She began by contextualising James’ work in the
1890s against the Elementary Education Act of 1870, where the first
state-educated class of Victorians brought with them a mass market of
readers. Dr. Hutchison made the point
that in the burgeoning literary market of the 1890s, the commercial power of
the novel was beginning to fade compared to the critical success of short
stories. At the same time English
Literature was becoming increasingly recognised as an academic discipline. Both of these developments had ramifications
for the major writers of the late-Victorian period, and Dr. Hutchison’s
analysis of James explores his struggles to accommodate both popular and
intellectual markets within his work. His
relationship with William Heinemann of Heinemann provided a significant period
of surcease within the turbulence of the publishing market at the time, with
Dr. Hutchison commenting that it was arguably the most stable professional
relationship James had in the 1890s. It
was a period that additionally stood as the most productive period of James’
career. With reference to a number of
letters between James and Heinemann which Dr. Hutchison acquired within the
Random House Archives, she argued that this writing period was heavily marked
by commercial pressures. She made the
point that James’ recognized that his writings in this period were primarily
for financial and not artistic gain. His
continued attempts to produce theatrical works were in part due to the vast
financial opportunities the theatre held compared to the more saturated
literary markets of the period. As Dr.
Hutchison noted, Heinemann’s publication of Hall Caine’s The Bondsman (1890), which found critical acclaim within theatre
adaptations, would have spurred James on even more. Her analysis of James’ letters demonstrated
his growing interest in understanding the publishing and literary markets of
the time. This was reinforced in James’
employment of a literary agent, making him one of the first writers to do so. His wish to tap into the popular and high-art
markets of the time became exemplified in his publication of The Turn of the Screw.
James’ The
Turn of the Screw first appeared in England in weekly editions of
Heinemann’s Collier’s Weekly in 1898,
and quickly become acclaimed by both the public and academics alike. In James’ hotly-disputed horror story of a
governess and her protection of the two children in her care, its critical
acclaim exemplified his successful moulding of high-art and literary aesthetics
with the more accessible, commercial demands of the popular literary market. In a candid acknowledgement found in a letter
from James to Heinemann, Dr. Hutchison’s argument was reinforced by his
acknowledgement that the text was calculated to please popular interests whilst
ensuring a generous amount of money in the process. However, Dr. Hutchison argued that James’
publication was certainly not one that adhered completely to popular
tastes. She made the point that in fact it
was James’ intention to inject a degree of high-art literary aesthetic into The Turn of the Screw, whilst courting
popular tastes by publishing it within a magazine that could reach a wide spectrum
of readers and ensuring that it possessed the accessibility and inexpensiveness
of popular Victorian periodicals. As the
author remarked shortly after the text’s release, it was designed to catch
those not easily caught, a remark that causes us to revise our understandings of
the text’s inclusion within both popular and artistic markets and tastes. James’ success with The Turn of the Screw was as Dr. Hutchison argued his mastering of
the entertaining and the artful.
The demand for shorter, more accessible fiction led
publishers like Heinemann to insist to clients such as Hall Caines and his text
The Bondsman (1890) that it be published
in one volume rather than several. Very
soon after this the one-volume novel became the norm, which Dr. Hutchison
argued exemplified the fragility of the publishing market at the time in adapting
to the tastes of the popular market. In
addition, it illustrated the tensions between publishers and writers, in this
case the tension between James and Heinemann.
Their relationship came under pressure when James employed James B.
Pinker as his literary agent, a publishing middle-man that Heinemann absolutely
despised and declined to have anything to do with. In a particularly humorous segment of Dr.
Hutchison’s lecture, she illustrated the difficulties of this tense
relationship, with the example that after James corresponded with Pinker, and
he in turn subsequently wrote to Heinemann, Heinemann refused to respond back,
and would send his correspondence directly to James. Although Heinemann resented the literary
agent as a greedy and inessential intermediary between the author and the publisher,
Dr. Hutchison reminded the audience that Heinemann was certainly not above
playing games with his clients. Having
given James a mere £50 for The Turn of
the Screw, she reminded us that Pinker’s own offers were significantly
greater than Heinemann’s, a disparity that likely incensed the publisher
furthermore. Although James would later
end Pinker’s services due to the infighting between himself and Heinemann, he
subsequently would become disillusioned with the publishing company. After numerous protests that Heinemann was
not promoting his books as well as he could, James became all too aware of the
contrast between his popularity back in the United States and in Britain.
In Dr. Hutchison’s final remarks, she argued that James’
disillusionment with the British publishing market led him to concede that
perhaps too much emphasis was put on the marketing of the contemporary
text. He extended Heinemann’s own
criticism of the literary agent as a “middle man” to that of publishers as
well, arguing that rather than having swathes of publishers, literary agents
and other bodies of the market deliberate over what should be published, it is
the public who should decide what is worth reading. Dr. Hutchison’s lecture proved to be an
engaging and illuminating discussion of Henry James’ 1890s literature, and one
that skilfully demonstrated the numerous commercial, artistic and public
pressures that faced authors at the time within a turbulent publishing market.
-
James Nixon
PGR
at the University of Glasgow
The Centre for American Studies 2013-14 seminar series at the University of Glasgow concludes
with the Fourteenth Annual Gordon Lecture in American Studies on Wednesday 7th
May. In the final contribution to a
fantastic seminar series, Professor David Blight of Yale University and
Professor Richard Blackett of Vanderbilt University will participate in a forum
on the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War on Wednesday 7th
May. We hope to see you there!
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