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Publisher to the Decadents: Leonard Smithers in the Careers of Beardsley, Wilde, Dowson (Penn State Series in the History of the Book)
Publisher to the Decadents Leonard Smithers in the Careers of Beardsley Wilde Dowson - Penn State Series in the History of the Book Author:James G. Nelson A balanced portrait of publisher Leonard Smithers that sheds light on the publishing and literary culture of Englands Yellow Nineties. Publisher to the Decadents chronicles the experiences of Leonard Smithers (18611907), a key figure in the literary culture of late Victorian England. In his day he was known primarily for publishing ... more »books of upscale erotica. He became the publisher of choice for the Decadents, including most notably Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley. While a young solicitor in his native Sheffield, Smithers established a correspondence with the famed explorer and translator of exotic texts, Captain Sir Richard Burton. Burton translated The Thousand Nights and a Night (popularly known as The Arabian Nights), which was published by Smithers in 1885. Smithers collaborated with Burton in the publication of two Latin texts, the Priapeia and the Carmina of Catullus, both of erotic cast. After the death of Burton in 1890, Smithers continued a significant involvement with his work, serving as an adviser to Lady Isabel Burton. During this time Smithers formed a partnership with Harry Sidney Nichols, and together they produced a series of pornographic books under the imprint of the Erotika Biblion Society. The years between 1895 and 1900 were Smitherss glory years when he managed to publish a number of books illustrated by Beardsley, a magazine known as the Savoy, and books of verse by Ernest Dowson and Arthur Symons that have proved to be the finest expression of the Decadent Movement. Throughout his career Smithers sought to produce attractive, well-made books that were tastefully designed and printed. This book provides expansive insight into the prizes and pitfalls of an early English publisher of the decadent Nineties. It is the final volume in a trilogy of books on a group of publishers who contributed much to the literary and artistic movements of the 1890s in England. The two previous books are The Early Nineties: A View from the Bodley Head (Harvard, 1971) and Elkin Mathews: Publisher to Yeats, Joyce, Pound (Wisconsin, 1989). "As an enthusiastic searcher for exact facts concerning the somewhat mysterious and fascinating Leonard Smithers, I am absolutely delighted to welcome Professor Nelsons extraordinarily detailed book onto my shelves. It covers almost everything one has always wanted to know about him and his confrères of the eighties and nineties, and as a devotee myself of Sir Richard Burton particularly, it has filled in an amazing number of gaps in my knowledge of him, and of his wife Isabel, and of other participants in that shadowy period." Quentin Keynes, Collector, Richard F. Burton manuscripts Penn State Series in the History of the Book« less