LITERATURE

Anonymity

From the 16^thC on anonymity was a common practice in publishing. Jonathan Swift went to considerable lengths to ensure that Gulliver's Travels (1726) was issued without his name being associated with it. Anonymity was utilised by women authors such as Charlotte Bront and George Eliot. Sir Walter Scott denied to members of the royal family that he had written the Waverley novels.

In the 17^thC it became standard for criticism to be published without its author's name. The practice survived at The Times Literary Supplement until 1974.

See Also: CROSSWORDS

Brevity

The novelist Anita Brooker acquired a reputation for attending publishers parties for only brief spells. On one occasion a friend saw her arrive. A few minutes later the friend saw that Brookner was about to leave. This prompted the exclamation, But Anita you ve only been here five minutes! And I m so happy that three of them were spent with you came the reply.

Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle disowned his Scottish Calvinist background and chose to immerse himself in German literature. However, this latter activity was done within the mental framework of the former so that the writer translated authors such as Johann von Goethe without partaking of the rationalism of the Enlightenment. Thereby, he developed an outlook that was informed by their philosophical outlook but which was quite divorced from its mainspring. He viewed novels as being too light a literary form but wrote works of history in a florid style that bore witness to his extraordinary imagination.

In 1834 Carlyle and his wife moved to Cheyne Row. Towards the end of the year, at the suggestion of John Stuart Mill, he started writing a work about the French Revolution that was informed by the Romantic perspective, portraying both the magnificence and the horror. He sought to create a work of art rather than a work of fact. By describing the essence of what had been, he would be dealing with the present and the future. He was trying to display how the old order had been stripped of its redundant trappings and that there was no possibility of the past being returned to. In spring 1835 Carlyle lent the manuscript to Mill. Subsequently, the latter appeared at the Carlyles door in Cheyne Row in a state of distress. He told Carlyle that a maid had mistaken the script for waste paper and had thrown it upon a fire. Only four sheets had been retrieved from the blaze. There was no second copy, Carlyle had systematically destroyed his notes after completing the chapter that each batch of research had been the basis for. He continued with the project, writing out a new version of what had been destroyed. The book was published in 1837.

Carlyle believed that the failure of the Chartist movement to secure reform beyond the repeal of the Corn Laws derived from its lack of an effective leader. He was of the opinion that without direction, popular movements were limited to being able only to sweep away an old order. He was interested in trying to identify those aspects of nature and personality that were the foundation of the unconscious. He believed that some figures incorporated core spiritual truths in both their deliberate and their unconscious actions. This prompted him to try to write a work about Oliver Cromwell (d.1658). In late 1843 Carlyle chose to burn the manuscript. Instead, he worked on a collection of the Lord Protector's letters and speeches. In 1851 he identified the subject that he had been looking for in King Frederick the Great of Prussia (d.1786). In 1865 History of Frederick the Great was completed.

Location: 24 Cheyne Row, SW3 5HL. The property became a museum within fifteen years of Carlyle's death. (purple, brown)

Website: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/carlyles-house

Censorship

Critical Reception

Upon its publication in the United States, Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22 met with an indifferent response in the United States, review bordered upon the dismissive. When the book was issued in the U.K., Evelyn Waugh wrote a negative review of it. However, the volume sold went on to sell well and then very well. Readers in the United States followed suit. It became a bestseller.

Granta

Granta was founded as a literary magazine in Cambridge in 1889. In 1979 William Buford and Peter de Bolla became its editors. They published a 208-page-long edition. Buford, who had emerged as the dominant figure, had planned to return to his native America. However, the 800 copies of the issue sold out, as did a reprint.

In 1983 Issue 7 promoted the Best of Young British Novelists, which started as an initiative by the Book Marketing Council. The authors included: Martin Amis, Pat Barker, Julian Barnes, Kazuo Isihiguro, and Ian McEwan.

In summer 1983 the Dirty Realism issue was published. It helped group together a movement of American authors that included Raymond Carver and Tobias Wolff.

In summer 1988 Granta 24 included excerpts from the memoirs of the British spy Anthony Cavendish. This action was disapproved of by the British government.

In 1990 Granta moved to premises in Islington.

In 1993 Granta published a second Best of Young British Novelists issue. Adams Mars-Jones was one of the authors, having been in the list a decade earlier.

In late 1993 the Crime issue went to the limits of literary taste.

In 1995 Buford stepped down as the Editor of Granta (subsequently, he became a writer on The New Yorker magazine). He had edited 50 issues, which averaged at three a year. He was succeeded by the newspaper journalist and editor Ian Jack.

In 2003 Granta published a third Best of Young British Novelists issue.

At the start of 2006 Rea Hederman sold Granta to the publisher and scholar Sigrid Rausing. The magazine moved to Holland Park.

In 2007 Jack stepped down as the Editor of Granta. He had edited 48 issues over twelve years. He was succeeded by Jason Cowley, who previously had been the Editor of The Observer Sport Monthly. At the time, Adam Mars-Jones still had not published a novel.

Location: 12 Addison Avenue, W11 4QR (orange, white)

Website: https://granta.com

Grub Street

Grub Street is the term for usually indifferent literary output that is written for purely commercial reasons. There was a Grub Street that had been known formerly as Gropecunt Lane.

Location: Milton Street, EC2Y 9BH (blue, brown)

The Literary Life

Brevity

The novelist Anita Brooker (1928-2016) acquired a reputation for attending publishers parties for only brief spells. On one occasion a friend saw her arrive. A few minutes later the friend saw that Brookner was about to leave. This prompted the exclamation, But Anita you ve only been here five minutes! And I m so happy that three of them were spent with you came the reply.

Estimation

Peter Porter (1929-2010) was an expatriate Australian poet who lived in London for most of his adult life. He is reputed to have once remarked that, The current generation has to overestimate its own literature because no one else is going to.

The Paget Twins

The twin sisters Celia (b.1916) and Mamaine Paget were born into an affluent family. However, by the time they were eleven both of their parents had died. They went to live a rich uncle. However, he was distant and promptly sent them to a boarding school. His wife was more engaged with them and had aspirations that they should the debutantes and participate in the Season. However, the twins developed their own ideas. Upon achieving their majority, they received their inheritance. They moved to a small house in Chelsea. They soon became fixtures and London's artistic and literary life. Their friends came to include: A.J. Ayer, Albert Camus, Cyril Connolly, Arthur Koestler, George Orwell, Sacheverell Sitwell, William Walton, and Edmund Wilson.

Withdrawal From

Rosemary Tonks (1928-2014) was a Hampstead resident who enjoyed a degree of literary celebrity during the 1960s and 1970s as a poet and novelist. However, the death of her mother in a freak accident in 1968 started a process by which she began to re-evaluate her worldview. This resulted in her withdrawing from literary life. She embraced an aesthetic outlook and came to view her past achievements as having been a waste of effort.

Literary Patronage

The Advertising Industry

Former advertising copywriters who went on to enjoy literary success have included: Peter Porter, Salman Rushdie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Anthony Shaffer, Elizabeth Smart, William Trevor, and Fay Weldon.¹ The last is supposed to have written Drinka pinta milka day tag for milk, while Rushdie is reputed to have composed the Naughty but nice slogan for cream.

¹. For many years Weldon was reputed to have coined Go to work on an egg . She did not. She took the slogan from some material that had been created in 1932. She was not aware that it increased the sale of eggs.

Literary Prizes

The Man Booker Prize

The Booker Prize was founded in 1969. Tom Maschler (1933-2020) had brokered the sale of Ian Flemings's rights to Booker McConnell. He persuaded the company to bankroll a literary prize.

Martyn Goff (1923-2015) was a writer who wrote novels that addressed homosexuality in an open manner. In 1970 he became the Director of the National Book League (later the Book Trust). From that year until 2006 he was the administrator of the Booker Prize. He selected the judges and orchestrated the publicity.

In 1972 John Berger's (1926-2017) novel G won the Booker Prize. He announced that he would be giving half of the 5000 prize money to the Black Panthers. He justified his action upon Booker McConnell's alleged exploitation of its workers in the West Indies. Alastair Hetherington, the editor of The Guardian newspaper, stated he would double the prize money to 10,000 if the writer would redirect the donation away from a violent group towards a constructive cause. Berger agreed to do so.

The Booker started to be televised in 1980.

In 1987 the writer and documentary maker Edna Healey (1918-2010) was a Booker prize judge. As such, she had to read 120 novels over the course of the summer. Her husband, the senior Labour politician Denis Healey (1917-2015), declared that She learnt more about sex in those two months than in over 40 years of married bliss with me.

In 2001 Booker sold the prize to Man Group, a hedge fund business.

Location: 10 Queen Street Place, EC4R 1BE (purple, turquoise)

Website: https://thebookerprizes.com

The Prize

Despite, the high calibre of many of his signings at Jonathan Cape, Maschler was the type of publisher who was more interested in marketing books rather than in what lay between their covers. This approach left him open to working with the likes of working with the likes of the bestselling author Jeffrey Archer, whose output he regarded as being real rubbish . During one meeting the conversation drifted onto the topic of literary awards. The novelist speculated that if he worked harder he might one day be awarded the Prize . Maschler was perplexed by this. Archer then clarified his speculation by saying the Nobel Prize .

Location: Jonathan Cape, 30 Bedford Square, WC1B 3AA (blue, grey)

Peninsula Heights, 93 Albert Embankment, SE1 7TY. The potential prize winner s London residence at the time. (red, yellow)

Website: www.jeffreyarcher.co.uk www.penguin.co.uk/company/publishers/vintage/jonathan-capel

The Wolfson Prize

The prize was first awarded in 1972.

Website: www.wolfsonhistoryprize.org.uk

Literary Societies

The Alliance of Literary Societies

Website: https://allianceofliterarysocieties.wordpress.com

The London Review of Books

The London Review of Books was set up in 1979 with the backing of The New York Review of Books. Its founders included Karl Miller (1931-2014) and Frank Kermode (1919-2010). The original staff included Mary-Kay Wilmers, a Russo-Belgian heiress, whose past jobs had included being a secretary at the publishing house Faber.

The N.Y.R.B. indicated that it was withdrawing its support for The L.R.B.. Ms Wilmers took financial and editorial control of the paper.

Writers whose reputations benefitted from Miller's support included Beryl Bainbridge, William Empson, Seamus Heaney, and V.S. Naipaul.

In 1992 Miller disagreed strongly with an editorial decision and resigned from The L.R.B.. While he was someone who was given to falling out with colleagues, he was not someone who held grudges. Ultimately, he reverted to reviewing for The Review.

Location: 28 Little Russell Street, WC1A 2HN (orange, turquoise)

Website: www.lrb.co.uk www.mylrb.co.uk

The National Poetry Library

The Poetry Library has both a reference library and a stock of books that it lends. It was set up in 1953 by the Arts Council and has been at its present location since 1988.

Location: Level 5, The Royal Festival Hall, SE1 8XX

Website: www.nationalpoetrylibrary.org.uk

PEN International

PEN International seeks to promote literature, freedom of expression, and the development of a world community of writers and readers. The organisation grew out of the charity Poets, Playwrights, Essayists & Novelists, which was founded in London in 1921. Its early supporters included Joseph Conrad and H.G. Wells.

Location: Unit A, Koops Mill Mews, 162-164 Abbey Street, SE1 2AN

Website: www.pen-internationalpen.org

Quotations

The last two volumes of Hazlitt's Collected Works were devoted to tracing the quotations that Hazlitt had used.

John Forster, Charles Dickens's first biographer, seemed to have difficulty writing anything that did not quote Shakespeare.

The Revolutionary Consequences of Thwarted Amoris

William Hazlitt's father was an Irish dissenting clergyman who held heretical views. He taught his son to distrust all institutions. The family welcomed the French Revolution. Hazlitt admired the writers Coleridge, Southey, and Wordsworth. However, as the Revolution metamorphosed into the Terror, the trio grew more conservative in their outlook; the young man was to come to view them as turncoats. The outcome of the Battle of Waterloo had a traumatising effect upon him.

Hazlitt s sexuality was centred upon women whom he regarded as being his social inferiors. In 1821 he developed an obsessive passion for Sarah Walker, the nineteen-year-old daughter of his landlady. She allowed him to engage in heavy petting but would not have sex with him. In the hopes of wooing the woman, he persuaded his wife to accept a divorce. However, Miss Walker still declined to become his lover. Thwarted, Hazlitt's infatuation metamorphosed into antipathy. He wrote Liber Amoris (1823) which detailed their relationship. The Tory portions of the press seized upon the book. As a result, his reputation was irrevocably damaged.

Location: Hazlitt s, 6 Frith Street, W1D 3JA (red, red)

Website: www.ucl.ac.uk/hazlitt-society www.hazlittshotel.com (A boutique hotel)

The Royal Literary Fund

The Royal Literary Fund aids professional published authors who are in financial difficulties. The organisation was founded in 1790 by the Rev David Williams.

Location: 3 Johnson s Court, EC4A 3EA (purple, brown)

Website: www.rlf.org.uk

The Royal Society of Literature

The Royal Society of Literature was founded in 1820 by King George IV.

New Fellows of The Royal Society of Literature are given the choice to sign the members book with either Lord Byron's pen or Charles Dickens's quill. Writers who are principally storytellers tend to use the latter.

Location: Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 1LA (orange, purple)

See Also: CHARLES DICKENS

Website: https://rsliterature.org

The Salisbury Square of Fiction

The development of the rotary printing press brought down the costs of publishing. Publishers such as Edward Lloyd responded by commissioning serialised novels that would appeal to a mass audience. These would be published in pamphlet length. Particular popular works would prompt large crowds to convene in Fleet Street on the day on which a new episode was printed. The form is now known as the Penny Dreadful. In its day it was some people referred to it as the Salisbury Square of Fiction. The writers who produced them included James Malcolm Rymer (1814-1884), a trained civil engineer who held his readers in contempt, and the Chartist George W.M. Reynolds (1814-1879), who believed that they could be politicised through fiction. The fact that the dreadfuls were printed on cheap paper has meant that some of them have not survived despite having enjoyed wide circulation in their day.

Location: Salisbury Square, EC4Y 8AP (purple, grey)

The Times Literary Supplement

The practice of anonymous reviewing survived at The Times Literary Supplement until 1974.

Location: 1 London Bridge Street, SE1 9GF

Website: www.the-tls.co.uk

David Backhouse 2024