Lines from the Library

Time has run out for the pulling together of an entry on Sir Walter Scott this week. I have to pack and get myself to the train. I'm off to the World Fantasy Conference in beautiful Saratoga Springs, NY.

This year's theme is: GHOSTS AND REVENANTS: MEMORY, HISTORY, AND FOLKLORE

which should be a grand old time.

Here's a link to the program: http://www.lastsfa.org/wfc2007/

Next week: Sir Walter Scott and the Scott Industry

DeCoursey Fales was a fanatical collector of Sir Walter Scott material, as anyone serious about the history of the novel would be. We have a truly astonishing collection of Scott's works, from his very earliest appearances in print, to a complete set of his poetry, fiction, and non-fiction works. We have piracies, we have foreign-language editions, collected editions, you name it.

One class of Scott material we have in abundance is what I call the products of the Scott Industry. Remember, he had a very successful career as a best-selling poet before he hit the jackpot with the Waverley novels. Secondary/supplemental works were published to take advantage of his popularity.

For instance, The Lay of the Last Minstrel first appeared in 1805. It was so popular that it was reissued at least 11 times between 1805 and 1810 with total sales of approximately 18,000 copies.

In 1808 John C. Schetky published Illustrations of Walter Scott’s Lay of the Last Minstrel: Consisting of Twelve Views on the Rivers Bothwick, Ettrick, Yarrow, Tiviot, and Tweed. Here's an illustration from this book:

Similar collections of illustrations were issued throughout Scott's career.

An especially nifty example is this one from 1825:

One of the things that made Scott such a popular success was that you could publish books full of the "notices and anecdotes of real characters, scenes, and incidents" described in a novel.

The other interesting point about this item is that 1825 is the year in which Scott openly acknowledged that he was the Great Unknown, the author of the Waverley novels. I wonder if this illustration appeared before or after that news?

As with all things in this blog, these two items are just the tip of the iceberg. The Scott industry lived on long after his death in 1832, and these products are well documented in Fales.