2392. RB to Euphrasia Fanny Haworth
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 13, 12–13.
[London]
Saturday. Mg. 8½ [ca. June 1846] [1]
My dear Miss Haworth,
I write one minute, or less,—after the receipt of yours .. for I am too disposed to seize the first slight (yet, not so slight neither) chance of doing you service .. too glad am I in doing this to let our next post go by: by no means have to do with Pickering, whom I know, by the experience of an Uncle, & bookmaking man, to be the worst person in the world for your purpose: [2] This is the main service—but I think I render you another by mentioning that “Smith & Elder” of Cornhill, I know .. (in the person of the principal acter in the Firm, Mr Geo. Smith Jr) [3] —to be liberal and honest—very liberal. They get up illustrated works like yours, have good connexion, and bestir themselves about what is trusted to them,—besides which, I fancy they have just now an ambition of getting hold of the higher sort of authors .. they printed the “Spirits of the Age,” Leigh Hunt’s capital “Fancy & Imagination,” and were, I know, most handsome in their treatment of the writers. [4] Beside, depend on it, the City contains the bookbuyers such as are to be found in these days. Should you wish to treat with them .. (I shall not be at the pains of saying what you must know, that I shall be all the better pleased if you, or your friends should know of another such House, or a better if possible) .. but, if you should like to try them, I will write a note to go with you, if you please.
Good, best luck go to you any way! No time—tonight, I fill Stall F, wherever that may be,—& will look out for you.
Ever yours
RB
Publication: NL, pp. 39–40.
Manuscript: Yale University.
1. Date suggested by RB’s reference to Fanny Haworth’s forthcoming book, St. Sylvester’s Day; and other poems, which was published during the first half of January 1847. Although it seems probable that this letter was written closer to the time of publication, we place it as early as seems possible.
2. William Pickering (1796–1854) was the publisher of The History of the Hugenots During the Sixteenth Century (2 vols., 1829) by RB’s uncle, William Shergold Browning, as well as a companion to those two volumes, A History of the Hugenots, from 1598 to 1838 in 1839. We are unable to clarify RB’s comments as to why Pickering would have been unsuitable for Fanny Haworth’s book, which was published by Jeremiah How.
3. George Murray Smith (1824–1901) was the son of the co-founder of Smith, Elder, & Co., and after the death of his father in 1846, he became senior member of the firm. RB first met the noted publisher in 1843 at the home of Thomas Powell, where they were both frequent visitors. Smith would become RB’s publisher in 1867. For an account of RB’s relationship with Smith, see Michael Meredith, “Browning and the Prince of Publishers,” Browning Institute Studies, 7 (1979), 1–20.
4. Smith was well-known for his generosity and kindness to his authors. Smith purchased Hunt’s manuscript of Imagination and Fancy (1844) from Thomas Powell for £40, which Powell had taken as collateral for a loan to Leigh Hunt. Smith subsequently paid Hunt an additional £60 for the copyright (Leonard Huxley, The House of Smith-Elder, 1923, p. 35). Horne’s A New Spirit of the Age (1844) was Smith’s first publishing venture in his father’s firm.
___________________
