of 5,000.
- 56.
By the time Maud and other poems was published the way of recording the sales had changed. TRC/LETTERS/7933 allows a breakdown of the rate of sale for the first edition of 10,000 but the archive does not allow rates of sale for subsequent editions to be established.
- 57.
‘Advertisement’, The Literary Gazette: A Weekly Journal of Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts, 1612 (11 December 1847), 870, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 19 April 2016].
- 58.
The Princess was advertised in Mudie’s ‘List of New and Choice Books’, see ‘Advertisement’, The Athenaeum, 1060 (19 February 1848), p. 177, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 12 May 2015] and Tennyson was further promoted by Mudie in June 1850: he started an advertisement ‘Fifty Copies of Tennyson’s New Poem [i.e. In Memoriam] are this day in circulation at Mudie’s Select Library’ see ‘Advertisement’, Examiner, 2209 (1 June 1850), p. 351, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 17 June 2016].
- 59.
TRC/LETTERS/7911.
- 60.
TRC A1 ‘Bank Book Olding Sharpe and Co. 1858–65’.
- 61.
TRC/LETTERS/2419.
- 62.
TRC/LETTERS/7936.
- 63.
The 1842 Poems sold at 9s retail and 6s 5d trade, equalling 71 per cent; The Princess at 5s and 3s 7d equalling 72 per cent, In Memoriam at 6s and 4s 2d equalling 69 per cent and Maud and other poems 5s and 3s 4d equalling 67 per cent.
- 64.
Hallam Tennyson, Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir, 2 vols (London: Macmillan, 1897), I, p. 443.
- 65.
Sir Charles Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson (London: Macmillan, 1949), p. 319.
- 66.
Hagen, Tennyson and his Publishers, p. 110.
- 67.
Letters of Tennyson, II, p. 290 note.
- 68.
‘Advertisement’, The Athenaeum, 1788 (1 February 1862), p. 167, in British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 21 October 2014]; ‘Advertisement’, Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art 13. 3, no. 327 (1 February 1862), p. 144, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 21 October 2014].
- 69.
‘Advertisement’, The Athenaeum 1791 (22 February 1862), p. 272, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 24 October 2014].
- 70.
‘Albert the Good’, The Athenaeum 1789 (8 February 1862), p. 191, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 27 October 2014]; ‘The Late Prince Consort’, Examiner 2819 (8 February 1862), p. 89, British Periodicals [online] http://www.proquest.com/ [accessed 27 October 2014].
- 71.
Hallam Tennyson, Memoir, II, p. 6.
- 72.
TRC/LETTERS/7911.
- 73.
In a report of the fraud trial that followed the demise of the Moxon firm, it was made clear that James Bertrand Payne (manager of the Moxon firm from 1864) arranged to take half the profit: ‘Payne obtained very considerable portions of the assets of the firm…among which was a half-share of the copy-right of the series called Moxon’s Popular [sic] Poets, the conception of which series he said was entirely due to himself.’ See ‘Court of Chancery, Lincoln’s-Inn, June 11’. The Times [London, England] 13 June 1873, p. 12 [online] The Times Digital Archive [accessed 13 April 2016].
Select Bibliography
The Book of Gems of Modern Poets, ed. by S. C. Hall (London: Whitaker, 1838).
Dodd, George, Days at the Factories (London: Knight, 1843).
Eliot, Simon, ‘Some Trends in British Book Production’, in Literature in the Marketplace, ed. by J. O. Jordan and R. L. Patten (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 19–43.
Hagen, June Steffensen, Tennyson and his Publishers (London: Macmillan, 1979).
King, Edmund M. B. Victorian Decorated Trade Bindings 1830–1880 (London: British Library and Oak Knoll, 2003).
Ledbetter, Kathryn, Tennyson and Victorian Periodicals (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007).
Merriam, Harold G., Edward Moxon Publisher of Poets (New York: Columbia University Press, 1939).
St Clair, William, The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
Taylor, Lou, Mourning Dress: A Costume and Social History (London: Routledge, 2009).
Tennyson, Alfred, The Letters of Alfred Lord Tennyson, ed. by Cecil Y. Lang and Edgar F. Shannon Jr. 3 vols (Oxford: Clarendon, 1982–1990).
Tennyson, Charles, Alfred Tennyson (London: Macmillan, 1968).
Tennyson, Hallam, Alfred Lord Tennyson A Memoir, 2 vols (London: Macmillan, 1898).
Warrington, Bernard, ‘William Pickering and the Development of Publishers’ Binding in the Early Nineteenth Century’, Publishing History, 33 (1993), 59–76.
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Cheshire, J. (2016). Tennyson by Numbers: Edward Moxon and the Business of Publishing. In: Tennyson and Mid-Victorian Publishing. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-33815-0_3
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