Publisher of Frankenstein First Edition – Lackington

The Temple of the Muses where Frankenstein was first offered for sale.

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Temple of The Muses Book Emporium

On the cover page of the first printing of “Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus”, the publisher is listed as Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor and Jones of Finsbury Square. Percy Shelley’s correspondence regarding the publishing was usually addressed to Lackington & Allen & Co.. But who were they?

The original founder of the firm, James Lackington had passed away by the time of the publishing of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel. Lackington, who once advertised himself as the “Cheapest Bookseller in the World”, was an early proponent of the “book emporium” with the business philosophy of discount books sold in volume (sound familiar). A self-made man who rose from selling meat pies at the age of ten and an apprenticeship at a shoemaker, he went to London in 1773 to make his fortune, and began selling books as Lackington & Co. in 1774 from his circulating library on Chiswell Street in London. He focused on selling books to all classes of society.

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James Lackington

In 1791 Lackington had become so successful he built a great store and shopping mall on the corner of Finsbury Square he called the “Temple of the Muses”, designed by George Dance, the London city architect who also designed Newgate Prison and London’s Guildhall. The building housed a collection of publishers and assorted shops. An advertisement of the time reported that the bookseller had a half million volumes for sale at any one time and by 1803, the printed catalogue listed 800,000 works available. Its scale was demonstrated at its grand opened by a mail coach and four horses driving around underneath its central dome. It was called “the most extraordinary library in the world”.

lackington_coinIntended to represent a temple to reading, the poet John Keats recalled visiting the Temple of the Muses as a schoolboy to wonder at the towering shelves of books and read for free in the lounges, and eventually met his publishers among the stacks. In a clever bit of self-marketing, customers could pay for books with a token coin with Lackington’s portrait on one side and Greek classical goddess on the reverse.

A trusted employee, Robin Allen, who was said to be an “excellent judge of old books” had risen to partner and the firm was then known as Lackington, Allen & Co. for several years. James Lackington retired in 1798, the year Mary Godwin was born. George Lackington, a third cousin to James, who had worked in the shop as an apprentice since the age of 13, borrowed funds from his successful merchant father to buy a share in the company. Then, through a series of deaths or life misfortunes, the partners changed over the next years. Robin Allen died in 1815 and it took a succession of partners to replace him. Richard Hughes, Joseph Harding, A. Kirkman, and William Mavor, (the son of William Fordyce Mavor who invented shorthand stenography). George Lackington expanded from publishing to real estate and acquired the Egyptian Hall at Picadilly, which he rented out as an exhibition space, (it was torn down in 1905) while his partner, Richard Hughes was a lessor of Sadler’s Wells Theater.

James Lackington wrote an autobiography, or rather a “a biography written by himself”, where he revealed his secrets of bookselling, opined on authors publishing their own works, and on the improving state of knowledge and literature among ladies, which would seem to come into play as the philosophy which led to the publishing of Mary Shelley’s work. The Temple of the Muses at Finsbury Square burned down in 1841 and the business moved to a location on Pall Mall East as Harding and Lepard after George Lackington’s retirement.

“Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus” was first offered to the public by Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor and & Jones on New Year’s Day of 1818. It was supposed to be published on December 30 of 1817, but the printing was late. The three volumes sold poorly, blamed on the late delivery and mix up in advertising. The novel was re-published officially on March 11, 1818.

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August 1817 – Frankenstein Rejected!

history_six_weeks_cover_fdThe Six Weeks Tour Begins

200 years ago in August of 1871 Percy Bysshe Shelley was submitting Frankenstein to publishers and Mary began working on her diary of the 1814 elopement – The History of the Six Weeks Tour.

On August 3rd 1817 Percy Shelley wrote to his publisher Charles Ollier from Marlow to ask him to publish Frankenstein.

“I send you with this letter a manuscript which has been consigned to my care by a friend in whom I feel considerable interest.  I do not know how far it consists with your plan of business to purchase the copyrights, or a certain interest in the copyrights of any works which should appear to promise success. I should certainly prefer that some such arrangement as this should be made if on consideration you could make any offer which I should feel justified to my friend in accepting. How far that can be you will be the better able to judge after a perusal of the MS. Perhaps you will do me the favour of communicating your decision to me as early as you conveniently can.”

Shelley also wrote on that day to his friend Leigh Hunt, who might be seeing Ollier to inform him not to mention that the book Hunt knew was written by his wife.

 “Bye-the-bye, I have sent an MS to Ollier concerning the true author of which I entreat you to be silent, if you should be asked any questions.”

Ollier apparently very quickly rejected the manuscript. Shelley possibly asked him for fast response.  Just 3 days later on August 6th 1817 Shelley added a postscript to a letter Mary wrote to Marianne Hunt from Marlow.

 “Poor Mary’s book came back with a refusal, which has put me rather in ill spirits. Does any kind friend of yours Marianne know any bookseller or has any influence with one? Any of those good tempered Robinsons? All these things are affairs of interest & preconception”

On August 8 Shelley ended a letter to Ollier with a remark about the book.

“I hope Frankenstein did not give you bad dreams.”

Mary’s diary in Marlow indicated that she had gone on to the writing of her journal of the 1814 trip into the first part of the History of a Six Weeks’ Tour with entries between August 6 to August 17, “write the journal of our travels” and “write journal of our first travels”.

On August 9 Mary’s half-brother Charles Clairmont wrote to Mary from France.

“You say nothing more of your novel. Do not neglect it on any account, and send me one of the first copies.”

On August 24 Mary made an entry in her diary at Marlow “A letter from Lackington” which apparently referred to a letter Shelley answered on August 22. Lackington’s interest in the novel may have been because they were then publishing other books on the occult and alchemy and felt Frankenstein might fit in the catalogue.

Publisher friend Thomas Hookham visited the Shelleys in Marlow from August 24 to 29 when he likely had a chance to read the Six Weeks Tour draft and apparently looked favorably on publishing, though he may have wanted to wait for the second half which would include the writings in letters of Percy Shelley from the 1816 Chamonix trip appended to it, probably to make it more marketable rather than just the hand of then unpublished Mary. Mary inquired about prospects for the book on September 28 in anticipation of its release. Hookham and Charles & James Ollier jointly published the History of the Six Weeks Tour on November 6, 1817 as Mary Shelley’s first published work.

Mary would revise it 31 years later in October of 1848, but the revisions would not published for another 200 years as the Secret Memoirs.

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley  – E-Book

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley – Paperback