Popular literature of the late 1850s

[Eric Burke]

Looking for a nice period novel to carry with me in the field, though I've been unable to find any period listing comperable to a "best seller list" of the era. I was wondering if anyone might be able to help me with this? Any suggestions/recommendations?

Should I be checking period newspapers, etc. or did "Best Seller Lists" even exist in 1860?

Thanks!

[tomarch]

Re: Popular literature of the late 1850s

One that comes to mind would br Uncle Tom's Cabin. You might check what novels Dickens wrote that would be current or predate the War. Another good read would be a reprint of an emigrant guide to California. Something to look foreward to after the fighting.We have so many C.W. vets burried out here, I'm sure a number of them dreamed of coming out here after the fightin' was over.

Tom, please sign all of your posts with your full name. The auto-signature feature in your profile is the best way to do this - Mike Chapman

[KarinTimour]

Re: Popular literature of the late 1850s

I'd like to echo the comments of the gentleman above. It is very hard to even conceive of the popularity of Dickens works -- many of which were published in serial form, so you were left hanging after a few chapters as to what happened to your favorite characters. David Copperfield is one that a lot of people pick up for their first Dickens experience. "Pickwick Papers" moves slowly at first, but has parts that made me laugh out loud -- when the members of the Pickwick Club attend a dress review of the British Army, when they attend a ball, and the unforgettable Sam Weller, who is completely without scruples, will say anything to anybody and whose "out of the box thinking" never hesitates at anything as paltry as legality/illegality.

Uncle Tom's Cabin is an amazing book, and there was a discussion happening here by folks who were reading it at home and coming here to discuss it.

John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress was very widely read in our time period.

Sir Walter Scott's novels (Waverly, Kenilworth, Ivanhoe, Guy Mannering) were extremely popular, especially in the South.

Shakespeare was popular and many, many soldiers memorized chunks of their favorite speeches from his plays.

Like mysteries? Wilkie Collins had at least a few novels out at this point - The Moonstone, Woman in White. Double check the publication dates of these, can't remember them exactly.

Les Miserables was published during the war and was a huge hit (1864?).

Jane Austen's novels are full of dry wit -- Pride and Prejudice, Emma, etc.

House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift

Much of Edgar Allen Poe's work was done before the war (didn't he die right before it? I can't remember).

Moby Dick by Herman Melville -- Lots of food for thought about the differences between the British, the Irish and the Americans in this one.

I'm sure there are quite a few others -- I did just want to also put in a note about all those veterans who settled west of the Mississippi after the War. Keep in mind that under the Homestead Act, which was passed during the war, Union veterans had preferential treatment with regard to settling land in the West. Confederate veterans, to the best of my knowledge did not get the same preferences. Faced with the muliple challenges/devastation of the Reconstruction South, lots of Confederate veterans left for California. For example, quite a few of the professors from Southern colleges were actively recruited by the University of California at Berkeley.

Sincerely,
Karin Timour
Domestic Arts and Honorable Trades Society
Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com

[vbetts]

Re: Popular literature of the late 1850s

The book you are looking for is _Golden Multitudes: The Story of Best Sellers in the United States_, by Frank Luther Mott, published by R. R. Bowker in 1947.

"Each book in this list is believed to have had a total sale equal to one per cent of the population of continental United States for the decade in which it was published. The list omits Bibles, hymnals, textbooks, almanacs, cookbooks, doctor books, manuals, and reference works. Dates and publishers given are believed to be those of the first American editions, so far as ascertainable."

Of course, there were many old favorites still being read and re-read, but here's the 1850s list from Mott:

1850-1859 Must have sold at least 225,000 copies------
1850 Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron. Philadelphia: Thomas Wardle.
1850 Browning, Robert. Poems. Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields.
1850 Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield. various publishers.
1850 Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.
1850 Mitchell, Donald. Reveries of a Bachelor. New York: Baker & Scribner.
1850 Thackeray, William M. Pendennis. New York: Harper & Brother
1850 Warner, Susan. The Wide, Wide World. New York: G. P. Putnam.
1851 Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The House of the Seven Gables. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.
1851 Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick. New York: Harper & Brothers.
1852 Dickens, Charles. Bleak House. New York: Harper & Brothers.
1852 Southworth, Mrs. E.D.E.N. The Curse of Clifton. Philadelphia: Carey & Hart.
1852 Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co.
1854 Barnum, Phineas T. Struggles and Triumphs. New York: J. S. Redfield.
1854 Cummins, Maria S. The Lamplighter. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co.
1854 Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. New York: Harper & Brothers.
1854 Holmes, Mary Jane. Tempest and Sunshine. New York: D. Appleton & Co.
1854 Thoreau, Henry D. Walden. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.
1855 Arthur, T. S. Ten Nights in a Bar-Room. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott.
1855 Bulfinch, Thomas. The Age of Fable. Boston: Sanborn, Carter & Basin.
1855 Ingraham, J. H. The Prince of the House of David. New York: Putney & Russell.
1855 Reade, Charles. The Cloister and the Hearth. New York: Harper & Brothers.
1855 Thackeray, William M. The Newcomes. New York: Harper & Brothers.
1855 Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn: A. & J. Rome.
1856 Mulock, Dinah Maria. John Halifax, Gentleman. New York: Harper & Brothers.
1857 Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit. New York: Harper & Brothers.
1857 Hughes, Thomas. Tom Brown's School Days. New York: Harper & Brothers.
1859 Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson & Co.
1859 Eliot, George. Adam Bede. New York: Harper & Brothers.
1859 Southworth, Mrs. E.D.E.N. The Hidden Hand. Philadelphia: Peterson & Bros.
1859 Thackeray, William M. The Virginians. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Vicki Betts
vbetts@gower.net

[Hank Trent]

Re: Popular literature of the late 1850s

1854 Thoreau, Henry D. Walden. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.
...
1851 Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick. New York: Harper & Brothers.

225,000 copies sold in the 1850s? No way. Which makes me wonder how the numbers are calculated. Do they mean 225,000 copies *ever* sold, even if the bulk of them were after 1900?

There may be others on the list that had low sales in the 1850s-60s, but those two jumped out at me. I'm also wondering about Leaves of Grass, though it probably did a little better than the other two.

From http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNot...y_thoreau.html

Between 1847 and 1854, Thoreau continually redrafted and revised Walden. Ticknor and Field published an edition of 2,000 copies in 1854. Reviews were predominantly positive, and 1,700 copies sold during the following year...

Ticknor and Fields, the publishers of Walden, purchased the magazine in 1859, and in 1861, James Fields suggested 250-book reprinting of Walden... [In 1862] the reprintings of his two books were finally published...

Thus, Thoreau was not well-appreciated during the nineteenth-century and was often seen as a lesser imitator of Emerson. Only beginning in the 1890s, after critical evaluation of his writings, did Thoreau come to be appreciated for his literary merit. In the twentieth-century, he has come to be seen as one of the most significant nineteenth-century American writers.

According to http://www.melville.org/earnings.htm , Melville only sold 3,715 of Moby Dick during his lifetime (he died in 1891). Ironically, he did somewhat better with Typee, selling over 16,000 copies.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Alamo Guard]

Re: Popular literature of the late 1850s

How about the bible? How about the classics? Plato etcc? I suppose it must be first person driven as well. I picked up a great pulp novel dated 1847 called "Pirates of The Seas", typical pulp novel of swashbucklers etcc.
Ms Betts amazes me with her knowledge sometimes, my hats off to you.

[vbetts]

Re: Popular literature of the late 1850s

Ah! Never underestimate librarians!! We hold the keys! ;-) But thanks for the compliment!

I also don't quite believe the figures in Mott's book (Melville and Whitman??? don't think so!!), which is why I always cite the exact source. Then you can dispute him rather than me. I tend to get into trouble when I remark off of the top of my head. One of these days I want to see if I can get my hands on Clyde H. Cantrell's dissertation from the University of Illinois (1960)--"The Reading Habits of Ante-Bellum Southerners." Also, Jane Turner Censer wrote "The Nineteenth-Century Bookshelf", published in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 104, no. 1 (Winter 1996): 121-? which might also be good. So many things to research, so little time!

I also find it interesting to see what titles people actually mention in their diaries and letters, and which books show up in bookstore advertisements, the Literary Notices section of Godeys, and in library new titles lists published in newspapers (I've seen one from St. Louis). In case any ladies are reading this, the Godey's Literary Notices lists appear in six-month files (1855-1865)at http://www.uttyl.edu/vbetts/godey_intro.htm
Just pick a six month period and do an Edit/Search for Literary Notices and you will get each month's list. If you are the sort that would subscribe to Godey's, you might also be the sort to use their notices as a buying guide.

I'm sure the Bible and classics, including Pilgrim's Progress and Shakespeare, will figure prominently in any literate mid-19th century person's repertoire, because the allusions show up so frequently in their own writing. Mott's book, however, specifically targets books published for the first time during each decade.

Vicki Betts
vbetts@gower.net

[Hank Trent]

Re: Popular literature of the late 1850s

Mott's book, however, specifically targets books published for the first time during each decade.

I bet that's the key to it. The books are listed by decade, but the sales totals are for all time, so they actually are "right" by that calculation. But for reenacting purposes, we're expecting to see the sales totals by decade, regardless of publication date.

Most of the time, Mott's best seller list fits just fine in both cases, like Southworth, Dickens, Uncle Tom's Cabin, etc. But you get the odd inclusion when a book languishes at publication but becomes popular years later (i.e. Walden), or the odd omission when a book was published years before but is still popular (Shakespeare).

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[PvtRoland]

Re: Popular literature of the late 1850s

I just finished reading the diary of John Guilford Earnest, a Lieutenant in the 60th Tennessee Infantry. Earnest left Emory and Henry College just short of his graduation in May of 1861 and later enlisted in one of the companies that would eventually make up the 60th Tennessee. The 60th was sent to Vicksburg in December of 1862 and Earnest apparently had a lot of time to kill while the regiment stayed basically stationary in the defenses around the city. He mentions reading frequently in his diary. Most of the time it is the Bible, but he also mentions "The White Chief", first published in 1859 by Mayne Reid (1818-83), a popular British writer of boy's adventure stories. Earnest called this "the best novel I've seen in a long while". Another novel he mentions reading is "The Homestead on the Hills", first published in 1856, by Mary Jane Holmes (1825-1907). Of course he also appreciated the works of Shakespeare and he read "The Tempest" while recovering from a bout of viral hepatitis. Earnest shows his college education in the diary by including a brief analyses of the literary merit of each work when he finishes it.
Nicholas Roland

[NY Pvt]

Re: Popular literature of the late 1850s

Does anyone have a site that I may be able to buy civil war era books? I've found sites but most sell modern out of print copies, to back to about the turn of the century.

Thanks!

[Eric Burke]

Re: Popular literature of the late 1850s

If you use eBay, you can browse Antiquarian books decade by decade back to the 1600s. Great resource ... great prices.

BTW, thanks everyone for your insight! It's been very helpful!

While we're on the subject ... if I were to carry multiple books in the field, does anyone have any idea how those books might be bound together? Perhaps a kind of leather strap to hold them together, or just carry them loosely?

[Kate Vogel]

Re: Popular literature of the late 1850s

Applewood Books (applewoodbooks.com) has some reasonably priced literary reproductions, but you need to look carefully and generally have an idea of what title you are looking for. I've never done buisness with them, so hopefully someone can chime in with a review.

It's probably preaching to the choir, but lean towards a facsimilie before you take an antique book out in the field. You wouldn't wear an original SA blouse at a reenactment would you? Besides, a book published in 1860 wouldn't look 140 years old in 1860. :) I've heard of the occasional facsimilie found through Borders or Barnes and Noble, so perhaps that is another route to explore.

[Charlie]

Re: Popular literature of the late 1850s

Thomas Southwick of the 5th NY Duryee Zouaves carried the collected works of Shakespeare with him through his entire enlistment. He actually read selections of it to his mess mates as well as at the regimental Xmas show in 62'.

[GrumpyDave]

Re: Popular literature of the late 1850s

I have a copy (1st edition) of Sir Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake" I keep in my haversack. Found it on an old box of my dad's school books. Books from the period are out there and esy to find.

[Scarlet_&_White]

Re: Popular literature of the late 1850s

Melville was NOT popular after publishing Moby Dick. It was seen as ponderous and preachy and a vast departure from his earlier dime-novel quality adventure novels. He published one more novel in his lifetime and wrote only short stories and poetry after that. His friend Hawthorne had to find him work so he could support his family.

Hawthorne was very popular and all his works would have been either read or at least known of by the educated soldier (his short stories were even more popular than his novels in the 1850s). Emerson was popular in the northeast (Unitarians were the descendants of the Puritans), not in the South. Thoreau was mildly popular at the time, but mostly in Transcendental circles and seen as a reactionary to most others.

Don't touch Poe. He was not widely read at the time and had almost no commerical success. His best success was as a literary critic, so unless you are a literature weenie you wouldn't know the name.

Dickens was very popular, and the old Leatherstocking tales were still widely read. Walter Scott was a big name, but you wouldn't find a copy of Ivanhoe next to the Bible in every Southern home. When Twain made his famous quote he was referring more the genre of literature Scott inspired rather than to the works of Scott himself.

Look to the classics for the most widely read and understood material. The early Victorian age was reknown for new and lyric translations of ages old material. Chaucer, Boccaccio, Homer, Virgil, Ovid, von Eschenbach, Josephus, and a host of other Greek, Roman, Medieval, and Renaissance writers had their works translated into modern English for the first time since the 17th century. The letters and writings of the educated soldiers bears this out.

Finally, Shakespeare has never gone out of style and the Greek dramas were exploited for material by writers and playwrights of the period.