Th. Bentzon (Mme. Blanc) - "Jacqueline, v2"

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Thornton W. Burgess - "Mrs. Peter Rabbit"

Laura Lee Hope - "The Story of a Lamb on Wheels"

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

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
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.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
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




With impressive manner and ponderous diction, Sir Richard Phillips
unfolded his philanthropic designs regarding the young writer to whom
his words meant a career. He did not end with the appointment of
Borrow as general utility writer upon The Universal Review; but
proceeded to astonish him with the announcement that to him, George
Borrow, understanding German in a manner that aroused the "strong
admiration" of William Taylor, was to be entrusted the translating
into that tongue of Sir Richard Phillips' book of Philosophy. {44b}
If translations of Goethe into English were a drug, Sir Richard
Phillips' Proximate Causes was to prove that neither he nor his book
would be a drug in Germany. For this work the remuneration was to be
determined by the success of the translation, an arrangement
sufficiently vague to ensure eventual disagreement.

When Sir Richard had finished his account of what were his intentions
towards his guest, he gave him to understand that the interview was
at an end, at the same time intimating how seldom it was that he
dealt so generously with a young writer. Borrow then rose from the
table and passed out of the house, leaving his host to muse, as was
his custom on Sunday afternoons, "on the magnificence of nature and
the moral dignity of man."

For the next few weeks Borrow was occupied in searching in out-of-
the-way corners for criminal biography. If he flagged, a visit from
his philosopher-publisher spurred him on to fresh effort. He
received a copy of Proximate Causes, with an injunction that he
should review it in The Universal Review, as well as translate it
into German. He was taken to and introduced to the working editor
{45a} of the new publication, which was only ostensibly under the
control of young Phillips.

In the provision that he should purchase at his own expense all the
necessary materials for Celebrated Trials, Borrow found a serious tax
upon his resources; but a harder thing to bear with patience and
good-humour were the frequent visits he received from Sir Richard
himself, who showed the keenest possible interest in the progress of
the compilation. He had already caused a preliminary announcement to
be made {45b} to the effect that:


"A Selection of the most remarkable Trials and Criminal Causes is
printing, in five volumes. {46a} It will include all famous cases,
from that of Lord Cobham, in the reign of Henry the Fifth, to that of
John Thurtell: and those connected with foreign as well as English
jurisprudence. Mr Borrow, the editor, has availed himself of all the
resources of the English, German, French, and Italian languages; and
his work, including from 150 to 200 {46b} of the most interesting
cases on record, will appear in October next." {46c}


Sir Richard's visits to Milman Street were always accompanied by
numerous suggestions as to criminals whose claims to be included in
this literary chamber of horrors were in his, Sir Richard's, opinion
unquestionable. The English character of the compilation was soon
sacrificed in order to admit notable malefactors of other
nationalities, and the drain upon the editor's small capital became
greater than ever.

The leisure that he allowed himself, Borrow spent in exploring the
city, or in the company of Francis Arden (Ardrey in Lavengro), whom
he had met by chance in the coffee-room of a hotel. The two appear
to have been excellent friends, perhaps because of the dissimilarity
of their natures. "He was an Irishman," Borrow explains, "I an
Englishman; he fiery, enthusiastic and opened-hearted; I neither
fiery, enthusiastic, nor open-hearted; he fond of pleasure and
dissipation, I of study and reflection." {46d}

They went to the play together, to dog-fights, gaming-houses, in
short saw the sights of London. The arrival of Francis Arden at 16
Milman Street was a signal for books and manuscripts to be thrown
aside in favour either of some expedition or an hour or two's
conversation. Borrow, however, soon tired of the pleasures of
London, and devoted himself almost entirely to work. Although he saw
less of Francis Arden in consequence, they continued to be excellent
friends.

After being some four weeks in London, Borrow received a surprise
visit (29th April) from his brother, whom he found waiting for him
one morning when he came down to breakfast. John told him of his
mother's anxiety at receiving only one letter from him since his
departure, of her fits of crying, of the grief of Captain Borrow's
dog at the loss of his master. He also explained the reason for his
being in London. He had been invited to paint the portrait of Robert
Hawkes, an ex-mayor of Norwich, for a fee of a hundred guineas.
Lacking confidence in his own ability, he had declined the honour and
suggested that Benjamin Haydon should be approached. At the request
of a deputation of his fellow citizens, which had waited upon him, he
had undertaken to enter into negotiations with Haydon. He even
undertook to come up to London at his own expense, that he might see
his old master and complete the bargain. Borrow subsequently
accompanied his brother when calling upon Haydon, and was enabled to
give a thumbnail-sketch of the painter of the Heroic at work that has
been pronounced to be photographic in its faithfulness.

John returned to Norwich about a fortnight later accompanied by
Haydon, who was to become the guest of his sitter, {47a} and George
was left to the compilation of Celebrated Trials. Sir Richard
Phillips appears to have been a man as prolific of suggestion as he
was destitute of tact. He regarded his authors as the instruments of
his own genius. Their business it was to carry out his ideas in a
manner entirely congenial to his colossal conceit. His latest author
he exposed "to incredible mortification and ceaseless trouble from
this same rage for interference."

The result of all this was an attack of the "Horrors." Towards the
end of May, Roger Kerrison received from Borrow a note saying that he
believed himself to be dying, and imploring him to "come to me
immediately." The direct outcome of this note was, not the death of
Borrow, but the departure from Milman Street of Roger Kerrison, lest
he should become involved in a tragedy connected with Borrow's oft-
repeated threat of suicide. Kerrison became "very uneasy and
uncomfortable on his account, so that I have found it utterly
impossible to live any longer in the same lodgings with him." {48a}
Looked at dispassionately it seems nothing short of an act of
cowardice on Kerrison's part to leave alone a man such as Borrow, who
might at any moment be assailed by one of those periods of gloom from
which suicide seemed the only outlet. On the other hand, from an
anecdote told by C. G. Leland ("Hans Breitmann"), there seems to be
some excuse for Kerrison's wish to live alone. "I knew at that time
[about 1870]," he writes, {48b} "a Mr Kerrison, who had been as a
young man, probably in the Twenties, on intimate terms with Borrow.
He told me that one night Borrow acted very wildly, whooping and
vociferating so as to cause the police to follow him, and after a
long run led them to the edge of the Thames, 'and there they thought
they had him.' But he plunged boldly into the water and swam in his
clothes to the opposite shore, and so escaped."

A serious misfortune now befell Borrow in the premature death of The
Universal Review, which expired with the sixth number (March 1824--
January 1825). It is not known what was the rate of pay to young and
impecunious reviewers {49a} certainly not large, if it may be judged
by the amount agreed upon for Celebrated Trials. Still, its end
meant that Borrow was now dependent upon what he received for his
compilation, and what he merited by his translation into German of
Proximate Causes.

There appears to have been some difficulty about payment for Borrow's
contributions to the now defunct review, which considerably widened
the breach that the Trials had created. Sir Richard became more
exacting and more than ever critical. {49b} The end could not be far
off. Borrow had come to London determined to be an author, and by no
juggling with facts could his present drudgery be considered as
authorship. Occasionally his mind reverted to the manuscripts in the
green box, his faith in which continued undiminished. He made
further efforts to get his translations published, but everywhere the
answer was the same, in effect, "A drug, sir, a drug!"

At last he determined to approach John Murray (the Second), "Glorious
John, who lived at the western end of the town"; but he called many
times without being successful in seeing him. Another seventeen
years were to elapse before he was to meet and be published by John
Murray.

Yet another dispute arose between Borrow and Sir Richard Phillips.
Neither appeared to have realised the supreme folly of entrusting to
a young Englishman the translation into German of an English work. A
novel would have presented almost insurmountable difficulties; but a
work of philosophy! The whole project was absurd. The diction of
philosophy in all languages is individual, just as it is in other
branches of science, and a very thorough knowledge of, and deep
reading in both languages are necessary to qualify a man to translate
from a foreign tongue into his own. To expect an inexperienced youth
to reverse the order seems to suggest that Sir Richard Phillips must
have been a publisher whose enthusiasm was greater than his judgment.

One day when calling at Tavistock Square, Borrow found Sir Richard in
a fury of rage. He had submitted the first chapter of the
translation of Proximate Causes to some Germans, who found it utterly
unintelligible. This was only to be expected, as Borrow confesses
that, when he found himself unable to comprehend what was the meaning
of the English text, he had translated it LITERALLY INTO GERMAN!

The result of the interview was that Borrow, after what appears to be
a tactless, not to say impertinent, rejoinder, {50a} relapsed into
silence and finally left the house, ordered back to his compilation
by Sir Richard, as soon as he became sufficiently calm to appear
coherent, and Borrow walked away musing on the "difference in clever
men."

The discovery of the inadequacy of the German translation apparently
urged Borrow to hasten on with Celebrated Trials. The Universal
Review was dead, the German version of Proximate Causes {50b} had
passed out of his hands. It was desirable, therefore, that the
remaining undertaking should be completed as soon as possible, that
the two might part. The last of the manuscript was delivered, the
proofs passed for press, and on 19th March the work appeared, the six
volumes, running to between three and four thousand pages, containing
accounts of some four hundred trials, including that of Borrow's old
friend Thurtell for the murder of Mr Weare.

Borrow's name did not appear. He was "the editor," and as such was
referred to in the preface contributed by Sir Richard himself. Among
other things he tells of how, in some cases, "the Editor has
compressed into a score of pages the substance of an entire volume."
Sir Richard was a philosopher as well as a preface-writing publisher,
and it was only natural that he should speculate as to the effect
upon his editor's mind of months spent in reading and editing such
records of vice. "It may be expected," he writes, "that the Editor
should convey to his readers the intellectual impressions which the
execution of his task has produced on his mind. He confesses that
they are mournful." Sir Richard was either a master of irony, or a
man of singular obtuseness.

One effect of this delving into criminal records had been to raise in
Borrow's mind strange doubts about virtue and crime. When a boy, he
had written an essay in which he strove to prove that crime and
virtue were mere terms, and that we were the creatures of necessity
or circumstance. These broodings in turn reawakened the theory that
everything is a lie, and that nothing really exists except in our
imaginations. The world was "a maze of doubt." These indications of
an overtaxed brain increased, and eventually forced Borrow to leave
London. His work was thoroughly uncongenial. He disliked reviewing;
he had failed in his endeavours to render Proximate Causes into
intelligible German; and it had taken him some time to overcome his
dislike of the sordid stories of crime and criminals that he had to
read and edit. He became gloomy and depressed, and prone to compare
the real conditions of authorship with those that his imagination had
conjured up.

The most important result of his labours in connection with
Celebrated Trials was that upon his literary style. There is a
tremendous significance in the following passage. It tells of the
transition of the actual vagabond into the literary vagabond, with
power to express in words what proved so congenial to Borrow's
vagabond temperament:


"Of all my occupations at this period I am free to confess I liked
that of compiling the Newgate Lives and Trials [Celebrated Trials]
the best; that is, after I had surmounted a kind of prejudice which I
originally entertained. The trials were entertaining enough; but the
lives--how full were they of wild and racy adventures, and in what
racy, genuine language were they told. What struck me most with
respect to these lives was the art which the writers, whoever they
were, possessed of telling a plain story. It is no easy thing to
tell a story plainly and distinctly by mouth; but to tell one on
paper is difficult indeed, so many snares lie in the way. People are
afraid to put down what is common on paper, they seek to embellish
their narratives, as they think, by philosophic speculations and
reflections; they are anxious to shine, and people who are anxious to
shine can never tell a plain story. 'So I went with them to a music
booth, where they made me almost drunk with gin, and began to talk
their flash language, which I did not understand,' {52a} says, or is
made to say, Henry Simms, executed at Tyburn some seventy years
before the time of which I am speaking. I have always looked upon
this sentence as a masterpiece of the narrative style, it is so
concise and yet so clear." {52b}


By the time the work was published and Borrow had been paid his fee,
all relations between editor and publisher had ceased, and there was
"a poor author, or rather philologist, upon the streets of London,
possessed of many tongues," which he found "of no use in the world."
{52c} A month after the appearance of Celebrated Trials (18th
April), and a little more than a year after his arrival in London,
Borrow published a translation of Klinger's Faustus. {53a} He
himself gives no particulars as to whether it was commissioned or no.
It may even have been "the Romance in the German style" from the
Green Box. It is known that he received payment for it by a bill at
five or six months, {53b} but there is no mention of the amount. It
would appear that the translation had long been projected, for in The
Monthly Magazine, July 1824, there appeared, in conjunction with the
announcement of Celebrated Trials, the following paragraph: "The
editor of the preceding has ready for the press, a Life of Faustus,
his Death and Descent into Hell, which will also appear the next
winter."

Faustus did not meet with a very cordial reception. The Literary
Gazette (16th July 1825) characterised it as "another work to which
no respectable publisher ought to have allowed his name to be put.
The political allusion and metaphysics, which may have made it
popular among a low class in Germany, do not sufficiently season its
lewd scenes and coarse descriptions for British palates. We have
occasionally publications for the fireside,--these are only fit for
the fire."

Borrow had apparently been in some doubt about certain passages, for
in a note headed "The Translator to the Public," he defends the work
as moral in its general teaching:


"The publication of the present volume may at first sight appear to
require some brief explanation from the Translator, inasmuch as the
character of the incidents may justify such an expectation on the
part of the reader. It is, therefore, necessary to state that,
although scenes of vice and crime are here exhibited, it is merely in
the hope that they may serve as beacons, to guide the ignorant and
unwary from the shoals on which they might otherwise be wrecked. The
work, when considered as a whole, is strictly moral."


It must be confessed that Faustus does not err on the side of
restraint. Many of its scenes might appear "lewd . . . and coarse"
to anyone who for a moment allowed his mind to wander from the
morality of "its general teaching." The attacks upon the lax morals
of the priesthood must have proved particularly congenial to the
translator.

The more Borrow read his translations of Ab Gwilym, the more
convinced he became of their merit and the profit they would bring to
him who published them. The booksellers, however, with singular
unanimity, declined the risk of introducing to the English public
either Welsh or Danish ballads; and their translator became so shabby
in consequence, that he refrained from calling upon his friend Arden,
for whom he had always cherished a very real friendship. He began to
lose heart. His energy left him and with it went hope. He was
forced to review his situation. Authorship had obviously failed, and
he found himself with no reasonable prospect of employment.

There is no episode in Borrow's life that has so exercised the minds
of commentators and critics as his account of the book he terms in
Lavengro, The Life and Adventures of Joseph Sell, the Great
Traveller. Some dismiss the whole story as apocryphal; others see in
it a grain of truth distorted into something of vital importance;
whilst there are a number of earnest Borrovians that accept the whole
story as it is written. Dr Knapp has said that Joseph Sell "was not
a book at all, and the author of it never said that it was." This
was obviously an error, for the bookseller is credited with saying,
"I think I shall venture on sending your book to the press," {55a}
referring to it as a "book" four times in nine lines. Again, in
another place, Borrow describes how he rescued himself "from
peculiarly miserable circumstances by writing a book, an original
book, within a week, even as Johnson is said to have written his
Rasselas and Beckford his Vathek." {55b} This removes all question
of the Life and Adventures of Joseph Sell being included in a
collection of short stories. The title would not be the same, the
date is most probably wrongly given, as in the case of Marshland
Shales; but the general accuracy of the account as written seems to
be highly probable. Many efforts have been made to trace the story;
but so far unsuccessfully. It must be remembered that Borrow loved
to stretch the long arm of coincidence; but he loved more than
anything else a dramatic situation. He was always on the look out
for effective "curtains."

In favour of the story having been actually written, is the knowledge
that Borrow invented little or nothing. Collateral evidence has
shown how little he deviated from actual happenings, although he did
not hesitate to revise dates or colour events. The strongest
evidence, however, lies in the atmosphere of truth that pervades
Chapters LV.-LVII. of Lavengro. They are convincing. At one time or
another during his career, it would appear that Borrow wrote against
time from grim necessity; otherwise he must have been a master of
invention, which everything that is known about him clearly shows
that he was not.

Joseph Sell has disappeared, a most careful search of the Registers
at Stationers' Hall can show no trace of that work, or any book that
seems to suggest it, and the contemporary literary papers render no
assistance.

According to Borrow's own account, one morning on getting up he found
that he had only half a crown in the world. It was this
circumstance, coupled with the timely notice that he saw affixed to a
bookseller's window to the effect that "A Novel or Tale is much
wanted," that determined him to endeavour to emulate Dr Johnson and
William Beckford. He had tired of "the Great City," and his thoughts
turned instinctively to the woods and the fields, where he could be
free to meditate and muse in solitude.

When he returned to Milman Street after seeing the bookseller's
advertisement, he found that his resources had been still further
reduced to eighteen-pence. He was too proud to write home for
assistance, he had broken with Sir Richard Phillips, and he had no
reasonable expectation of obtaining employment of any description;
for his accomplishments found no place in the catalogue of everyday
wants. He was a proper man with his hands, and knew some score or
more languages. No matter how he regarded the situation, the facts
were obvious. Between him and actual starvation there was the
inconsiderable sum of eighteen-pence and the bookseller's
advertisement. The gravity of the situation banished the cloud of
despondency that threatened to settle upon him, and also the doubts
that presented themselves as to whether he possessed the requisite
ability to produce what the bookseller required. The all-important
question was, could he exist sufficiently long on eighteen-pence to
complete a story? Sir Richard Phillips had told him to live on bread
and water. He now did so.

For a week he wrote ceaselessly at the Life and Adventures of Joseph
Sell, the Great Traveller. He wrote with the feverish energy of a
man who sees the shadow of actual starvation cast across his
manuscript. When the tale was finished there remained the work of
revision, and after that, worst of all, fears lest the bookseller
were already suited.

Fortune, however, was kind to him, and he was successful in
extracting for his story the sum of twenty pounds. Borrow had not
mixed among gypsies for nothing. He, a starving and unknown author,
succeeded in extracting from a bookseller twenty pounds for a story,
twice the amount offered by Sir Richard Phillips for a novel on the
lines of The Dairyman's Daughter. It was an achievement.

The first argument against the story, as related by Borrow, is that
he was not without resources at the time. Why should he be so
impoverished a few weeks after receiving payment for Celebrated
Trials? {57a} Above all, why did he not realise upon Simpkin &
Marshall's bill for Faustus? He would have experienced no difficulty
in discounting a bill accepted by such a firm. It seems hardly
conceivable that he should preserve this piece of paper when he had
only eighteen-pence in the world. Everything seems to point to the
fact that in May 1825 Borrow was not in want of money, and if he were
not, why did he almost kill himself by writing the Life and
Adventures of Joseph Sell? Again, at that period he had met with no
adventures such as might be included in the life of a "Great
Traveller," and Borrow was not an inventive writer. Later he
possessed plenty of material; for there can be no question that he
roamed about the world for a considerable portion of those seven
mysterious years of his life that came to be known as the "Veiled
Period." His accuracy as to actual occurrences has been so
emphasised that this particular argument holds considerable
significance.

The strongest evidence against Joseph Sell having been written in
1825, however, lies in the fact that Greenwich Fair was held on 23rd
May, and not 12th May, as given by Dr Knapp. By his error Dr Knapp
makes Borrow leave London a day before the Fair took place that he
describes. Borrow must have left London on the day following
Greenwich Fair (24th May). If he left later, then those things which
tend to confirm his story of the life in the Dingle do not fit in, as
will be seen. He certainly could not have left before Greenwich Fair
was held.

In one of his brother John's letters, written at the end of 1829,
there is a significant passage, "Let me know how you sold your
manuscript." {58a} What manuscript is it that is referred to? There
is no record of George having sold a manuscript in the autumn of
1829. The passage can scarcely have reference to some article or
translation; it seems to suggest something of importance, an event in
George's life that his brother is anxious to know more about. If
this be Joseph Sell, then it explains where Borrow got the money from
to go up to London at the end of 1829, when he entered into relations
with Dr Bowring. It is merely a theory, it must be confessed; but
there is certain evidence that seems to support it. In the first
place, Borrow was a chronicler before all else. He possessed an
amazing memory and a great gift for turning his experiences into
literary material. If he coloured facts, he appears to have done so
unconsciously, to judge from those portions of The Bible in Spain
that were covered by letters to the Bible Society. Not only are the
facts the same, but, with very slight changes, the words in which he
relates them. He never hesitated to change a date if it served his
purpose, much as an artist will change the position of a tree in a
landscape to suit the exigencies of composition. His five volumes of
autobiography bristle with coincidences so amazing that, if they were
actually true, he must have been the most remarkable genius on record
for attracting to himself strange adventures. He met the sailor son
of the old Apple-Woman returning from his enforced exile; Murtagh
tells him of how the postilion frightened the Pope at Rome by his
denunciation, a story Borrow had already heard from the postilion
himself; the Hungarian at Horncastle narrates how an Armenian once
silenced a Moldavian, the same Moldavian whom Borrow had encountered
in London; the postilion meets the man in black again. There are
scores of such coincidences, which must be accepted as dramatic
embellishments.