‘As tireless a writer as traveller’ – some notes on the publishers of Theodore Bent’s books (1879-1900)

Thomas Norton Longman (1849–1930), at the helm of his firm at the time Bent was contributing to their list. They would have been acquaintances, if not friends. (Wikipedia).

Through the stories of Bent’s books we have a panorama of the best of British publishing flourishing in the late 19th century – a roll call of famous imprints and their founders. These pages provide some background to Bent’s seven published books, before delving in greater detail into the archive of Longmans, Green & Co., the publisher of five of Bent’s monographs, fortuitously surviving today in the care of ‘University of Reading, Special Collections’ (housed in the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL), Reading University, Berkshire, UK.

 

Bent’s books (for reviews, click here)

As mentioned above, of the seven monographs associated with celebrity explorers Theodore and Mabel Bent, five were published by the prestigious London enterprise embodying Longmans, Green & Co., between 1879 and 1893. It’s pleasurable to think of the Bents taking a carriage from Marble Arch to Paternoster Row, by St Paul’s, at the famous ‘Sign of the Ship’, to discuss contracts and royalties with their publishers. The offices (at No. 39) remained there until bombed in the Blitz in December 1940, explaining, perhaps, why no copies of correspondence between the parties has survived in terms of the following five books:

A freak of freedom; or, The Republic of San Marino (1879)

Preface dated: December 25, 1878, Florence. (The Bents were celebrating Christmas 1878 in Florence: after marrying in August 1877, they enjoyed effectively a three-year honeymoon, Theodore researching his three Italian books the while.)

The Life of Giuseppe Garibaldi (1881)

Preface dated: none. (Oddly, Bent included no Preface in this work.)

The Cyclades; Or, Life Among the Insular Greeks (1885)

Preface dated: November 1884, 13 Great Cumberland Place, W. (Phenomenally quickly, Bent had this classic account ready for his editors within months of returning to England. The Bents had moved from 43 to 13 GCP, c. 1 km closer to Marble Arch; the site has been ‘redeveloped’.)

The ruined cities of Mashonaland; being a record of excavation and exploration in 1891 (1892)

“The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland”, 1892, Longmans (archive.org)

(1st edn, 1892) Preface dated: none (Again, rather oddly for such an important work, Bent included no Preface. This controversial book was far and away his bestseller.)

(2nd edn, 1893) Preface dated: May 26, 1893, 13 Great Cumberland Place.

(3rd edn, 1895) Preface dated: October 1894, 13 Great Cumberland Place.

 

The sacred city of the Ethiopians: being a record of travel and research in Abyssinia in 1893 (1893)

(1st edn, 1893) Preface dated: November 1893, 13 Great Cumberland Place. (Again, produced within months of the couple’s return from Ethiopia (and, importantly, out in time for the Christmas market in England), although their stay around Axsum was aborted due to conflict between warring factions and the Italian occupiers.)

(2dn edn, 1896) Preface dated: April 17, 1896, 13 Great Cumberland Place.

An interesting aside

Map and title page of Bent’s bestseller on the Cyclades (1885) (archive.org)

An interesting aside right away is why Bent, as tireless a writer as traveller, left a gap of some five years between his famous guide to the Greek Cyclades (1885) and his departure for Great Zimbabwe (late 1890). Had he wanted to, he could effortlessly have compiled a volume on the researches by him and Mabel, his wife, in the Eastern Mediterranean in the mid 1880s, based on his scores of articles, lectures, etc. (see his bibliography).

The two Bent books not published by Longmans

Leaving the above open for the moment, the two books not bearing the Longmans imprint are:

Genoa, how the Republic rose and fell, published in 1881 by the London firm of C. Kegan Paul & Co. (This was the second of Bent’s books to appear, but it may well have been the first he began writing.)

Preface dated: May 1880, 43 Great Cumberland Place. W. (This was the Bents’ first (rented) London townhouse, c. 2 km from Marble Arch; it still stands.)

Southern Arabia (edited by Mabel Bent), published in 1900 by the London firm of Smith, Elder & Co.

Title page of “Southern Arabia”, featuring Bent’s iconic portrait, Smith, Elder & Co., 1900 (archive.org)

Preface dated: October 13, 1899, 13 Great Cumberland Place, W. (Mabel had the painful task of editing this work alone; she had spent two years over it since Theodore’s death in 1897. The result was a tour de force and the book a milestone in researches, in any language, covering this region. Mabel’s inexperience in many aspects of this book’s complexities makes her achievement even more remarkable. Seeing the title page for the first time, with its iconic portrait of her partner, must have brought as much pain as pleasure, if not more.)

The young historian 

General Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi (1866) (Wikipedia). The subject of Bent’s third book (1881), the General’s family took issue with some of the author’s test, obliging Longmans to apologise and make corrections in a subsequent edition.

From the little evidence we have, it is likely that, although published second, Bent’s volume on the Genoese Empire (1881) was begun much earlier – probably stemming enthusiastically from his history studies at Oxford (and then encountering this mercantile nation again during his brief tour of the Eastern Mediterranean in the early 1880s). The young historian (all his early articles were historical in topic) was probably contracted to Kegan Paul & Co. early for Genoa, and it was ready for publication by them in the spring of 1881. By then his relationship with Longmans had started (San Marino) and we get the unusual occurrence of two books by him appearing that year – Garibaldi (with Longmans) reached booksellers in time for Christmas 1881. The Kegan Paul editors, prudently, would have thought twice before signing up for two books with an unproven young author, well explaining, perhaps, Bent’s feet in both houses. (Prudence pays, as it happens – Garibaldi’s family took issue with the author, obliging Longmans to apologise and hastily reprint in early 1882.)

Page 200 from Bent’s “San Marino”, with an illustration based on one of his watercolours (1877/8)(archive.org).

As for the publication history of San Marino, Bent had been working on the text quickly over the spring and summer of 1878, and by the latter months of that year was approaching potential publishers for it. Longmans were not the only candidates, i.e. there is a letter (date unclear, possibly 6 December) note 1  from the young historian to William Blackwood & Sons offering them his manuscript (with the option, too, of a portfolio of watercolours done on the spot). He gives his address as accommodation overlooking the Arno, Florence, adding that he and Mabel will remain there until Christmas 1878. His Preface in the final volume (Longmans) is dated 25 December, Florence; publication date was 10 May 1879. All done very quickly – and typical of the author.

Charles Kegan Paul (1828-1902) founder of the publishers C. Kegan Paul & Co. (1877).

It seems very likely that Bent would have had dealings in some way with Charles Kegan Paul (1828-1902) himself over the Genoa book. The latter’s business was a successful one across the Empire, merging with George Routledge in 1912. The company continues today as part of the Taylor & Francis Group (itself also with 18th-/19th-century roots). Kegan Paul was ordained as a young man as an Anglican clergyman, as were many of Bent’s closest friends, and this may explain in some way the connection between the latter and the firm.

Bent’s first three books being historical in theme, Longmans would also have been a logical choice for him. Sadly, their archive, today managed (ref: GB 6 RUL MS 1393) by University of Reading, Special Collections (Berkshire, UK), does not contain actual correspondence between the two parties, and Bent’s own copies of any letters and contracts have long since disappeared. However, one contract (ref: MS 1393/3/1974) has survived within the Longmans archive – Bent’s agreement to publish in 1893 The sacred city of the Ethiopians.. The old document arguably being something of an archaeological treasure now in its own right.

It would not be too unfair to say that Bent’s three ‘historical’ works are unmemorable -with San Marino whimsical, Genoa  badly reviewed (“No one who cares even a little for the dignity of their own country can tolerate seeing its history traduced by foreigners, with disgraces like this, which are certainly not redeemable by the fantastic designs and symbols printed in gold on the cover.” – Giornale Ligustico Di Archeologia, Storia E Letteratura 1882:74-7), and Garibaldi ending up in the hands of lawyers.

However, with his forthcoming travel/exploration writing, Bent is to find his true voice, and fame…

The young explorer

George Murray Smith (1824-1901), running the firm of Smith, Elder & Co. at the time Mabel Bent’s “Southern Arabia” was published in 1900. Theodore Bent having died in 1897, it must have been his widow’s choice to select Smith’s company in preference to Longmans. It seems unlikely that the latter would have turned down the offer for the book, but no correspondence has surfaced to date. (Wikipedia).

We might have thought, perhaps, that when looking to place his Cyclades manuscript (1885), a more obvious firm for Bent’s travel/exploration books might have been that lion of publishers, John Murray – Byron’s publisher, and Patrick Leigh Fermor’s incidentally, 125 years and more later – but presumably our young author was happy with, or contracted to, Messrs. Longmans, or his approaches to other firms were declined.

Several years later, arriving back from South Africa in early 1892, Bent had still no publisher lined up for his extensive Mashonaland researches and his year of travels in the region. In February of that year, he wrote first to William Blackwood and Sons and then to John Murray for their potential interest, but nothing came of his enquiries note 2 . In the end he went with Longmans and they did an excellent job for him in terms of the sales and marketing of his notorious account of the ruins of Great Zimbabwe (1892), and, subsequently, his work at Aksum in Ethiopia (1893). Incidentally, via a little (and typical) publishing promiscuity, a link with Murray’s was to follow.

Continuing, Bent’s Great Zimbabwe study went on generating royalties for his widow after 1897. Following Theodore’s early death that year (aged just 45), Mabel spent almost three years preparing the material she needed to complete the manuscript of Southern Arabia (1900). (Had Bent lived, there might well have been a volume beforehand on his obsession, i.e. the cultures and people both sides of the Red Sea, and the Queen of Sheba – the quest for whom might be said to have cost him his life.)

No. 15 Waterloo Place in London, the offices of Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. (Wikipedia).

For whatever reason, Mabel’s choice of publisher for what is now this classic (most academic studies on the peninsular even today will cite it) was Smith, Elder & Co, another of the Empire’s highly regarded publishers. The man in charge when Mabel’s Southern Arabia appeared in 1900 was George Murray Smith (1824-1901), son of one of the founders, George Smith (1789-1846), who started the business with Alexander Elder (1790-1876). Their stable of brands included the highly popular Cornhill Magazine, in whose pages five of Bent’s (non-scholarly) articles appeared in the 1880s and ’90s. Perhaps a clue lies here as to why Mabel opted for this firm.

A pleasing coda rounds off the story – Smith, Elder & Co were actually acquired later by John Murray in 1917 (and Mabel might even possibly have had dealings with them over royalties, etc.), and thus Bent gets his link with Byron in the end – which would have amused our adventurer, no end.

The archive of Longmans, Green & Co., University of Reading, Special Collections (GB 6 RUL MS 1393)

Notes on Books… works published by Messrs. Longmans and Co. (archive.org)

Before exploring the heavy Bent files and ledgers within the Longmans archive (University of Reading, Special Collections) in some detail, a valuable point of departure is provided by a series of catalogues Messrs. Longmans produced on a regular basis (every five years) and which provided bibliographical information for the works they produced, i.e. Notes on Books, being a Quarterly Analysis of the works published by Messrs. Longmans and Co.

These records provide the company’s contemporary data on publication dates, extent, binding, price, etc.

The Longmans archive (University of Reading, Special Collections) reference is provided, in square brackets, e.g. [GB 6 RUL MS 1393/L5,306] – see ‘Index to the archives of the House of Longman, 1794-1914‘ below)

Volume V. From May 1875 – February 1880, p. 306 ff.

Published May 10, 1879. [GB 6 RUL MS 1393/L5,306] A Freak of Freedom, or the Republic of San Marino. By J. Theodore Bent, Honorary Citizen of the same. Pp. 288, with a Map of the Republic and 15 Illustrations engraved on Wood from Sketches taken on the spot by the Author. Crown 8vo. Price 7s. 6d. cloth [c. £20 today]

During a hurried visit to San Marino in the spring of 1877, the Author felt so much interested in the simplicity of the inhabitants, and their attachment to their freedom, that he determined when an opportunity occurred to investigate more thoroughly the story of this liberty of fifteen centuries’ standing, and to ascertain whether it was bonâ fide or not …

Volume VI. From May 1880 – February 1885, pp. 99 ff., 302 ff.

October 10, 1881. [GB 6 RUL MS 1393/L6,99] The Life of Giuseppe Garibaldi. By J. Theodore Bent, B.A. Oxon. Author of ‘A Freak of Freedom, or the Republic of San Marino,’ ‘Genoa, how the Republic Rose and Fell,’ &c. Pp. 320, with a Portrait from a Photograph engraved on Steel by H. Adlard. Crown 8vo. price 7s. 6d. cloth [c. £20 today] [NB Bent now decides to add his Oxford degree (Wadham College). For some reason he was never to take his MA.]

The primary object of the present work is to discuss the character and life of General Garibaldi from a thoroughly impartial point of view. In the first place it is shewn how from the commencement of his career up to the present date his actions have almost invariably been influenced by those around him. Politically he is shewn to be as helpless as a child, whilst in warlike manœuvres of his own peculiar kind no one of the present century can equal him …

February 28, 1885. [GB 6 RUL MS 1393/L6,302] The Cyclades; or Life among the Insular Greeks. By J. Theodore Bent, B.A. Oxon. Author of ‘Genoa: How the Republic Rose and Fell’ &c. With Map. Crown 8vo. pp. 528, price 12s. 6s. [c. £30 today] [Is Bent, in part, to blame for today’s undeniable over-tourism in these islands?]

The islands of the Ægean Sea offer plenty of scope for the study of Hellenic archæology, but they are more particularly rich in the preservation of manners and customs which have survived the lapse of years. This work is the result of a special study of both these points, made during two winters passed by the Author amongst the islanders in their distant hamlets, and in their towns by the sea-coast …

Volume VIII. From May 1891 – February 1896, pp. 106 ff; 167 ff.

Printing history of Bent’s “The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland”, 3rd edn, 1895, Longmans (archive.org).

November 17, 1892. [GB 6 RUL MS 1393/L8,106; L12,106] The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland: being a Record of Excavation and Exploration in 1891. By J. Theodore Bent, F.S.A. F.R.G.S. With a Chapter on the Orientation and Mensuration of the Temples by R.M.W. Swan. With 5 Maps and Plans, 13 Plates, and 104 Illustrations in the Text. 8vo. pp. 388, price 18s.  [c. £45 today] [Bent’s inaccurate conclusions, steered by Cecil Rhodes, on Great Zimbabwe were to begin a controversy that was to last some 40 years; some would say longer. By this publication date Bent was both a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (1 July 1886) and the Royal Geographical Society (16 June 1890).]

The object of this work is, firstly, to give a description of the various ruins existing in Mashonaland, and the results of excavations undertaken by the author at Zimbabwe, which was once the capital of this country. It was a strong garrison town in the centre of the gold-producing reefs, and was obviously built for the protection of the gold workers …

“The Sacred City of the Ethiopians”, 1893, Longmans (archive.org)

November 24, 1893. [GB 6 RUL MS 1393/L8,167; L12,167] The Sacred City of the Ethiopians: being a Record of Travel and Research in Abyssinia in 1893. By J. Theodore Bent, F.S.A. F.R.G.S. With a Chapter by Professor H.D. Müller on the Inscriptions from Yeha and Axsum, and an Appendix on the Morphological Character of the Abyssinians by T.G. Garson, M.D. V.P.A.I. With 8 Plates and 65 Illustrations in the Text. 8vo. pp. 326, price 18s. [c. £45 today] [This was to be Bent’s last completed work – he was dead within four years. In the blurb provided by Longmans (or Bent) we see the first reference to Mabel Bent, although she accompanied her husband through every page he ever wrote.]

This work has a twofold object. Firstly, to relate the experiences of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Bent on their journey to and from Axsum in Abyssinia. Special attention has been paid to the manners and customs of the inhabitants, the nature of the primitive form of Christianity which they practise, the marriage ceremonies, the festivals, and every-day life of the Abyssinians. The latter portion of the book is more particularly devoted to the sacred city, its present condition, and its past history …

At the “Sign of the Ship”, i.e. the long-established offices of Longmans, Green, & Co., 39, Paternoster Row, London.

Index to the archives of the House of Longman, 1794-1914

The key to the surviving records relating to Bent’s publications with Messrs. Longmans (as they styled themselves) held within the archives of University of Reading, Special Collections, is the Index to the archives of the House of Longman, 1794-1914 (restricted availability), meticulously compiled by Alison Ingram (1981, Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey).

The Ledgers

As mentioned above, the archive seems to hold no correspondence between Bent and the company (presumably lost in the Blitz in 1940), but what we have is a series of bulky ledgers, in which there is a numbered and dated page entry for each title. Labouriously, batteries of clerks (witness to commercial employment practices, until computerisation changed everything) then entered by hand every transaction, expense/credit, production detail, sales & marketing information, stock balances, and other data, so as to provide an accurate ‘balance sheet’, as it were, for each book. From these pages the officers of the company could receive profit and loss information for the books in press, and, importantly for Bent, and for his widow after his death in 1897, any royalties owing their authors.

Missing Ledger ‘N’ ?

On a visit to the Longmans archive (8 August 2024), ledger/item ‘N’ (Law) seemed to have gone astray, a great pity as it will have included legal correspondence relating to certain textual inaccuracies in Bent’s volume on Garibaldi (1881). In her study Jessie White Mario: Risorgimento Revolutionary (Ohio University Press, 1972, pp. 112, 142-3), Elizabeth Adams Daniels makes reference to two letters from Longmans to Garibaldi’s family, apologising for any unintended errors by their author: it is clear that lawyers would have been consulted (and, indeed, a note of legal expenses is entered against Bent’s account in the corresponding ledger).

Index contents 

Page number 30 (although the pages themselves are unnumbered) of Alison Ingram’s Index lists Bent’s Longmans titles (in alphabetical order) and provides the relevant ledger volume (i.e. A, B, C, etc.) and page number(s), i.e. H24, 188 261 (with the page numbers not separated by commas. (NB ‘L’ references are not to ledgers but to the individual volumes of Notes on Books, being a Quarterly Analysis of the works published by Messrs. Longmans and Co. that have already been referred to above.) Thus, to consult the ledgers  we have these references:

‘The Cyclades’ – E2, 263-4;  H25, 475; L6, 302

‘A Freak of Freedom’ – A12, 285; H24, 3; L5, 306

‘The Life of Garibaldi’ – H24, 188 261; H25, 20; L6, 99; N132 (Law.), 10

‘The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland’ – C6, 95; E3, 183-4 311-12; E7, 141; F1, 102; H29, 104 171; H31, 47 138; H34, 216; L8, 106; L12, 106

‘The Sacred City of the Ethiopians’ – A15, 27-8 36; C6, 113; H30, 50; L8, 167; L12, 167

Contracts

The only contemporary contract that seems to have survived in the archive, as already referred to above, is for Bent’s The sacred city of the Ethiopians (1893), with the archive reference MS 1393/3/1974.

(Details and notes from the ledgers will follow in a later continuation of this article.)

Acknowledgements: Grateful thanks to Emma Farmer, Project Archive Assistant, The Museum of English Rural Life and University of Reading Special Collections, University of Reading, for providing access and kind assistance with the material relating to Theodore Bent within the Longmans archive (July 2024).

Notes:

Note 1:  Letter from Theodore Bent dated 6 Dec 1879 (?) in the William Blackwood & Son archive, National Library of Scotland (MS.4368 ff.149-150).
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Note 2:  (He may well, of course, have approached other firms too.) Letter from Theodore Bent dated 6 Feb 1892 in the William Blackwood & Son archive, National Library of Scotland (MS.4584 ff.156-157); Letter from Theodore Bent dated 19 Feb 1892 in the John Murray Archive, National Library of Scotland (MS.40087 folio 101).
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