ENGLISH AUTHORS AND A FOREIGN PUBLISHER.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XV, Issue XXII, 30 November 1895, Page 682

ENGLISH AUTHORS AND A FOREIGN PUBLISHER.

RECOLLECTIONS OF BARON TAUCHNITZ, OF * THE TAUCHNITZ EDITION.’ Few men haveeverdeserved so well ofso many authors and so large a public as the great Leipzig publisher. Baron Tauchnitz may be said to have founded an international conscience, to have introduced a literature, and to have invented a. format. Who does not know the Tauchnitz Edition, with its convenient shape, its pleasant page, its clear print ? It has had imitators, but none have ever hit off anything quite so happy as the original. But far more important than the form was the literature which the Tauchnitz Edition conveyed. Baron Tauchnitz was a great literary importer, and familiarised the whole continent of Europe, but especially Germany, with the literature of England. He sustained and brought within the range of a wider public the passion for English literature which was inaugurated in Germany by Lessing, and continued by Goethe and Schiller. The Tauchnitz Library contains nearly 3,000 volumes, and comprises most of the masterpieces, with comparatively little of the rubbish, of English literature. But while thus creaming our literature, the house of Tauchnitz never took advantage of the foreign author. When the library was commenced, there was no international copyright, and therefore no legal compulsion on the publisher to obtain the author’s consent. But Tauchnitz invariably did so, and paid a fair honorarium also. He was thus the first to issue English works with the author’s consent, and was a pioneer in the cause of international property in literature. Virtue, it is pleasant to know, was not in this case its own and only reward, for the Tauchnitz edition has been financially a great and a sustained success. That Baron Tauchnitz was a lover as well as a purveyor of books, and that he had social as well as business

capacities of a high order is shown by the terms of friendship on which he stood with all the great English authors of his day. In a volume issued a few weeks ago in commemoration of the Tauchnitz Jubilee, he published a selection of letters from eminent authors, and some of these will be read with interest to-day. Here is one from Harrison Ainsworth, who had visited the Tauchnitz family in Leipzig :— * In dedicating my little tale to you and to Madame Tauchnitz I selected for that dedication the happiest couple I know. They happened at the same time to be among my best friends. All the better, for I could prove my regard without the slightest violation of truth. I rejoice to think that anything I have said has given you pleasure, and I sincerely trust that all my good wishes for yonr prolonged happiness may be fulfilled. . I passed a day with Mr Dickens at Boulogne on my wav here, and we spoke much of you and your great kindness? Indeed, Dickens seems to have been on such intimate terms with the Baron that he entrusted one of his sons to his care. He writes to Leipzig from Tavistock House on January 14th, 1853 * While he is well looked after—as all boys require to be—l wish him to be not too obviously restrained, and to have the advantages of cheerful and good society. I want him to have an interest in, and to acquire a knowledge of, the life around him, and to be treated like a gentleman, though pampered in nothin). By punctuality in all things, great and small, I set great store.’ From Gadshill Place, on December 22nd, iB6O, we have this note :— ‘ I cannot consent to name the sum you shall pay for “Great Expectations.” I have too great a regard for you, and too high a sense of your honourable dealing to wish to depart from the custom we have always observed. Whatever price you put upon it will satisfy me. You have always proposed the terms yourself on former occasions, and I entreat you to do so now.’ Carlyle’s letter refers to ‘ Frederick the Great ’ : * I am not willing to trespass further on such munificence of procedure in this matter. . . . Your reprint which indeed is very perfect and far handier to read, is greatly in demand here, and friends accept it from me as a distinguished gift not attainable otherwise. . No transaction could be handsomer on your part, and you may believe me I am very sensible of it. . . . The money account concerns me ; please attend to that as already said. Friendliness and help cannot be paid ; but money can, and always should.* There are several notes from Lord Beaconsfield. The following is dated from Hughenden Manor, September 23, 1870: — ‘ What are called Lives of me abound. They are generally infamous libels, which I have invariably treated with utter indifference. Sometimes I ask myself what will Grub-street do after my departure—who will there be to abuse and caricature ? . . . I hope you are well. I am very busy, and rarely write letters, but I would not use the hand of another to an old friend.’ In a later note from 19, Curzon street, January 20, 1881, his lordship writes: — * The beautiful vase has arrived and quite safely. It is a most gracious and gratifying gift ; and I accept it in the full spirit of friendship in which it is offered. . I no longer dwell in the house in Park-lane where I once had the pleasure of receiving yon, but I am verv near the rose and smell of it.’ A note informs us that the vase was ‘ a little attention in connexion with “ Endymion,”’ and another, that being ‘ near the rose and smell of it ’ is a word-play on the Rows in Hyde Park.’