LXI The Editorial Policies of Charles Dickens

Gerald Giles Grubb

doi:10.2307/458930

LXI The Editorial Policies of Charles Dickens

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020

Gerald Giles Grubb

Show author details

Gerald Giles Grubb*: Affiliation:
University of South Carolina

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

During his busiest years as a novelist Charles Dickens was also the editor, and for twenty years the controlling proprietor, of a series of periodicals, the greatest of which attained a circulation larger than that of the London Times of the period. At the same time, he issued successful American editions of his periodicals, developed distinctive editorial methods, became a pioneer in the art of serialization in weekly publications, and throughout his entire career as a journalist was activated by certain well-considered editorial policies. In this article I shall confine my remarks to the general policies, or principles, that guided Dickens in the development of his periodicals, with special attention to those practiced in Household Words and All the Year Round.

Type: Research Article
Information: PMLA , Volume 58 , Issue 4_1 , December 1943 , pp. 1110 - 1124

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/458930 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1943

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 1110 note 1} Charles Dickens was editor of the following periodicals: Bentley's Miscellany, 1837–39; Master Humphrey's Clock, 1840–41; Household Words, 1850–59; and All the Year Round, 1859–70. He also edited the Daily News for a brief period.

^{page 1110 note 2} On May 12, 1861, Dickens wrote Bulwer-Lytton that the sale of All the Year Round was “probably several thousand higher” than that of the Times. See Georgina Hogarth and Mamie Dickens, edd., The Letters of Charles Dickens, The National Library Edition, 20 vols. (New York, 1928), xix, ii, 62. Because of the general inaccessibility of the latest collected edition of Dickens' letters—Walter Dexter, ed., The Letters of Charles Dickens, The Nonesuch Dickens, 3 vols. (London, 1938)—I have chosen to refer my readers to minor collections that are more readily obtainable.

^{page 1110 note 3} So great was the circulation of Dickens' journal All the Year Round in the United States that the American publisher, J. M. Emerson and Company, 37 Park Row, New York, could publish the following amazing statement, in October, 1860: “All the Year Round was commenced in May, 1859, and though but eighteen monthly parts have been issued, we believe it has the largest circulation of any similar publication in the world. Yet notwithstanding the wide circulation of the work itself, its columns are more quoted from than any other publication, and it is probably not an exaggeration to estimate that Mr. Dickens' new story ‘Great Expectations’ [first published in All the Year Round] will find in this country more than three million readers.” All the Year Round, American Ed., iv (1860), 336.

^{page 1110 note 4} See Gerald Giles Grubb, “Dickens' Editorial Methods,” Studies in Philology, xl (1943), 79–100.

^{page 1110 note 5} See Gerald Giles Grubb, “Dickens' Pattern of Weekly Serialization,” ELH, ix (1942), 141–156.

^{page 1111 note 6} Hogarth and Dickens, Letters of Dickens, xix, i, 253.

^{page 1111 note 7} R. C. Lehmann, ed., Charles Dickens as Editor; Being Letters by Him to William Henry Wills, His Sub-Editor (New York, 1912), p. 102.

^{page 1111 note 8} Lehmann, Dickens as Editor, p. 213.

^{page 1111 note 9} Ibid., p. 106.

^{page 1111 note 10} Ibid., p. 39.

^{page 1112 note 11} Ibid., p. 49.

^{page 1112 note 12} Ibid., p. 25.

^{page 1112 note 13} Ibid., p. 173. George Hogarth was Dickens' father-in-law.

^{page 1112 note 14} Ibid., p. 33.

^{page 1112 note 15} Ibid., p. 51.

^{page 1112 note 16} Ibid., pp. 41–42. A special section of Household Words dealing with minor topics in brief form was conducted under the general heading “Chips.”

^{page 1112 note 17} Ibid., p. 247.

^{page 1113 note 18} Ibid., p. 43.

^{page 1113 note 19} Ibid., p. 58.

^{page 1113 note 20} Ibid., p. 117.

^{page 1113 note 21} Reverend James White, Bonchurch preacher, historian, writer of tragedies, and contributor to Dickens' periodical.

^{page 1113 note 22} Lehmann, op. cit., p. 170.

^{page 1113 note 23} Ibid., p. 171.

^{page 1114 note 24} When Buckstone of the Adelphi Theatre pirated Dickens' “Bloomsbury Christening” from The Monthly Magazine, he protested; when Bell's Life in London, The Observer, and The Carlton Chronicle reprinted some of his sketches without authority, he appealed for protection to Sir John Easthope, proprietor of The Morning Chronicle, from which paper the sketches were taken for the most part Later followed the famous law suit of Dickens vs Lee over the latter's infringement of the copyright of A Christmas Carol. His fight for international copyright laws is well known.

^{page 1114 note 25} Lehmann, op. cit., pp. 267–268.

^{page 1115 note 26} Hogarth and Dickens, Letters, xix, i, 315–316.

^{page 1115 note 27} Lehmann, op. cit., p. 101.

^{page 1115 note 28} Ibid., p. 87.

^{page 1115 note 29} Charles Knight, Passages of a Working Life During Half a Century: With a Prelude of Early Reminiscences, 3 vols. (London, 1864–65), iii, 17.

^{page 1116 note 30} Lehmann, op. cit., p. 68.

^{page 1116 note 31} Ibid., pp. 168–169.

^{page 1116 note 32} J. W. T. Ley, ed. The Life of Charles Dickens by John Forster (London, 1928), p. 824.

^{page 1117 note 33} Lehmann, op. cit., p. 223.

^{page 1117 note 34} Ibid., pp. 315–316.

^{page 1117 note 35} Hogarth and Dickens, Letters, about one hundred letters, passim.

^{page 1117 note 36} Ibid., xix, i, 457–458, 460, 531–532, 536–537; and ii, 337.

^{page 1117 note 37} Ibid., xix, i, 431–432, and 435–436.

^{page 1117 note 38} Dickens Exhibition, 1936 (Melbourne, 1936), p. 17. These letters are included by Mr. Walter Dexter in the Nonesuch Dickens, i, passim.

^{page 1118 note 39} Hogarth and Dickens, op. cit., xix, i, 507–508.

^{page 1118 note 40} Lehmann, op. cit., p. 35.

^{page 1118 note 41} B. W. Matz, ed. The Works of Charles Dickens: Miscellaneous Papers, Nat. Lib. Edn. (New York, 1928), xviii, xiv.

^{page 1118 note 42} Lehmann, op. cit., p. 137.

^{page 1118 note 43} Ibid., p. 203.

^{page 1118 note 44} Ibid., p. 208.

^{page 1119 note 45} Ibid., p. 225.

^{page 1119 note 46} Originally Dickens owned one-half of the capital stock of Household Words, Bradbury and Evans, the publishers, one-quarter, John Forster one-eighth, and Wills one-eighth. When Forster surrendered his interest in February, 1856, Dickens divided it equally between Wills and himself. Thereafter, the proportions were Dickens nine-sixteenths, Bradbury and Evans four-sixteenths, and Wills three-sixteenths. Dickens was editor at a salary of £500 a year. In All the Year Round Dickens was interested as to profits and lasses as to three-fourth and Wills as to one-fourth. Dickens was editor at a yearly salary of £504; Wills was sub-editor at a yearly salary of £420. Upon Wills' resignation of his sub-editorship in 1869, one-half of his one-fourth share reverted to Dickens.

^{page 1119 note 47} Lehmann, op. cit., p. 155.

^{page 1119 note 48} Ibid., pp. 163–164.

^{page 1120 note 49} Flora V. Livingstone, ed. Charles Dickens' Letters to Charles Lever (Cambridge, 1933), 7–8.

^{page 1120 note 50} Livingstone, Letters, p. 10. Some idea of the price Dickens paid for long stories by established writers may be gotten from a letter written by his sub-editor Wills to Charles Reade, probably referring to the latter's Very Hard Cash, which appeared in All the Year Round from March 28 to December 26, 1863. Will said: “It would be a great pleasure to us to close with your proposal without another word; but, large as our sale is, our arrangements past present and to come will not justify the outlay of £925 on your story—which would be the cost of 185 pages at £5 per page. Will you kindly consider this proposition?—Eight hundred pounds (£800) for a story to occupy not less than 160 [pages] of All the Year Round. Any greater quantity of matter that you might find indispensible to your art, still to be included in that payment.” Vide, Franklin P. Rolfe, ed., “Additions to the Nonesuch Edition of Dickens' Letters,” The Huntington Library Quarterly, v (1941), 134.

^{page 1120 note 51} Lehmann, op. cit., p. 154.

^{page 1121 note 52} Ibid., p. 274.

^{page 1121 note 53} “a Preliminary Word,” Household Words, i (1850), 1.

^{page 1121 note 54} Lehmann, op. cit., p. 73.

^{page 1121 note 55} Ibid., pp. 73–74.

^{page 1122 note 56} Ibid., p. 113.

^{page 1122 note 57} Ibid., p. 59.

^{page 1123 note 58} Ibid., p. 134.

^{page 1123 note 59} Ibid., p. 137.

^{page 1123 note 60} Ibid., p. 138.

^{page 1123 note 61} Ibid., pp. 163–165.

Article contents

LXI The Editorial Policies of Charles Dickens

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests