Adventures in the Marketplace with H. Rider Haggard: Author-Publisher Relations in Mr. Meeson’s Will

[...]he closes the essay with a story about a disadvantageous contract he had signed in terms that contrast the author's innocence with the publisher's guile. According to Haggard's autobiography, Watt negotiated new terms with Maxwell's: "The unfortunate agreement ... had b...

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Published in:	English literature in transition, 1880-1920 1880-1920, 2014-09, Vol.57 (4), p.497-518
Main Author:	Allen-Emerson, Michelle
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	1800-1899 Agreements Analysis Authors Authors in literature Authorship Bibliography Book industry Contract negotiations Correspondence English Literature Haggard, H. Rider Haggard, H. Rider > (Henry Rider) Haggard, Henry Rider, Sir Haggard, Sir Henry Rider History of Publishing and Bookselling Interpersonal relations Interpersonal relations in literature Literary Marketplace Mr Meeson's Will Nineteenth Century novel Novels Publishers (Persons) Publishers and publishing in literature publishing contracts Social aspects Success
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Summary:	[...]he closes the essay with a story about a disadvantageous contract he had signed in terms that contrast the author's innocence with the publisher's guile. According to Haggard's autobiography, Watt negotiated new terms with Maxwell's: "The unfortunate agreement ... had been abrogated without a lawsuit, through the admirable efforts of my friend and agent, Mr. A. P. Watt. [...]Meeson reminds Augusta of the clause in her contract binding her to publish all her work with the firm for a period of five years, making it impossible for her to turn her newfound literary fame to account with another publishing house.43 Haggard's entanglement with Maxwell's forms the subtext for Augusta's lament: "'You have taken advantage of my ignorance and inexperience, and entrapped me so that for five years I shall be nothing but a slave to you, and, although I am now one of the most popular writers in the country, shall be obliged to accept a sum for my books upon which I cannot live. According to Feltes, "the tendency of the publisher in the new capitalist book production was to control the entire production of books," while authors of the period clung to a commodity-based view of their books as literary property that preexisted publication, advertisement, and sale.46 In Mr. Meeson's Will, Haggard represents the tension between these two conceptions of literary production.
ISSN:	0013-8339 1559-2715 1559-2715