John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 29 December 1868
Title
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 29 December 1868
Title
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 29 December 1868
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Eliot
Date(s)
- 1868-12-29
Place
Edinburgh
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 29 December 1868
MS: National Library of Scotland. Text of statement: Blackwood Letter Book. Hitherto unpublished.
Edinburgh December 29/68.
My Dear Madam
I have the pleasure of inclosing a cheque £333.18 in acknowledgment of the first and second editions of the Spanish Gypsy as per accompanying memorandum. The edition's being sold completely off makes the transaction a very satisfactory one. I expected a quicker rush of sales in the first instance, but the gradual nature of the sale is a better symptom.
I intended to have written to Lewes in reply to his obliging note, but something came in the way. We quite agree in what he says of calling each thousand an edition or even giving that title to a smaller number, and although our first edition was 2000, the second being so small brings the proportion very near.
Of the third edition (7/6) we have already disposed of over 800, which I hope this season will clear out of the hands of the Trade so as to let us go on quietly printing a fourth edition. 850
These sales are not what they ought to be, but looking to all that we hear of the fate of others, they give good cause for satisfaction. The newspaper critics have I see got it into their heads that it looks intellectual to admire or rather to praise Browning. I say praise because through all their laboured words and attempts at analogies it peers out that they can neither admire nor read him. I was struck by this and made to laugh in reading reviews in the Saturday and Athenaeum. The words are as laudatory as possible, but it is obvious that the creatures had the utmost difficulty in reading the words of their idol, so how could they admire him? I confess that I am a heretic as to Browning, but perhaps I have not gone at him seriously enough, although I have made several attempts and also read picked extracts with more of attention than admiration. I should like to hear what Lewes and you think of this first instalment of his new Poem. 851
Lewes seems to be getting on famously with his researches and experiments. I can easily imagine the pursuit becoming very exciting. Of your Novels I have not much to tell as they move very slowly. I never was so far out in calculating what a sale would be, but I know I was right as to what it should be. I do not allow the mistake to disturb me in the very least. We shall probably find our public and pull through in some cheaper form.
My nephew joins me in wishing Lewes and you health and happiness in the coming year, and I hope there are many years before us in which as in the past not the least pleasant of our associations and relations will be with George Eliot.
ever yours truly
John Blackwood.
Mrs. Lewes.
THE SPANISH GYPSY
Copies printed edition 2110 edition 252
Copies delivered
Author 8
Public Libraries 5 edition 1
Reviewers etc. 122
2226
Copies sold 2226
Royalty on 2226 copies at 3/ £333.18-
MS: National Library of Scotland. Text of statement: Blackwood Letter Book. Hitherto unpublished.
Edinburgh December 29/68.
My Dear Madam
I have the pleasure of inclosing a cheque £333.18 in acknowledgment of the first and second editions of the Spanish Gypsy as per accompanying memorandum. The edition's being sold completely off makes the transaction a very satisfactory one. I expected a quicker rush of sales in the first instance, but the gradual nature of the sale is a better symptom.
I intended to have written to Lewes in reply to his obliging note, but something came in the way. We quite agree in what he says of calling each thousand an edition or even giving that title to a smaller number, and although our first edition was 2000, the second being so small brings the proportion very near.
Of the third edition (7/6) we have already disposed of over 800, which I hope this season will clear out of the hands of the Trade so as to let us go on quietly printing a fourth edition. 850
These sales are not what they ought to be, but looking to all that we hear of the fate of others, they give good cause for satisfaction. The newspaper critics have I see got it into their heads that it looks intellectual to admire or rather to praise Browning. I say praise because through all their laboured words and attempts at analogies it peers out that they can neither admire nor read him. I was struck by this and made to laugh in reading reviews in the Saturday and Athenaeum. The words are as laudatory as possible, but it is obvious that the creatures had the utmost difficulty in reading the words of their idol, so how could they admire him? I confess that I am a heretic as to Browning, but perhaps I have not gone at him seriously enough, although I have made several attempts and also read picked extracts with more of attention than admiration. I should like to hear what Lewes and you think of this first instalment of his new Poem. 851
Lewes seems to be getting on famously with his researches and experiments. I can easily imagine the pursuit becoming very exciting. Of your Novels I have not much to tell as they move very slowly. I never was so far out in calculating what a sale would be, but I know I was right as to what it should be. I do not allow the mistake to disturb me in the very least. We shall probably find our public and pull through in some cheaper form.
My nephew joins me in wishing Lewes and you health and happiness in the coming year, and I hope there are many years before us in which as in the past not the least pleasant of our associations and relations will be with George Eliot.
ever yours truly
John Blackwood.
Mrs. Lewes.
THE SPANISH GYPSY
Copies printed edition 2110 edition 252
Copies delivered
Author 8
Public Libraries 5 edition 1
Reviewers etc. 122
2226
Copies sold 2226
Royalty on 2226 copies at 3/ £333.18-
Signature
John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 29 December 1868, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/95261