Вашингтон Ирвинг – The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories (страница 2)

The result was that Irving had an eye for writing stories that, although original, had an air of traditional authenticity, along with a ready market comprising Europeans and their New World diaspora. Irving had an extended stay in Britain and Europe and, at one stage, and had a liaison with Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, following the death of her husband and subsequent return to England.

Within the literary community, Irving was very highly regarded on both sides of the Atlantic. He actively encouraged his fellow American authors to try their luck on the international scene, and his work was also admired by contemporary British authors. At the time, writing was not generally accepted as an orthodox profession, but Irving amply demonstrated that it was possible to make a respectable living from the pen. He also initiated the idea that there should be laws to protect authors and publishers from infringement of copyright and piracy, as it was all too easy for others to steal original ideas or to simply sell counterfeit copies of novels without fear of prosecution.

Irving is famed for his clever marketing prowess. In 1809 he was ready to publish his first major work, with the ludicrously long title A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker. To garner attention, Irving placed ‘missing person’ postings in New York papers, pretending that Knickerbocker was a real Dutch author who had vanished from his hotel room. He followed this with a hoax posting from the proprietor of the hotel, stating that an abandoned manuscript would be used to settle Knickerbocker’s hotel bill if he failed to resurface. New Yorkers were so beguiled that they were primed for reading the book, which was published in December of that year.

Irving initially took the pseudonym Knickerbocker, but the readership didn’t mind when he revealed that they had been duped, because they so loved the book and admired Irving’s guile. He had become an overnight celebrity, and his writing career was assured. Today the name Knickerbocker has become synonymous with those who live in Manhattan, but it was also used as the title of an influential literary magazine. Irving himself became a member of its staff for a few years.

The period 1842–46 saw Irving enter politics, as Minister to Spain. He presumed that the role would be somewhat honorary, so that he could spend much of his time writing. However, it was anything but, as Spain was a rather turbulent place at the time due to the Spanish queen still being a child, so that there was much infighting for power among those in government. Irving also became involved with long-winded negotiations over trade between the Americans and the Iberians. This included the Spanish territory of Cuba, which was problematic due to the use of slave labour – the issue that would soon ignite the American Civil War.

When Irving returned to America, he grew ever closer to the hearts of the nation the older he became. He was viewed as a sage of American literature and a wise elder statesman. He was blessed with talent, intelligence and an affable personality, which gave him an unprecedented likeability.

Interestingly, the perception of Irving’s learnedness was so strong that he inadvertently introduced a historical myth that became taught as historical fact; a fact that has persisted after his death, to this day. He published a biography of the explorer Christopher Columbus in 1828, in which he stated that Europeans believed the world to be flat, so that Columbus’s crew feared falling off the edge of the world during their voyage into the unknown. The truth is that Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, had settled on the idea of the world being spherical in the 4th century BC and medieval European culture was based on Aristotelian thinking. Furthermore, the curvature of the Earth was clearly in evidence to those navigating the oceans in 1492.

PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION.

The following papers, with two exceptions, were written in England, and formed but part of an intended series for which I had made notes and memorandums. Before I could mature a plan, however, circumstances compelled me to send them piecemeal to the United States, where they were published from time to time in portions or numbers. It was not my intention to publish them in England, being conscious that much of their contents could be interesting only to American readers, and, in truth, being deterred by the severity with which American productions had been treated by the British press.

By the time the contents of the first volume had appeared in this occasional manner, they began to find their way across the Atlantic, and to be inserted, with many kind encomiums, in the London Literary Gazette. It was said, also, that a London bookseller intended to publish them in a collective form. I determined, therefore, to bring them forward myself, that they might at least have the benefit of my superintendence and revision. I accordingly took the printed numbers which I had received from the United States, to Mr. John Murray, the eminent publisher, from whom I had already received friendly attentions, and left them with him for examination, informing him that should he be inclined to bring them before the public, I had materials enough on hand for a second volume. Several days having elapsed without any communication from Mr. Murray, I addressed a note to him, in which I construed his silence into a tacit rejection of my work, and begged that the numbers I had left with him might be returned to me. The following was his reply:

MY DEAR SIR: I entreat you to believe that I feel truly obliged by your kind intentions towards me, and that I entertain the most unfeigned respect for your most tasteful talents. My house is completely filled with workpeople at this time, and I have only an office to transact business in; and yesterday I was wholly occupied, or I should have done myself the pleasure of seeing you.

If it would not suit me to engage in the publication of your present work, it is only because I do not see that scope in the nature of it which would enable me to make those satisfactory accounts between us, without which I really feel no satisfaction in engaging—but I will do all I can to promote their circulation, and shall be most ready to attend to any future plan of yours.

With much regard, I remain, dear sir,

Your faithful servant,

JOHN MURRAY.

This was disheartening, and might have deterred me from any further prosecution of the matter, had the question of republication in Great Britain rested entirely with me; but I apprehended the appearance of a spurious edition. I now thought of Mr. Archibald Constable as publisher, having been treated by him with much hospitality during a visit to Edinburgh; but first I determined to submit my work to Sir-Walter (then Mr.) Scott, being encouraged to do so by the cordial reception I had experienced from him at Abbotsford a few years previously, and by the favorable opinion he had expressed to others of my earlier writings. I accordingly sent him the printed numbers of the Sketch-Book in a parcel by coach, and at the same time wrote to him, hinting that since I had had the pleasure of partaking of his hospitality, a reverse had taken place in my affairs which made the successful exercise of my pen all-important to me; I begged him, therefore, to look over the literary articles I had forwarded to him, and, if he thought they would bear European republication, to ascertain whether Mr. Constable would be inclined to be the publisher.

The parcel containing my work went by coach to Scott’s address in Edinburgh; the letter went by mail to his residence in the country. By the very first post I received a reply, before he had seen my work.

“I was down at Kelso,” said he, “when your letter reached Abbotsford. I am now on my way to town, and will converse with Constable, and do all in my power to forward your views—I assure you nothing will give me more pleasure.”

The hint, however, about a reverse of fortune had struck the quick apprehension of Scott, and, with that practical and efficient good-will which belonged to his nature, he had already devised a way of aiding me. A weekly periodical, he went on to inform me, was about to be set up in Edinburgh, supported by the most respectable talents, and amply furnished with all the necessary information. The appointment of the editor, for which ample funds were provided, would be five hundred pounds sterling a year, with the reasonable prospect of further advantages. This situation, being apparently at his disposal, he frankly offered to me. The work, however, he intimated, was to have somewhat of a political bearing, and he expressed an apprehension that the tone it was desired to adopt might not suit me. “Yet I risk the question,” added he, “because I know no man so well qualified for this important task, and perhaps because it will necessarily bring you to Edinburgh. If my proposal does not suit, you need only keep the matter secret and there is no harm done. ‘And for my love I pray you wrong me not.’ If on the contrary you think it could be made to suit you, let me know as soon as possible, addressing Castle Street, Edinburgh.”