Abstract
Four hitherto unpublished letters from Edward Garnett (1868–1936) to Arnold Bennett (1867–1931), dated 26 February and 6 March 1902, and 27 November and 29 December 1908, throw light on Garnett’s perspicuity as a publisher’s reader for Duckworth and on the earliest reactions to Anna of the Five Towns, the novel that put Bennett on the map as a writer of fiction. Garnett had caveats: the suicide of Willie Price should be cut and in places, the novel was “over prosaic”. However, it gave Garnett and his wife, Constance Garnett (1861–1946), translator of Turgenev—an author that also interested Bennett—“enormous pleasure” and was strongly recommended. Bennett resisted making the changes and Anna was published by Chatto & Windus, who offered a higher royalty. It had a laudatory reception. The letters—the first pages of which are included in the article as an illustration of each transcription—illuminate Garnett and Bennett, their attitudes, and other literature they encountered. In 1902 Bennett was the supplicant, hoping to persuade Duckworth to publish his work, but by 1908 the correspondence is between equals. Thereafter it was Bennett who was the established figure in the literary world.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
R.D.C. Garnett, ‘Garnett, Edward William (1868–1937), publisher's editor and writer’, ODNB 2004.
Garnett reader’s report, 29 October 1902 now at the Berg Collection, New York Public Library, cited Smith (2017), p. 139.
In the transcription of unpublished letters line divisions in addresses, headings, and complimentary closes are indicated by vertical rule (|). Paragraphs are sometimes not clearly indicated in Garnett’s letters: at times he indicated a change of subject by leaving a somewhat larger space than usual between sentences; sometimes he started a fresh line. In both instances, a new paragraph is started in the letter transcriptions. Contractions, cancellations, underlining, and abbreviations are retained. Uncertain readings and material erased by Garnett but still legible appear in square brackets, as do editorial insertions. Garnett’s use of single and double quotation marks in his letters is inconsistent as he uses both. Our transcription retains this inconsistency of usage. There are no envelopes with these letters.
Garnett’s letters to Henry Lawson the Australian novelist (1867–1922) dated 1902 and 1903 are now in Garnett’s Family Papers at the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University. Garnett’s “An Appreciation” appeared in The Academy and Literature on March 8, 1902. Garnett wrote to Unwin for whom he was working at the time “Henry Lawson is the best Australian writer we have come across.” Furthermore “his work is original and brilliant”. Smith (2017), p. 140.
Cited Smith (2017), p. 196. Thanks are due to Dr. Smith for drawing attention to Garnett’s anticipation of Woolf’s subsequent observations. For the publication of Woolf’s essay and the title changes from “Modern Novels” to “Modern Fiction”: revised and published under the more well-known title “Modern Fiction” in Woolf’s The Common Reader (1925), see also B.J. Kirkpatrick and Stuart N. Clarke, A Bibliography of Virginia Woolf. 4th edition (1997), C147, p. 260.
The Nation, 18 March 1909, p. 274.
Times Literary Supplement, 4 July 1918, p. 88. For Merrick, see also Baker and Shumaker, Leonard Merrick: A Forgotten Novelist’s Novelist, pp. 88, 126–28.
The Monthly Review, December 1901, p. 97.
The Monthly Review, p. 105 and Smith (2017), p. 133.
Helen Smith e-mail to William Baker (27 September 2022). Smith adds: “David Garnett writes about the Garnett family connection with Yorkshire in The Golden Echo. Edward made trips to Yorkshire, and Edward’s uncle, William John, writes to Edward, enquiring about Edward’s investigations into the Yorkshire side of the family. Edward was very interested in his genealogy (he was particularly proud of the Irish side) and a great believer in heredity. Certainly Edward would regard himself as particularly well qualified to judge the authenticity of Bennett’s depiction of Yorkshire life. Sean O’Faolain makes reference to Edward tearing into him about a manuscript ‘in his best fighting-Yorkshire-Irish way’. (O’Faolain, Vive Moi!, p. 258.)” H.E. Bates too attributes the ‘curious combination of diabolical fancy and homely sense and charm’ (H.E. Bates, Edward Garnett, p. 24) in Garnett to the mingling of Irish and Yorkshire blood in his veins. Helen Smith, e-mail to William Baker, 17 October 2022. See also Nicolas Barker, “Introduction”, p. iii.
Helen Smith observes: “When Bennett adapted Anna of the Five Towns for the stage in 1907 – the play was called Cupid and Commonsense – he did change the ending, with Willie returning from Canada, wealthy and brash and accompanied by a similarly bumptious wife.” Smith (2017), p. 383, n. 50. Cf. James Hepburn (1981), pp. 20–21, 123.
A remark displaying Garnett’s perspicacity as a reader: “Bennett wanted a higher royalty than Duckworth offered, and the book was finally taken by Chatto”. Smith (2017), p. 22. Bennett’s demand was yet a further illustration of his unashamedly commercial approach to writing. For an account of Bennett’s difficulties in finding a publisher, see Hepburn (1981), pp. 20–21.
The Duckworth Greenback Library series included diverse fiction such as R.B. Cunninghame Graham’s Success, Barbara Bayton's Bush Studies, William Henry Hudson’s El Ombú all published in 1902 and a year later Hilaire Belloc’s The Aftermath, or, Gleanings from a Busy Life. See Smith (2017), pp. 137–39, 141–42.
Cited in Smith (2017), p. 138.
Chapter 17 of Fame and Fiction (pp. 211–30) was on “the Works of Ivan Turgenev, translated by Mrs. Constance Garnett, and introduced by Mr Edward Garnett”, and had originally appeared, as the other essays in the volume, in The Academy for which Garnett also wrote; cf. Newman Flower (1932, p. 95). For Bennett’s periodical contributions, see Anita Miller, Arnold Bennett: An Annotated Bibliography (Garland, 1981, p. 708). See also Patrick Waddington “Garnett [née Black], Constance Clara (1886–1946)” ODNB: https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/33332 Accessed 6 October 2022. Garnett, Bennett and subsequently Virginia Woolf shared an interest in Russian literature and its promotion to the British public: cf. Helen Smith “Edward Garnett: Interpreting the Russians”, Translation and Literature (2011) 20: 3, pp. 301–13.
The lunch invitation is “probably to the Mt Blanc restaurant in Gerrard Street. These lunches became something of an institution – always presided over by Garnett – and an occasion where young and aspiring writers could meet their peers and catch up with the latest news from the publishing world. As such, they were invaluable to those keen to become known in London’s literary world.” Helen Smith, e-mail to William Baker, 17 October 2022. See also Smith (2017), pp. 129–31.
The book must be Gorky’s Twenty-Six Men and Girl, translated by Emily Jakowleff and Dora Montefiore, published by Duckworth in 1902 with an introduction by Garnett. See Hepburn (1968), pp. 166–67.
Unsigned review, in The Academy and Literature, (1902), pp. 287–88. The review is reprinted in Hepburn (1981), pp. 162–63.
Garnett to John Galsworthy, 27 May 1905, cited Smith (2017), pp. 151–52 from Garnett, ed., Letters from John Galsworthy 1900–1932, p. 68. Cf. Smith pp. 196–97.
The Academy and Literature, Fiction Supplement, 8 November 1902, p. 493. Helen Smith identified Garnett as the author of ‘Some Significant Books of the Year’ in the 6 December issue, which notes that “the year’s fiction has been discussed already in a previous issue of the Academy”. See Smith (2017), p. 384, note 6. It seems likely therefore that this article was also by Garnett.
The Academy and Literature, Fiction Supplement, 8 November 1902, p. 493. Competition no. 162 had appeared in The Academy, 25 October 1902, p. 450 – published opposite a full page spread from T. Fisher Unwin on Hobbes’s Love and the Soul Hunters. There was a prize for those whose choice most corresponded with the overall results. Garnett therefore added: “It should be remembered that in a competition of this kind the popularity of novels as distinct from their literary value is certain to be taken into consideration by competitors, who, with a prize in view, feel themselves bound to consider the probable selections of the whole body of competitors”.
The Speaker, 11 June 1904, p. 257. Hepburn (1981) pp. 26–27 does not note this review.
See Hepburn (1968), pp. 232–33.
Hepburn quotes a few lines from this letter, inaccurately: Hepburn (1968), p. 233, footnote 179.
Jones, p. 127 and Donovan, p. 67.
“Prefatory Note”, p. 3. See Hepburn (1981), p. 72 and cf. Ann L. Ardis, pp. 205–25. The reference to Nicoll is presumably to the New Age article, 11 July 1908, p. 212. ‘Jacob Tonson’ wrote: “In choosing “Confessio Medici” as the book of the season in general literature, Mr. Nicoll has already come a fearful cropper, and he must already regret it. I would give much to prevent him from afflicting the intelligent when the solemn annual moment arrives for him to make the reputation of a novelist.” For “Nicoll, Sir William Robertson (1851–1923)” see H.C.G. Matthew in ODNB (2004): https://doi-org.auth.lib.niu.edu/10.1093/ref:odnb/35236. Accessed 18 May 2023.
Cited in Hepburn (1968), pp. 235–36.
‘The Glimpse’ was a short story, finished in May 1908, but rejected by Black & White. It was eventually published by the New Age on 4 November 1909, pp. 12–14. It was republished by Methuen in The Matador of the Five Towns (1912), pp. 78–89. See Hepburn (1966) p. 102, footnote 71. It was turned into a novel, published in 1909.
Bennett had sent Garnett a copy of the third of his Christmas books. These were published in 1906, 1907 and 1908. This was the second of Garnett’s books to be found in the library of his son David. See: Michael Hosking, David Garnett C.B.E.: A Writer’s Library (1983), no. 988: “Things which have interested me. Third Series. With a preface by M.D. Calvocoressi. Xmas 1908. Burslem. Privately printed. Copy no. 29.” Michel-Dmitri Calvocoressi (1877–1944) was a music critic and friend of Bennett, who had introduced him to Marguerite Soulié. The preface was in French. See also: Hepburn (1968), p. 364 and Hepburn (1981), pp. 51–52.
‘Finishing a Book’ (in the Christmas book, pp. 36–41) had first appeared in T.P.’s Weekly, 1 April 1904.
The Nation, March 18, 1909, p. 273.
Smith (2017), pp. 203–05 discusses this article at length.
Drabble, Arnold Bennett, p. 97.
Garnett letters of 16 February and 8 March 1927 on Ivan Bunin (1870–1953), the first Russian author to receive a Nobel Prize for Literature; 5 July 1928 on Harold Alfred Manhood (1904–1991), partly cited in Smith (2017), p. 325; and 23 October 1929 on Malachi Whitaker (Marjorie Olive Whitaker, 1895–1976).
Smith (2017), p. 352, quoting from the News Chronicle, 30 November 1931, p. 4.
References
Ardis, A. L. (2009). Democracy and modernism. The New Age under A.R. Orage (1907–22). In P. Brooker, & A. Thacker (Eds.), The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines: Volume I Britain and Ireland 1880–1955 (pp. 205–225). OUP.
Baker, W., & Shumaker, J. R. (2009). Leonard Merrick: A Forgotten Novelist’s Novelist. Rosemont Publishing-Fairleigh Dickinson UP.
Barker, N. (1983). Introduction. Michael Hosking, The Golden Hind Bookshop, Deal, Kent.
Bates, H. E. (1950). Edward Garnett. Max Parrish.
Bayton, B.. (1902). Bush Studies. Duckworth.
Beare, G. (1991). Gerald Duckworth and Company. In J. Rose & P. J. Anderson (Eds.), Dictionary of Literary Biography: British Literary Publishing Houses, 1881–1965 (vol. 112, pp. 103–107). Bruccoli Clark Layman; Gale Research.
Beare, G. (2004). Gerald L’Étang (1870–1937). In ODNB. Retrieved April 10, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/47451
Belloc, H. (1903). The Aftermath, or, Gleanings from a Busy Life. Duckworth.
Bennett, A. (1898). A Man from the North. John Lane: the Bodley Head.
Bennett, A. (1901). Fame and fiction: An enquiry into certain popularities. Grant Richards.
Bennett, A. (1902). Anna of the Five Towns. Chatto & Windus.
Bennett, A. (1906–1908). Things Which Have Interested Me, Third Series privately printed in Burslem.
Bennett, A. (1908). The Old Wives Tale. Chapman & Hall.
Bennett, A. (1909). The Glimpse. Chapman & Hall.
Bennett, A. (1912a) Cupid and Commonsense. Frank Palmer, 1912.
Bennett, A. (1912b). The Matador of the Five Towns. Methuen.
Bennett, A. (1917). Books and persons: Being Comments on a Past Epoch, 1908–1911, ed. Hugh Walpole. Chatto & Windus.
Cunninghame Graham, R. B. (1902). Success. Duckworth.
Donovan, P. (2022). Arnold Bennett: Lost Icon. Unicorn Books.
Drabble, M. (1974). Arnold Bennett. Knopf.
Flower, N. (Ed.). (1932). The Journals of Arnold Bennett 1896–1910. Cassell.
Forster, E. M. (1931). The man behind the scenes. News Chronicle, 30 November 1931, p. 4.
Galsworthy, J. The Forsyte Saga (1906–1921). Heinemann.
Garnett, D. (1953) The Golden Echo: An intimate autobiography. Chatto & Windus.
Garnett, E. (1899). Preface to Ivan Turgenev, A Desperate Character, trans. Constance Garnett. Heinemann
Garnett, E. (1900). Preface to Ivan Turgenev, The Jew and Other Stories, trans. Constance Garnett. Heinemann
Garnett, E. (1901). The contemporary critic. Monthly Review, 66, 92–109.
Garnett, E. (1902a). An appreciation. In The Academy and Literature (pp. 250–251).
Garnett, E. (1902b). Unsigned Review (September 20, 1902). [Anna of the Five Towns.] The Academy and Literature (pp. 287–288).
Garnett, E. (1909). English Novels and English Life, Nation (New York) (pp. 272–275).
Garnett, E. (Ed.). (1934). Letters from John Galsworthy 1900–1932. Jonathan Cape.
Garnett, R. (2004). Garnett, Edward William (1868–1937). In ODNB. Retrieved April 10, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/55499
Gorky, M. (1902). Twenty-Six Men and a Girl (E. Jakowleff and D. Montefiore, trans.). With an introduction by Edward Garnett. Duckworth.
Hepburn, J. (Ed.). (1968). Letters of Arnold Bennett (vol. 2). Oxford UP.
Hepburn, J. (1981). Arnold Bennett: The critical heritage. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Hudson, W. H. (1902). El Ombú. Duckworth.
Jones, C. (2021). Realism, form and representation in the Edwardian Novel. OUP.
Kirkpatrick, B. J., & Clarke, S. N. (1997). A bibliography of Virginia Woolf (4th ed.). Clarendon Press.
Matthew, H. C. G. (2004). Nicoll, Sir William Robertson (1851–1923). In ODNB. Retrieved May 18, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/35236.
Miller, A. (1981). Arnold Bennett: An Annotated Bibliography 1887–1932. Garland.
O’Faolain, S. (1965, 1993). Vive Moi! An Autobiography. Rupert Hart-Davis/Sinclair-Stevenson.
Smith, H. (2011). Edward Garnett: Interpreting the Russians. Translation and Literature, 20(3), 301–313.
Smith, H. (2017). The uncommon reader: A life of Edward Garnett, Mentor and Editor of Literary Genius. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Waddington, P. (2007). Garnett [née Black], Constance Clara (1861–1946). In ODNB. Retrieved April 4, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/33332
Woolf, V. (1918). Times literary supplement, “Mr. Merrick’s Novels” (p. 311).
Woolf, V. (1919). Modern Novels. the times Literary Supplement, 10, 189–190.
Woolf, V. (1925). Modern fiction. In The Common Reader (1925) (pp. 207–218). The Hogarth Press.
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to the school for allowing me to publish from their collection and to my co-author, Peter Henderson, the School Archivist, for his assistance. Thanks must go to Oliver Garnett, the copyright holder, for his permission to publish Edward Garnett’s correspondence and Dr. Max Hoover for his assistance.
Funding
None.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
Not applicable.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Thanks are due to Oliver Garnett for permission to publish unpublished letters of his grandfather Edward and to the Walpole Librarian at the King’s School Canterbury, Peter Henderson, the co-author of this article. Dr Helen Smith, author of the definitive study of Edward Garnett, has been especially helpful in responding to questions and providing insights from her unparalleled knowledge of the Garnett family and their work. Thanks are also due to Gwan Brandhorst, MA of Leiden University and Dr Max Hoover.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Baker, W., Henderson, P. Edward Garnett and Arnold Bennett: The Publisher’s Reader and a Budding Novelist. Neophilologus (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-024-09801-3
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-024-09801-3