Edward Garnett, editor of God's mercy

In the biographies of the English authors of the XIX - XX centuries, we, as a rule, find information about who and under what circumstances published their first works and this contributed to a creative debut. Thus, many names turn out to be “hearing”, however, we usually know little about the characters who have worried them, and we are far from the corresponding cultural processes, we do not strive to learn anymore.

Here is the brand of the very famous British publishing house Allen & Unwin - Doesn't everything care who they are ? And we are not at all interested in the staff of the publisher, even the most venerable. However, it is often an interest in this.

In large British publishers, an important role was assigned to an employee whom we would call a permanent reviewer ; In Britain, it was called Reader . Rider's opinion could be inconclusive, but, as far as possible by literature , it was he who assigned an important role of the first reader .

If a reader was a person with a serious reputation, then the further fate of the manuscript depended significantly on him, including the introduction of large corrections, abbreviations, etc. And if the Reader strongly rejected the manuscript as not complies with the requirements of this publishing house, then the author hardly had a reason for the dispute.

So, the Rider was an influential first reader, and in the future he often became the editor ( Editor ), on which the final species/variant of the text depended.

Edward Garnett (1868–1937) was a critic, an essayist, the author of the novel, drama and literary work. But to an even greater extent, his contribution to the literature and cultural life of England is determined by his personal efforts as an employee of large English publishers, where he was the first reader and Rider.

Garnett not only possessed insight and taste, he also had a rare gift of “insight” inherent in the new author, which still had to develop. He contributed to this development, not sparing strength. It was no accident that it was Golsuorsi to dedicated the first book “Saga about Forsytes” - “The owner”.

Ford Madox Ford, Robert Frost, Joseph Conrad, David Herbert Lawrence and, of course, Herbert Bates - all these are writers whose skill was improved to a large extent under the critical gaze of Edward Garnett.

At the same time, those who personally knew the garnetta noted that as the author “grown” by him finally gained his own voice and, as it were, stuck at the level achieved, Garnett lost his previous interest.

As a rule, Garnett put himself and his gift in worthy "candidates"; However, he also happened to make mistakes - so, in 1915 he rejected the “portrait of the artist in his youth” by James Joyce.

Garnett wrote a lot about Russian literature (in particular, in the Internet archive I found the full text of his book about Tolstoy); Perhaps a certain role in his interests was played by the fact that his wife Constance (Constance Garnett, 1861–1946) was a famous translator of Russian classical literature. Essentially, it is her translations of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Chekhov to this day that they are considered “basic” - they are not only read, but also continue to discuss.

Rebekah Frumkin