PHILHELLENISM OR TRADE? THE CASE OF WILLIAM GODWIN

Byron's involvement in the Greek cause, his death at Missolonghi in 1824 are wellknown and have been told and retold. William Godwin's position is perhaps lesser known. It may unexpectedly be found in the pedagogical part of his work, written "for the use of schools and young persons". In 1822, Godwin published History of Greece : from the earliest Records of that Country to the Time in which it was reduced into a Roman Province. This was to be his last production for the Juvenile Library. It seems difficult to ascertain whether the book was the contribution of a philhellene or of a clever publisher fully aware of what could benefit the trade! In the preface to the book, dated November 1821, Godwin wrote : 

"At the present moment, when the Greeks are engaged, unsupported and alone, in a gallant struggle for their liberties against the Turks, by whom they have been chained in the most galling and abject slavery for almost four centuries, the following short recapitulation of the various claims that Greece has upon our sympathy, prompting us to recollect the ancient and departed days of that wonderful country, cannot be unacceptable". 

That long, patriotic passage thus somewhat abruptly ends in an appeal to the prospective customer! Six years later, for the second edition of the book (1828) which no longer bears the "M.J. Godwin" imprint, Godwin altogether rewrote the preface in quite a different strain. The Greek War of Independance then belonged to the past, and the writer was 72 years old (he speaks of "various circumstances [a probable allusion to the 1825 bankruptcy] and, more than all, increasing years"). The above passage was excised from the new preface, which assumed the form of a "congé". Godwin chose to write in the third person, still determinedly sheltered under his usual pseudonym : 

"Mr. Baldwin proposes with the present volume to take his final leave of that class of young persons for whose amusement and instruction his publications were intended". 

The end of the tether!...     

1st edition, preface

2nd edition, preface 

BIBLIOMANIE

Les bibliophiles, - mais ne devrait-on pas dire bibliomanes? - à qui sont familiers les noms d'Outhenin-Chalandre et Hollande Pannekoek, se réjouiront de lire sous la plume de Richard Le Gallienne un éloge des tirages limités et des "grands papiers". Qui d'entre eux n'a rêvé d'avoir un des cinq exemplaires de tête sur Chine ou sur Japon nacré, laissant déjà loin derrière eux les vingt-cinq exemplaires sur papier de Rives et ses pontuseaux et, dans une brume indistincte, les presque vils exemplaires sur alfa? Mais écoutons Le Gallienne :

"Pourquoi les Béotiens s'en prennent-ils avec rage aux éditions limitées, grands papiers, éditions originales et consorts? Car il y a plus à dire en leur faveur qu'à leur détriment. A proprement parler, de telles marottes sont dignes d'être encouragées, parce qu'elles aident à la survie de l'agonisante dignité des lettres et du mystère du Livre".

On aime à lire, chez l'auteur anglais, ces belles métaphores à la gloire du Livre, "ruches porteuses des miels du rêve" et "vergers du savoir". Parlant de l'"intempérante procréation" du livre à son époque (mais que dirait-il aujourd'hui!), s'élevant contre la surproduction en toutes choses ("We have more mouths than we can fill and more books than we can buy"), il salue ces "malthusiens littéraires" que sont les amateurs de tirages limités, et pourfend auteurs et éditeurs qui engendrent d'immenses portées de livres comme le saumon ses millions d'alevins.   

Sage leçon, à méditer peut-être.

Richard Le Gallienne, "The Philosophy of Limited Editions", Prose Fancies, London, Elkin Mathews & John Lane, 1894, p. 119-125.