Alexander Pushkin - "Krasavitse, Kotoraya Niuhala Tabak"

Mary Grant Bruce (1878 1958). - "Mates at Billabong"

Jerome K. Jerome - "Clocks"

Amy Brooks - "Princess Polly's Gay Winter"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

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PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

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NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: The Life of George Borrow

H >> Herbert Jenkins >> The Life of George Borrow




Yours truly,
EDWARD FITZGERALD.

P.S.--Donne is well, and wants to know about you.


A few months later FitzGerald wrote again:


ALBERT HOUSE, GORLESTON,
6th July 1857.

Dear Borrow,--Will you send me [The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam] by
bearer. I only want to look at him, for that Frenchman {427a} has
been misquoting him in a way that will make [Professor] E. Cowell [of
Cambridge] answerable for another's blunder, which must not be. You
shall have 'Omar back directly, or whenever you want him, and I
should really like to make you a copy (taking my time) of the best
Quatrains. I am now looking over the Calcutta MS. which has 500!--
very many quite as good as those in the MS. you have; but very many
in BOTH MSS. are well omitted.

I have been for a fortnight to Geldeston where Kerrich is not very
well. I shall look for you one day in my Yarmouth rounds, and you
know how entirely disengaged and glad to see you I am here. I have
two fresh Nieces with me--and I find I gave you the WORST wine of two
samples Diver sent me. I wish you would send word by bearer you are
better--this one word written will be enough you see.

My old Parson Crabbe is bowing down under epileptic fits, or
something like, and I believe his brave old white head will soon sink
into the village Churchsward. Why, OUR time seems coming. Make way,
Gentlemen!--Yours very truly,

EDWARD FITZGERALD.


What effect the sweet gentleness of FitzGerald's nature had upon that
of Borrow is not known, for the replies have not been preserved.
FitzGerald was a man capable of soothing the angriest and most
discontented mind, and it is a misfortune that he saw so little of
Borrow. In the early part of the following year (24th Jan. 1857)
FitzGerald wrote to Professor E. B. Cowell of Cambridge:-


"I was with Borrow a week ago at Donne's, and also at Yarmouth three
months ago: he is well, but not yet agreed with Murray. He read me
a long Translation he had made from the Turkish: which I could not
admire, and his Taste becomes stranger than ever." {428a}


From Wales Mrs George Borrow had written (Sept. 1854) to old Mrs
Borrow: "He [Borrow] will, I expect at Christmas, publish his other
work [The Romany Rye] together with his poetry in all the European
languages." {428b} In November (1854) the manuscript of The Romany
Rye was delivered to John Murray, who appears to have taken his time
in reading it; for it was not until 23rd December that he expressed
his views in the following letter. Even when the letter was written
it was allowed to remain in John Murray's desk for five weeks, not
being sent until 27th January:-


My Dear Borrow,--I have read with care the MS. of The Romany Rye and
have pondered anxiously over it; and in what I am about to write I
think I may fairly claim the privilege of a friend deeply interested
in you personally, as well as in your reputation as author, and by no
means insensible to the abilities displayed in your various works.
It is my firm conviction then, that you will incur the certainty of
failure and run the risque of injuring your literary fame by
publishing the MS. as it stands. Very large omissions seem to me--
and in this, Elwin, {429a} no mean judge, concurs--absolutely
indispensable. That Lavengro would have profited by curtailment, I
stated before its publication. The result has verified my
anticipations, and in the present instance I feel compelled to make
it the condition of publication. You can well imagine that it is not
my INTEREST to shorten a book from two volumes to one unless there
were really good cause.

Lavengro clearly has not been successful. Let us not then risque the
chance of another failure, but try to avoid the rock upon which we
then split. You have so great store of interesting matter in your
mind and in your notes, that I cannot but feel it to be a pity that
you should harp always upon one string, as it were. It seems to me
that you have dwelt too long on English ground in this new work, and
have resuscitated some characters of the former book (such as F.
Ardry) whom your readers would have been better pleased to have left
behind. Why should you not introduce us rather to those novel scenes
of Moscovite and Hungarian life respecting which I have heard you
drop so many stimulating allusions. Do not, I pray, take offence at
what I have written. It is difficult and even painful for me to
assume the office of critic, and this is one of the reasons why this
note has lingered so long in my desk. Fortunately, in the advice I
am tendering I am supported by others of better literary judgment
than myself, and who have also deep regard for you. I will specify
below some of the passages which I would point out for omission.--
With best remembrances, I remain, my dear Borrow, Your faithful
publisher and sincere friend,

JOHN MURRAY.


Suggestions for Omission.

The Hungarian in No. 6.
The Jockey Story, terribly spun out, No. 7.
Visit to the Church, too long.
Interview with the Irishman, Do.
Learning Chinese, too much repetition in this part of a very
interesting chapter.
The Postilion and Highwayman.
Throughout the MS. condensation is indispensable. Many of the
narratives are carried to a tedious length by details and repetition.
The dialogue with Ursula, the song, etc., border on the indelicate.
I like much Horncastle Fair, the Chinese scholar, except objection
noted above.
Grooming of the horse.
January 27, 1855.


On 29th January, Mrs Borrow wrote to John Murray a letter that was
inspired by Borrow himself. Dr Knapp discovered the original draft,
some of which was in Borrow's own hand. It runs:-


Dear Mr Murray,--We have received your letters. In the first place I
beg leave to say something on a very principal point. You talk about
CONDITIONS of publishing. Mr Borrow has not the slightest wish to
publish the book. The MS. was left with you because you wished to
see it, and when left, you were particularly requested not to let it
pass out of your own hands. But it seems you have shown it to
various individuals whose opinions you repeat. What those opinions
are worth may be gathered from the following fact.

The book is one of the most learned works ever written; yet in the
summary of the opinions which you give, not one single allusion is
made to the learning which pervades the book, no more than if it
contained none at all. It is treated just as if all the philological
and historical facts were mere inventions, and the book a common
novel . . .

With regard to Lavengro it is necessary to observe that if ever a
book experienced infamous and undeserved treatment it was that book.
It was attacked in every form that envy and malice could suggest, on
account of Mr Borrow's acquirements and the success of The Bible in
Spain, and it was deserted by those whose duty it was, in some degree
to have protected it. No attempt was ever made to refute the vile
calumny that it was a book got up against the Popish agitation of
'51. It was written years previous to that period--a fact of which
none is better aware than the Publisher. Is that calumny to be still
permitted to go unanswered?

If these suggestions are attended to, well and good; if not, Mr
Borrow can bide his time. He is independent of the public and of
everybody. Say no more on that Russian Subject. Mr Borrow has had
quite enough of the press. If he wrote a book on Russia, it would be
said to be like The Bible in Spain, or it would be said to be unlike
The Bible in Spain, and would be blamed in either case. He has
written a book in connection with England such as no other body could
have written, and he now rests from his labours. He has found
England an ungrateful country. It owes much to him, and he owes
nothing to it. If he had been a low ignorant impostor, like a person
he could name, he would have been employed and honoured.--I remain,
Yours sincerely,

MARY BORROW.


On 5th April 1856 Mrs Borrow wrote again, requesting Murray to return
the manuscript, but for what purpose she does not state. Two days
later it was despatched by rail from Albemarle Street.

Some years before, Borrow had met Rev. Whitwell Elwin, Rector of
Booton, somewhere about the time he (Elwin) came up to London to edit
The Quarterly Review, viz., 1853. {431a} The first interview between
the two men has been described as characteristic of both.


"Borrow was just then very sore with his slashing critics, and on
someone mentioning that Elwin was a 'Quartering reviewer,' he said,
'Sir, I wish you a better employment.' Then hastily changing the
subject, he called out, 'What party are you in the Church--
Tractarian, Moderate, or Evangelical? I am happy to say, _I_ am the
old HIGH.' 'I am happy to say I am NOT,' was Elwin's emphatic reply.
Borrow boasted of his proficiency in the Norfolk dialect, which he
endeavoured to speak as broadly as possible. 'I told him,' said
Elwin, 'that he had not cultivated it with his usual success.' As
the conversation proceeded it became less disputatious, and the two
ended by becoming so cordial that they promised to visit each other.
Borrow fulfilled his promise in the following October, when he went
to Booton, and was 'full of anecdote and reminiscence,' and delighted
the rectory children by singing them songs in the gypsy tongue.
Elwin during this visit urged him to try his hand at an article for
the Review. 'Never,' he said, 'I have made a resolution never to
have anything to do with such a blackguard trade.'" {432a}


Elwin became greatly interested in The Romany Rye. He endeavoured to
influence its composition, and even wrote to Borrow begging him "to
give his sequel to Lavengro more of an historical, and less of a
romancing air." He was not happy about the book. He wrote to John
Murray in March:-


"'It is not the statements themselves which provoke incredulity, but
the melodramatic effect which he tries to impart to all his
adventures.' Instead of 'roaring like a lion,' in reply, as Elwin
had expected, he returned quite a 'lamb-like' note, which gave
promise of a greater success for his new work than its precursor."
{432b}


Borrow appears to have become tired of biding his time with regard to
The Romany Rye, and on 27th Feb. 1857 he wrote to John Murray to say
that "the work must go to press, and that unless the printing is
forthwith commenced, I must come up to London and make arrangements
myself. Time is passing away. It ought to have appeared many years
ago. I can submit to no more delays." The work was accordingly
proceeded with, and Elwin wrote a criticism of the work for The
Quarterly Review from the proof-sheets:-


"When the review was almost finished, it was on the point of being
altogether withdrawn, owing to a passage in Romany Rye which Elwin
said was clearly meant to be a reflection on his friend Ford, 'to
avenge the presumed refusal of the latter to praise Lavengro in The
Quarterly Review.' 'I am very anxious,' he said, 'to get Borrow
justice for rare merits which have been entirely overlooked, but if
he persists in publishing an attack of this kind I shall, I fear, not
be able to serve him.' The objectionable paragraphs had been written
by Borrow under a misapprehension, and he cancelled them as soon as
he was convinced of his error." {433a}


John Murray determined not to publish the book unless the offending
passage were removed. He wrote to Borrow the following letter:-


8th April 1857.

My Dear Borrow,--When I have done anything towards you deserving of
apology I will not hesitate to offer one. As it is, I have acted
loyally towards you, and with a view to maintain your interests.

I agreed to publish your present work solely with the object of
obliging you, and in a great degree at the strong recommendation of
Cooke. I meant (as was my duty) to do my very best to promote its
success. You on your side promised to listen to me in regard to any
necessary omissions; and on the faith of this, I pointed out one
omission, which I make the indispensable condition of my proceeding
further with the book. I have asked nothing unfair nor unreasonable-
-nay, a compliance with the request is essential for your own
character as an author and a man.

You are the last man that I should ever expect to "frighten or
bully"; and if a mild but firm remonstrance against an offensive
passage in your book is interpreted by you into such an application,
I submit that the grounds for the notion must exist nowhere but in
your own imagination. The alternative offered to you is to omit or
publish elsewhere. Nothing shall compel me to PUBLISH what you have
written. Think calmly and dispassionately over this, and when you
have decided let me know.

Yours very faithfully,
JOHN MURRAY.


The reference that had so offended Murray and Elwin had, in all
probability been interpolated in proof form, otherwise it would have
been discovered either when Murray read the manuscript or Elwin the
proofs. By return of post came the following reply from Borrow, then
at Great Yarmouth:-


Dear Sir,--Yesterday I received your letter. You had better ask your
cousin [Robert Cooke] to come down and talk about matters. AFTER
Monday I shall be disengaged and shall be most happy to see him. And
now I must tell you that you are exceedingly injudicious. You call a
chapter heavy, and I, not wishing to appear unaccommodating, remove
or alter two or three passages for which I do not particularly care,
whereupon you make most unnecessary comments, obtruding your private
judgment upon matters with which you have no business, and of which
it is impossible that you should have a competent knowledge. If you
disliked the passages you might have said so, but you had no right to
say anything more. I believe that you not only meant no harm, but
that your intentions were good; unfortunately, however, people with
the best of intentions occasionally do a great deal of harm. In your
language you are frequently in the highest degree injudicious; for
example, in your last letter you talk of obliging me by publishing my
work. Now is not that speaking very injudiciously? Surely you
forget that I could return a most cutting answer were I disposed to
do so.

I believe, however, that your intentions are good, and that you are
disposed to be friendly.--Yours truly,

GEORGE BORROW.


The tone of this letter is strangely reminiscent of some of the Rev
Andrew Brandram's admonitions to Borrow himself, during his
association with the Bible Society. Borrow bowed to the wind, and
the offending passage was deleted, and The Romany Rye eventually
appeared on 30th April 1857, in an edition of a thousand copies. The
public, or such part of it as had not forgotten Borrow, had been kept
waiting six years to know what had happened on the morning after the
storm. Lavengro had ended by the postilion concluding his story with
"Young gentleman, I will now take a spell on your blanket--young
lady, good-night," and presumably the three, Borrow, Isopel Berners
and their guest had lain down to sleep, and a great quiet fell upon
the dingle, and the moon and the stars shone down upon it, and the
red glow from the charcoal in the brazier paled and died away.

The Romany Rye is a puzzling book. The latter portion, at least,
seems to suggest "spiritual autobiography." It reveals the man, his
atmosphere, his character, and nowhere better than among the jockeys
at Horncastle. It gives a better and more convincing picture of
Borrow than the most accurate list of dates and occurrences, all
vouched for upon unimpeachable authority. It is impressionism
applied to autobiography, which has always been considered as
essentially a subject for photographic treatment. Borrow thought
otherwise, with the result that many people decline to believe that
his picture is a portrait, because there is a question as to the
dates.

Among the reviews, which were on the whole unfriendly, was the
remarkable notice in The Quarterly Review, by the Rev. Whitwell
Elwin:- {435a}


"Nobody," he wrote, "sympathises with wounded vanity, and the world
only laughs when a man angrily informs it that it does not rate him
at his true value. The public to whom he appeals must, after all, be
the judge of his pretensions. Their verdict at first is frequently
wrong, but it is they themselves who must reverse it, and not the
author who is upon his trial before them. The attacks of critics, if
they are unjust, invariably yield to the same remedy. Though we do
not think that Mr Borrow is a good counsel in his own cause, we are
yet strongly of the opinion that Time in this case has some wrongs to
repair, and that Lavengro has NOT obtained the fame which was its
due. It contains passages which in their way are not surpassed by
anything in English Literature."


The value of these prophetic words lies in the fine spirit of
fatherly reproof in which the whole review was written. It is the
work of a critic who regarded literature as a thing to be approached,
both by author and reviewer, with grave and deliberate ceremony, not
with enthusiasm or prejudice. From any other source the following
words would not have possessed the significance they did, coming from
a man of such sane ideas with the courage to express them:-


"Various portions of the history are known to be a faithful narrative
of Mr Borrow's career, while we ourselves can testify, as to many
other parts of his volumes, that nothing can excel the fidelity with
which he has described both men and things. Far from his showing any
tendency to exaggeration, such of his characters as we chance to have
known, and they are not a few, are rather within the truth than
beyond it. However picturesquely they may be drawn, the lines are
invariably those of nature. Why under these circumstances he should
envelop the question in mystery is more than we can divine. There
can be no doubt that the larger part, and possibly the whole, of the
work is a narrative of actual occurrences." {436a}


The Appendix itself, which had drawn from Elwin the grave declaration
that "Mr Borrow is very angry with his critics," is a fine piece of
rhetorical denunciation. It opens with the deliberate restraint of a
man who feels the fury of his wrath surging up within him. It tells
again the story of Lavengro, pointing morals as it goes. Then the
studied calm is lost--Priestcraft, "Foreign Nonsense," "Gentility
Nonsense," "Canting Nonsense," "Pseudo-Critics," "Pseudo-Radicals" he
flogs and pillories mercilessly until, arriving at "The Old Radical,"
he throws off all restraint and lunges out wildly, mad with hate and
despair. As a piece of literary folly, the Appendix to The Romany
Rye has probably never been surpassed. It alienated from Borrow all
but his personal friends, and it sealed his literary fate as far as
his own generation was concerned. In short, he had burnt his boats.

Borrow had sent a copy of The Romany Rye to FitzGerald, which is
referred to by him in a letter written from Gorleston to Professor
Cowell (5th June 1857):-


"Within hail almost lives George Borrow who has lately published, and
given me, two new Volumes of Lavengro called Romany Rye, with some
excellent things, and some very bad (as I have made bold to write to
him--how shall I face him!). You would not like the Book at all, I
think." {437a}


Borrow was bitterly disappointed at the effect produced by The Romany
Rye. On someone once saying that it was the finest piece of literary
invective since Swift, he replied, "Yes, I meant it to be; and what
do you think the effect was? No one took the least notice of it!"
{437b}

The Romany Rye was not a success. The thousand copies lasted a year.
When it appeared likely that a second edition would be required,
Borrow wrote to John Murray urging him not to send the book to the
press again until he "was quite sure the demand for it will at least
defray all attendant expenses." He saw that whatever profits had
resulted from the publication of the first edition, were in danger of
being swallowed up in the preparation of a second. When this did
eventually make its appearance in 1858, it was limited to 750 copies,
which lasted until 1872.

Borrow's own attitude with regard to the work and his wisdom in
publishing it is summed up in a letter to John Murray (17th Sept.
1857):-


"I was very anxious to bring it out," he writes; "and I bless God
that I had the courage and perseverance to do so. It is of course
unpalatable to many; for it scorns to foster delusion, to cry 'peace
where there is no peace,' and denounces boldly the evils which are
hurrying the country to destruction, and which have kindled God's
anger against it, namely, the pride, insolence, cruelty,
covetousness, and hypocrisy of its people, and above all the rage for
gentility, which must be indulged in at the expense of every good and
honourable feeling."


The writing of the Appendix had aroused in Borrow all his old
enthusiasm, and he appears to have come to the determination to
publish a number of works, including a veritable library of
translations. At the end of The Romany Rye appeared a lengthy list
of books in preparation. {438a}

In August 1857 Borrow paid a second visit to Wales, walking "upwards
of four hundred miles." Starting from Laugharne in Carmarthenshire,
he visited Tenby, Pembroke, Milford Haven, Haverford, St David's,
Fishguard, Newport, Cardigan, Lampeter; passing into Brecknockshire,
he eventually reached Mortimer's Cross in Hereford and thence to
Shrewsbury. In October he was at Leighton, Donnington and Uppington,
where he found traces of Gronwy Owen, the one-time curate and all-
time poet.

Throughout his life Borrow had shown by every action and word written
about her, the great love he bore his mother. When his wife wrote to
her and he was too restless to do so himself, he would interpolate
two or three lines to "My dear Mamma." She was always in his
thoughts, and he never wavered in his love for her and devotion to
her comfort; whilst she looked upon him as only a mother so good and
so tender could look upon a son who had become her "only hope."

For many years of her life it had been ordained that this brave old
lady should live alone. {439a} In the middle of August 1858 the news
reached Borrow that his mother had been taken suddenly ill. She was
in her eighty-seventh year, and at such an age all illnesses are
dangerous. Borrow hastened to Oulton, and arrived just in time to be
with her at the last.

Thus on 16th August 1858, of "pulmonary congestion," died Anne
Borrow, who had followed her husband about with his regiment, and had
reared and educated her two boys under circumstances of great
disadvantage. She had lost one; but the other, her youngest born,
whom she had so often shielded from his father's reproaches, had been
spared to her, and she had seen him famous. Upon her grave in Oulton
Churchyard the son caused to be inscribed the words, "She was a good
wife and a good mother," than which no woman can ask more. {440a}

The death of his mother was a great shock to Borrow. "He felt the
blow keenly," Mrs Borrow wrote to John Murray, "and I advised a tour
in Scotland to recruit his health and spirits." Accordingly he went
North early in October, leaving his wife and Henrietta at Great
Yarmouth. He visited the Highlands, walking several hundred miles.
Mull struck him as "a very wild country, perhaps the wildest in
Europe." Many of its place-names reminded him strongly of the Isle
of Man. At the end of November he finished up the tour at Lerwick in
Shetland, where he bought presents for his "loved ones," having seen
Greenock, Glasgow, Perth, Aberdeen, Inverness, Wick, Thurso among
other places. His impressions were not altogether favourable to the
Scotch. "A queerer country I never saw in all my life," he wrote
later . . . "a queerer set of people than the Scotch you would
scarcely see in a summer's day." {440b}

In the following year (1859) an excursion was made to Ireland by
Borrow and his family. Making Dublin his headquarters, where he left
his wife and Henrietta comfortably settled, he tramped to Connemara
and the Giant's Causeway, the expedition being full of adventure and
affording him "much pleasure," in spite of the fact that he was
"frequently wet to the skin, and indifferently lodged."

Borrow had inherited from his mother some property at Mattishall
Burgh, one and a half miles from his birth-place, consisting of some
land, a thatched house and outbuildings, now demolished. This was
let to a small-holder named Henry Hill. Borrow thought very highly
of his tenant, and for hours together would tramp up and down beside
him as he ploughed the land, asking questions, and hearing always
something new from the amazing stores of nature knowledge that Henry
Hill had acquired. This Norfolk worthy appears to have been
possessed of a genius for many things. He was well versed in herbal
lore, a self-taught 'cellist, playing each Sunday in the
Congregational Chapel at Mattishall, and an equally self-taught
watch-repairer; but his chief claim to fame was as a bee-keeper,
local tradition crediting him with being the first man to keep bees
under glass. He would solemnly state that his bees, whom he looked
upon as friends, talked to him. On Sundays the country folk for
miles round would walk over to Mattishall Burgh to see old Henry
Hill's bees, and hear him expound their lore. It was perforce
Sunday, there was no other day for the Norfolk farm-labourer of that
generation, who seemed always to live on the verge of starvation.
Borrow himself expressed regret to Henry Hill that it had not been
possible to add the education of the academy to that of the land. He
saw that the combination would have produced an even more remarkable
man.