Mathew Carey, editor, author and publisher; a study in American literary development

Front matter

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Preface

Mathew Carey, the subject of this study, after a lapse of three quarters of a century, has survived in chronological outlines and literary histories as the author of a History of the Yellow Fever, The Olive Branch, and of numerous works on political economy and a bewildering variety of subjects that defy classification.^ As such he is not unworthy of study by the close student of American literature and history ; but were he noteworthy as an author alone, an essay, rather than a monograph, would probably be his due. Carey's real claim to consideration is as a publisher, and, to a lesser extent, editor, and author. Our young civilization of a century ago, whether within the sound of the Atlantic or on that shifting belt known vaguely as the frontier needed a medium thru which literature could reach it in order that it might outgrow its provincialness and painful self consciousness. America itself was largely adequate, under proper stimulus, to produce a literature; and any omission could easily be filled from the mature literatures of Europe. Such a medium and such a stimulus Mathew Carey, better than any one else in this country, supplied for over half a century. At this formative period he was able to direct the taste of his public in a way not in the slightest degree possible for the publisher of today when the multiplicity of publishing houses, of authors, and of already developed tastes defies any attempt at control. From 1785 to 1817 Carey was the sole owner, and from 1817 to 1824 he was actively at the head of the greatest publishing and distributing firm in this country,^

^ The titles of his books, pamphlets, and speeches occupy four pages of notes and seven of text in the Bihliotheca Americana.

^ The titles of the various firms of which he was the founder or forerunner were as follows: Mathew Carey, 1787-1817; M. Carey & Son, 1817- 1821 ; M. Carey & Sons, 1821-1824; Carey & Lea 1824. Subsequently Edward L. Carey, a son of Mathew Carey, was admitted. The business was divided in 1829 when Henry C. Carey and Isaac Lea (afterward Carey, Lea & Blanchard, and then Lea & Blanchard) formed a firm as publishers

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and tho his formal connection with the house ended in the latter year there is no doubt that thru his sons he was influential, in its conduct until a much later period. Fortunately all the documents relating to his business from 1787 to 1823 are preserved, and they form one of the most interesting and valuable sources of information on the publishing business in America.

Since it is very largely upon these documents that the present study is based the question naturally arises. How far can the business of these firms be regarded as typical of that of the entire country and how far do their publications and their sales of the books of other publishers represent the tastes of the reading public as a whole and not merely those of a section or class ? The reasons for believing it to be typical, and therefore of value in enabling one accurately to trace the development of literary culture in America are numerous. It represents all phases of the business of the largest firm in Philadelphia, the acknowledged literary center of America during most of the period covered by this study. There was little or no specialization of publication as yet ; so that when we examine the publications of Carey (and of his successors) we may be fairly sure that no other publisher is issuing a radically different class of books. We feel that this must be

exclusively, continued to the present day as Lea & Febriger, two members of the firm being M'athew Carey's great-grandchildren. When the firm was divided Edward L. Carey and Abram Hart formed the firm of Carey & Hart. With them we are not concerned. The account books begin January I, 1787; the correspondence received, 1788. The correspondence sent out is very irregularly kept, or, an assumption that is probably more just to the various firms, has subsequently been misplaced. By a careful estimate the number of volumes is 510. Of this number 145 volumes, quarto, are letters received, forty are copies of those sent out. The remaining 325 volumes are made up of account books, day books, journals, receipt books, stock books, warehouse books, exchange lists, subscription lists, memorandum books, bills of lading, and all other material necessary to a complete business record. Between 1823 and 1854 there is a gap in the record. By chance, however, three volumes of letters sent out have survived covering the two periods of June 17, 1834 to August 6, 1837, and January 2, 1841, to June 10, 1842. After 1854. the firm, then known as Lea & Blanchard, published medical books almost exclusively.

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the correct conclusion when we examine the exchange Hsts and notices of forthcoming pubHcations which were sent out by various firms. The general class is always the same, and even the titles have a striking uniformity. The general nature and purpose of other firms was, then, very similar. As there is no great number of inquiries for books not kept on hand, it it a logical inference that the scope of the reading of the entire country fell fairly well within the limits of the literature disseminated by the firm in question, for the wide distribution of its business — from Castine, Maine, in the north to St. Louis and New Orleans on the west and south — indicates that the general demands of the country could be supplied. In any case the business must be typical of a large part of the south, for the firm was so well established there that it had no formidable competitor. The intense rivalry of a later period for the works of British authors shows that a large number of publishers were on the lookout for similar works.

The subject of this monograph was suggested by Professor W. P. Trent of Columbia University, under whom it was my privilege to study for almost three years. I, least of all, should be inclined to underestimate the breadth and the catholicity of judgment that so strikingly characterize the scholarship of Professor Trent and that are so abidingly felt by every student who has come under his influence, but it is above all as a personal friend that I wish here to express my gratitude to him.

I feel also that I am deeply indebted to Mr. Charles M. Lea, of Lea and Febiger, Publishers, Philadelphia. Mr. Lea has in charge the documents without which this study could not have been brought to completion. He has met, with a cheerful courtesy which it is a pleasure to acknowledge, every desire of mine regarding the material at his disposal. To his father, the late Henry C. Lea, whose name is known to every student of history, I am under obligations for having read the manuscript and having made several valuable additions. It is in this same connection that one of my most direct obligations to Professor Trent is due. There are few pages that have not been bettered by his suggestions. The manuscript has been read, also, by Professor Brander Matthews and Professor A. H. Thorndike of Columbia University, and by Professor C. N. Greenough of Harvard University, to all of whom I am under obligations for suggestions. Mr. Henry Carey Baird of Philadelphia and Mr. Albert Matthews of Boston have given me pamphlets of value bearing upon the subject.

Contents

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I. The First Steps : Journalist and Editor i

II. Material Conditions of Publishing and Distributing at the End of the Eighteenth and the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century 13

CHAPTER I The First Steps: Journalist and Editor

Mathew Carey was born in Dublin, January 28, 1760/ of well-to-do parents. His education was that of the average boy of his time and circumstances. Unlike most boys however he had very early decided upon the trade which he wished to follow. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a bookseller. This was accomplished thru his own efforts; for his father, while offering him the choice of any other of the twenty-five corporations in Dublin, refused to aid him in his resolution to become a printer and bookseller. In this position he had ample chance to satisfy his omnivorous appetite for reading, and the desire, not less strong, it seems, to rush into print. His first essay as a writer, at about the age of seventeen, was a severe condemnation of duelling, in a newspaper article in the Hibernian Journal in 1777. Years after in America he was to give a " practical illustration of the text."

^ The published accounts of the life of Carey are very few in number. Those given below are all that I have been able to find.

American Bookseller, The, Vol. XVII, No. 3, New York, Feb. i, 1885. Editorial Contributions to the Trade History — Number One. The Carey- Baird Centenary, January 25, 1885. Memoir of Mathew Carey, Founder of the House, by Henry Carey Baird, with a reproduction of " Carey's Pennsylvania Evening Herald " and Portrait of M. Carey, pp. 59-64.

Autobiographical Sketches, in a Series of Letters Addressed to a Friend, Philadelphia, 1829. i2mo, pp. xvi + 156. This was afterwards republished in The New England Magazine (July, 1833, to December 1834, the installments beginning as follows : V, p. 404, 489 ; VI, 60, 93, 227, 306, 400 ; VII, 61, 14s, 239, 320, 401, 481).

Historical Sketches of Some of the Pioneer Catholics of Philadelphia and Vicinity, by Joseph Willcox (a pamphlet without date or place of publication containing 51 pages of text and 10 of plates at the end), pp. 17-20. 2 1

That intense love of country and of humanity, which was to win him the affection and respect of so many thousands in his adopted country, was very early shown in a pamphlet written in 1779^ in defense of his oppressed fellow Irish Catholics. Self interest and a propitiatory attitude towards officialdom were never at any time strong features of his character. Very naturally, then, in dealing with so delicate a subject as " The urgent necessity of an immediate repeal of the whole Penal Code against the Roman Catholics," the ardent youth raised such a storm in governmental circles that his cooler headed friends thought best to ship him off to Passy, a village near Paris. Here the one extreme of character met the other: unhesitating impulsiveness and shrewd worldly knowledge came into contact, when Carey was engaged by Benjamin Franklin to reprint his dispatches from America. After a few months Franklin no longer had need for him, and he went to work with Didot le jeune, the greatest printer of his time, from whom he must have learned much about the technical part of his profession. There is little evidence that Franklin had any marked influence upon Carey. The dissimilarity of character and the difference in age were probably too great. Nor does their acquaintance later in America appear to have been other than of the most formal kind. One friendship of very great value later he did make — that of La Fayette.^

Once more in Dublin, where the storm had blown over, he proceeded to get into fresh trouble. In October, 1783, his father aided him to establish the Volunteer's Journal, In this he boldly defended the manufactures, commerce, and political rights of Ireland against the encroachments of Great Britain. The career of the Journal he described in after years

^ The urgent necessity of an immediate repeal of the whole Penal Code against the Roman Catholics candidly considered, to which is added an inquiry into the prejudices entertained against them; being an appeal to the Roman Catholics of Ireland, exciting them to a just sense of their civil and religious rights, as citizens of a free nation.

* While Carey was an exile at Passy an invasion of Ireland was contemplated by the French, and La Fayette called upon him to make inquiries concerning the political condition of the country. Carey was unable however to give him any information of value.

as " enthusiastic and violent." As "enthusiastic," it excited the approbation of the Irish ; as " violent," the disapprobation of the English. Carey was finally imprisoned for an article in which the Parliament in general and the premier in particular were denounced for their Irish policy. After living "joyously" in Newgate for a month he was released; but dreading the outcome of a suit for libel instituted in behalf of the premier, his friends persuaded him to emigrate to America, September 7, 1784.

For a while he hesitated between New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. He chose the last named because his case seemed better known there, and he concluded that the oppression he had undergone would gain him friends. There he was to remain until his death in 1839. As he had only a dozen guineas, and was unknown and friendless, the future did not look particularly promising. By chance a fellow passenger visiting Washington and Lafayette at Mount Vernon mentioned Carey's name and situation to the latter. When La Fayette arrived a few days later at Philadelphia, he requested Carey to call on him. They parted after half an hour's conversation, during which La Fayette promised to recommend him to Robert Morris, Thomas Fitzsimmons* and others. Nothing whatever was said about financial assistance. Judge then of Carey's surprise upon receiving, by letter the next morning, four hundred dollars from La Fayette, who had already departed for Princeton — a sum which Carey had the pleasure of returning to the donor on his next visit to America in 1824.

Thru this gift Carey was enabled immediately to establish the Pennsylvania Herald, January 25, 1785. The venture met

* Thomas Fitzsimmons (1741-1811) a victim of England's oppression of the Irish, came to America, probably in 1765, and settled in Philadelphia. He was an ardent supporter of the Revolution, and in 1780 his firm gave 5G5000 to aid the cause. He also raised and commanded a company of militia, and served at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. In 1782 he was a member of the Continental Congress, and, in 1787, a delegate in the framing of the Constitution. He was a representative to the first Congress, a strong advocate of a protective tariff up to 1795, and an opponent of universal suffrage.

with scant success until, on August 2"^, 1785, a regular series of the debates of the House of Assembly was begun in its columns. This was a new departure in American journalism, and greatly increased the popularity of the paper. The inevitable political alignment soon took place; and Carey, Anti- Federalist, in a short while found himself engaged in a bitter controversy with the leader of the Federalists, Colonel Eleazer Oswald. Not content with the opportunities afforded by his newspaper, Carey published The Plagi Scurriliad, a Hudibrastic Poem, addressed to Col. Oswald. The Colonel's retort was a challenge. In the duel that followed, Carey, lame since early childhood, received just above the knee a wound that was not healed for fifteen or sixteen months.

During this period the Pennsylvania Herald seems to have been discontinued, so that Carey was free to start another venture. In October, 1786, he began the Columbian Magazine. Evidently this was expected to be a very lucrative publication for there were five partners ; but by the end of the year Carey had withdrawn. In January, 1787, he issued the first number of the American Museum. With this date begins his real influence and importance in American literature.

The magazine, at least in America, was yet in its experimental stage. Benjamin Franklin and Andrew Bradford in 1741 had issued the first monthly — The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle of all the British Plantations in America,^ but there had not been enough pioneers in the field to clear the road for the newcomers. Warned by the ill fortune of all his other ventures, it was not without considerable misgivings that Carey attempted a new one. He seems to have turned to Jeremy Belknap, already well known as a literary man and one well qualified to give advice on literary projects. Belknap's reply, written from Boston, February 2, 1787, was, in part, as follows:

"... Several attempts have been made within my memory both here & at the Southward to establish such a repository of Literature, but after a year or two they have uniformly failed.

•A. H. Smyth, The Philadelphia Magazines and Their Contributors, Philadelphia, 1892, p, 22.

To what other Causes this failure may be ascribed I will not say — but this appears to me to be one, viz., the too frequent publication of them. We are fond of imitating our European Brethren (I speak of scientific Brethren) in their monthly productions — without considering the difference between our Circumstances & theirs. A Country full of learned men, full of business, literary, political, mercantile — having inexhaustible Resources of knowledge of every kind — may be able to keep up one or two monthly vehicles of Information so as to make a respectable appearance but such a Country as this is not yet arrived at such a pass of Improvement. Modesty is best in all new attempts & it is certainly the wisest way to begin as we expect to out. For these reasons were I to have the direction of a Magazine I would propose to publish it Quarterly & to increase its size as material should occur. I should also conduct it partly on the plan of the annual Register so as to establish a Connected history of Events, taking Care to keep far enough behind so that any Series or Period should lapse in point of action before the Relation of it begin. ..."

To these admonitions Carey seems to have paid considerable attention, but he found that Belknap had underestimated the quantity of material at hand.

The first article, Consolations for America, by Benjamin Franklin, is indicative of the tone of the new publication. Hitherto all the magazines published in this country had looked across the ocean for their models. The American Revolution had nearly paralyzed the publishing business, and magazines published before that time were, almost without exception, intensely loyal in their attitude. Bradford, always complaisant to British suggestions and influences, had, in his American Magazine, strongly supported the crown against the French. Paine and Brackenridge had too often made their magazines merely a medium of attack upon the Tories. The Columbia Magazine had steered clear of all political problems, but had given much of its space to manufactures and agriculture. Now with the American Museum a complete American magazine begins. While avoiding any offensive partisan attitude, it nevertheless reflects the unsettled state of the country in those critical years before the adoption of the Constitution. Its articles are of so varied a nature that it presents the nearest approximation yet obtained to what our forefathers conceived a magazine should be — a treasury of all human knowledge.

Tho to the Columbian Magazine, in its issue of August, 1789, fell the honor of introducing America's greatest novelist before Cooper — Charles Brockden Brown'^ — the service of Carey in giving the literary talent of our country a medium of expression may be best judged by the number of familiar names found in the Museum. The second article, in which we get a glimpse of the politically unorganized condition of the country — Patriots and Heroes — the Revolution Is Not Over — is by Dr. Benjamin Rush. Paine's Common Sense is reprinted. Philip Freneau, Trumbull, and Col. David Humphreys are the most voluminous contributors of poetry, which forms, on an average, one-fifth of each number. Trumbull's M' Fingal is printed in full, as is also Col. Humphreys' Poem on the Happiness of America, while to Francis Hopkinson, whose name occurs repeatedly as contributor of both prose and poetry in the lighter vein, is due the credit of starting, thru his Dialogue HI of Dialogues of the Dead,^ the " muck rake " in American literature, or to be more liberal, the somnolent street-sweeping brigade of Philadelphia. Anthony Benezet utters a protest against slavery, and Governor Livingston and others use the Museum as their regular organ. It is true that not all of the articles signed by these men occur here for the first time, but the majority do; and the minority gain an enlarged circle of readers. As meager as was our literary output at this period, it must have been much more so but for such a medium of expression. To that comparative meagerness Carey attests when he says the opinion had been entertained that material enough to run a magazine was not obtainable; but he adds that, contrary to that expectation, material beyond his needs rapidly accumulated. This was not strange, considering his ideas of what a magazine should be : for tho he always gave the preference to American writers and articles he felt at liberty to draw from any source, published or unpublished, on practically any subject.

■^ Brown's Rhapsodist. A. H. Smyth, Philadelphia Magazines and their Contributors, Philadelphia, 1892, p. 153. *Vol. I, pp. 223-6.

The historical spirit was always strong in Carey : we find him, in the preface to the number for January, 1788 (Vol. Ill), lamenting the loss to posterity of letters of commanders, accounts of battles, authentic state papers, and similar material, published during the Revolution, of which he had unique copies. In order to prevent the obscurity of some of the important events of the Revolution, he determines to publish as many as possible of these documents in the Museum, which is in fact a veritable mine to the historian of the period. Noah Webster also seems to have had the same idea of the historical value of a magazine, for on September 3, 1788, we find him, besides asking that Carey publish his Progress of Dulness in the Museum, suggesting that Winthrop's Journal should be added. About a month before, Timothy Dwight had sent " a very sensible Dissertation on the language of the Muhhekaneen Indians by Dr. Edwards of New Haven. I think it well suited to your design, fraught with valuable instruction to the world. Let me advise you to engage the assistance of that gentleman, as I know of none more learned & able in this country." Truly if the reader of that day found Hopkinson and a few — a very few — others too frivolous, he had but to turn the page.

As yet there was no idea of " art for art's sake " and Washington expresses but the common view of his time when he writes to Carey : " I will venture to pronounce, as my sentiment, that a more useful literary plan has never been undertaken in America, or one more deserving of public encouragement. . . . For my part, I entertain an high idea of the utility of periodical publications; insomuch that I could heartily desire copies of the Museum and Magazines, as well as common Gazettes, might be spread through every city, town, and village in America. I consider such easy vehicles of knowledge, more happily calculated than any other, to preserve the liberty, stimulate the industry, and meliorate the morals of an enlightened and free people."^ There was as yet extremely little

•This letter and the letter to Poe, on pages 112-113, are the only letters quoted in this study which, so far as I know, have been previously published. This will be found in the Preface to The Museum. John Dickinson, call for mere amusement : the masses needed and were clamoring for education. Life was too stern and practical for much else. One correspondent, a little later, enters a vigorous protest against the loss of space in an illustrated spelling book; besides, he writes, his pupils wear out the pages by turning them over to look at the pictures. The limited number of books and the comparative narrowness of scholarship created a public of deliberate readers, and the ability, necessary to the modern scholar, of skimming thru many books was unknown and unneeded.

At the beginning of Volume 3, January to June, 1788, Carey prints a list of his subscribers by states and countries, which shows the widespread habit of reading even at that period. With the exception of Vermont and New Hampshire all the states and territories of that time are represented. Considering the struggle for material existence and the slowness and uncertainty of transportation facilities this is a good showing. The Boston magazines probably account for the absence of subscribers in Vermont and New Hampshire. All the European countries prominent at that time, with the exception of Spain, are represented, and an unusual number of the West Indian Islands. The Museum well deserved the name of " the first really successful magazine in America." Yet the life of the editor was never above penury. At no time, according to his own statement, was he possessed of more than four hundred dollars.^*^ The subscription of two dollars and forty cents a

William Livingston, Edmond Randolph, Ezra Stiles, Timothy Dwight, Francis Hopkinson, and many others sent letters or resolutions (published in the Preface) strongly approving of the project.

^° This condition arose also from the fact that more than half of the subscribers lived in remote situations, often five hundred miles away, and remittances were slow. It was frequently necessary to dun these subscribers, thru hired collectors, at a heavy expense. Carey printed more copies than he had any immediate sale for in the vain hope that the subscription list would be ultimately enlarged. When he became a publisher of general literature he, in spite of the warnings of the Museum, continued for several years to publish and handle a stock about twice as large as his trade justified. It was necessary to borrow money heavily, and *' I was shaved so close by the latter class (the usurers) that they almost skinned me alive. I have owed for months together from three to six year was entirely too low for the thousand or eleven hundred pages furnished ; remote subscribers refused to remit promptly ; and too many copies were printed in expectation of a larger subscription.

In December, 1792, the last numbers of the Museum and of the Columbian Magazine were issued. Both editors assign the same reason : " The present law respecting the establishment of the post-office, which totally prohibits the circulation of monthly publications through that channel on any other terms than that of paying the highest postage on private letters or packages."" Carey mentions as an additional cause the extension of his business as a bookseller, which renders him unable to give the Museum proper attention. Only once more was he to introduce a periodical to the public — The Thespian Monitor and Dramatic Critic , by Barnaby Bangbar, Esq., (1809) — a publication which did not live long.

The year after the suspension of the Museum a yellow fever plague swept over Philadelphia, and for a summer all industry was paralyzed. The readers of Arthur Mervyn will recall the vivid pages in which Brown describes the suffering of this summer. With more fidelity to fact^^ Carey has given us a complete

thousand dollars, borrowed from day to day, and sometimes in the morning to be paid at one o'clock the same day, to meet checks issued the preceding day. The horrors of this situation can scarcely be conceived by any person not experiencing them. I have worked, lame as I was, from nine or ten o'clock in the morning, till two or half past two, trying to borrow money." Yet " during this whole period, I scarcely ever disappointed a lender." {Autobiography in the New England Magazine, Vol. VI, pp. 227-8.)

It might be added in this connection that Carey's reason for writing the Autobiography was a desire to encourage those struggling under such difficulties as he had met, and to warn them against bad business methods. The motto of his sunny yet indomitable nature was, apparenly, Never Despair.

"Benjamin Franklin, in his Autobiography, under the year 1729, says that Bradford, the postmaster of Philadelphia, refused to allow his paper to be sent by post. Carey has an implied charge of a similar nature against that dignitary of 1792.

" " While the upper rooms of this building (the hospital at Bush Hill) are filled with the sick and the dying, the lower apartments are the scenes of carousals and mirth. The wretches who are hired, at enormous wages, to tend to the sick and convey away the dead, neglect their duty, and history of the epidemic in A Short Account of the Malignant Fever, Prevalent in the Year 1793, in the City of Philadelphia. The Short Account was one of the most popular of its author's works. It reached at least eleven editions. It was printed in French at Philadelphia, in German at Lancaster, and in Dutch at Haarlem, all in the same year, 1794. A large part of the second edition, which appeared only twelve days after the first, was sent to Europe to show creditors there the reasons for non remittance. As a history based on documents, and aiming at accuracy alone, it lacks the vividness found in Arthur Mervyn; and it has none of the unforgetable incidents that fill the pages of Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year. Yet Carey appreciated the great human drama going on around him. " Arthur Mervyn," he writes, " gives a vivid and terrifying picture, probably not too highly colored, of the horrors of that period." During this time he was not a mere idle onlooker or a dilettante writer analyzing the agonies of his suffering brother man, but an active worker in two important committees whose members were dying around him in the discharge of their dangerous duties. Tho he was always ready to give the best side of human nature, to choose the brightest examples, the impression he produces is one of horror yet not the horror produced by the trained literary artist, but that which is inherent in the subject.