Sir Walter Scott: A Bibliographical History, 1796-1832.

Wood, G. A. M.

Sir Walter Scott: A Bibliographical History, 1796-1832. By William B.
Todd and Ann Bowden. Winchester: St Paul's Bibliographies; New Castle,
DE: Oak Knoll Books. 1998. xx+1071 pp. [pound]65; $95.

Yet more superhuman industry by William B. Todd and Ann Bowden has resulted in another major contribution to enumerative and analytical bibliography. In Sir Walter Scott: A Bibliographical History, 1796-1832, they list the printing of all Scott's verse, fiction, and miscellaneous writings, including several not previously attributed to him, and the various works to 1832 derivative of each of Scott's productions, ranging from two for Chronicles of the Cannongate (1827), to 281 for The Lady of the Lake (1810). As the compilers argue, Scott 'eventually was responsible for a whole literary, musical, and pictorial industry based, near and far, upon his work' (p. ix), and their volume will be a source for a wide range of early-nineteenth-century cultural studies, and for all aspects of printing and publishing in Britain, Europe, and the United States in this period.

More specifically, Todd and Bowden give a definitive listing and description of all Scott's works. Many of his books and multi-volume sets have been 'hitherto exempt from bibliographical analysis' (p. 4), and the careful descriptions, to name just two, of The Life of John Dryden (1808), with a succinct analysis of assignments to specific pressmen (pp. 113-14), or the nine-volume Life of Napoleon Buonaparte (1827), with explanation of how its 122 cancels were printed together on sixteen sheets (pp. 612, 639-41), are in themselves significant additions to knowledge of printing-house practice.

Each Scott volume is given the following information, based on the personal examination of multiple copies, spread over forty-two collections. First, a transcription of the title page, using Bowers conventions. It is a pity that there are not more illustrations of title pages, given the ease and cheapness of modern technology, as the transcriptions of course make distinction between type styles, but not between type sizes, so that to take the first edition of The Lord of the Isles (1815), the same roman capitals serve for four different sizes in the original, and the notation short Oxford rule for pieces of type respectively 4.4 and 2.2 cm in length. Secondly, records of publication history in Edinburgh, London, and elsewhere; details of watermarks, collation, and pagination. Thirdly, and perhaps most significantly, there is a full listing of press figures, given by gathering and page number, (e.g. E36-5). Details of the actual placing of each press figure relative to the superior line of type, or variants in the size of figures, are only supplied when needed to establish a 'point' relative to a specific edition, impression, or state. Finally, each description lists reprints, locations of copies examined, and references to previous bibliographies.

Though Todd and Bowden always acknowledge earlier bibliographers of Scott, such as Ruff, Worthington, and Van Antwerp, the present work completely supercedes them. Book collectors can now be in no doubt as to the real nature of the different 'editions' of poems or novels, and confusion such as that over The Pirate (1822), described as 'the most scrambled production among all of Scott's novels' (p. 553), with its rival Edinburgh and London editions, is now resolved. It was with considerable pleasure that the reviewer found his set of The Pirate can now be given the category of 'First Composite Edinburgh/London Issue' (p. 552).

Again and again, the press figures with their clues to revealing cancel leaves, or the resetting of sheets, are analysed with skill, knowledge, and authority. Todd and Bowden use the figures to reveal the difference between what a title page may claim and what the volume actually is, such as the spurious 'Second' and 'Third' editions of Rob Roy (1818), (pp. 440-41); the fake and real 'Fifth' editions of The Antiquary (1818), (pp. 401-02), or the various Issues of Quentin Durward (1823), (pp. 583-84). Apart from underlining the importance of press figures in the analysis of early-nineteenth-century British books, the Todd and Bowden conclusions have important implications for editors of Scott's texts, as does their location of extracts, printed from unrevised proof sheets of various novels, in the Philadelphia National Gazette and Literary Register (p. 452 and passim). For those Scott novels where proof sheets have not survived, this is, as Todd and Bowden argue, 'of immeasurable consequence in any textual evaluation'.

The book is clearly arranged and well indexed. It is well printed, with splendidly legible typefaces, on good quality paper, and presented in a stout cloth case. It is a research tool of the first order, and must become a source of primary reference for anyone engaged with Scott and his period. This is a remarkable and wonderful book.