46
mentioned take supper with us, and we were in the
midst of it when tidings came that Mr Edwards
had arrived. We saw him anon, and were at
the farm-house in the evening.
30. Saturday. Up early, and off for return
to New York, Old Falk driving us to Catskill.
Here we got gratis tickets for the river passage, there
being rival boats, and the touters bidding against one
another, till the Glen Cove agent to spite those of the
Armenia gave us tickets. A lovely day. New York
by 3. Haney to the Picayune Office, I to Bleecker
Street. Doing chores, bathing &c. Called on Mrs
Jewell in the evening.
31. Sunday. Out down town for a walk. Met
Banks. He is depressed and slightly self depreciatory
about his book Lobscouse. Having got in completely
stereotyped at a cost of $400 he finds great dif-
faculty in prevailing on any publisher to get it out,
at all one firm, only, offering to produce it if
he ll wait till next January. But they ll only
give him the ten per cent customarily paid when the
publishers of a book do the stereotyping! Wherefore
Banks is in the doldrums. He says he s greatly dis-
satisfied with it, now its done. Not but that there
are five or six things in it which only one or two men
living could beat instancing the most trashy thing
in the book. (He [word crossed out] once bored me with it. A
long, long irregular rhyming) business about Smith and
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Eight: page fifty-three |
| Description: | Regarding the books A. F. Banks is trying to get published. |
| Date: | 1856-08-29 |
| Subject: | Banks, A.F.; Catskill Mountains (N.Y.); Edwards, George; Falk; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Haney, Jesse; Jewell, Mrs.; Publishers and publishing; Travel |
| Coverage (City/State): | Catskill, [New York]; New York, [New York] |
| Coverage (Street): | Bleecker Street |
| Scan Date: | 2011-02-02 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Eight |
| Description: | Includes descriptions of the process of publishing his book, ''The Physiology of New-York Boarding Houses;'' his poor mental state upon returning to New York from England; meeting Walt Whitman; visits with Fanny Fern, James Parton, and Harriet Jacobs' daughter Louisa who is living with them; a visit to the Catskill Mountains with the Edwards family; moving into the boarding house at 132 Bleecker Street; working on the publication ''European'' with Colonel Hugh Forbes; the death of publisher William Levison and his daughter Ellen in his boarding house; visiting the scene of the murder of a dentist to get a sketch of the suspect; visiting Newport, Rhode Island, on assignment to sketch for Frank Leslie; and the death of his brother-in-law, Joseph Greatbatch. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Medical care; Mental illness; Publishers and publishing; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Newport, Rhode Island |
| Note: | Thomas Butler Gunn was born February 15, 1826, in Banbury, England, and came to New York in 1849. During the Civil War he worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune and the New York Evening Post. He returned to England in 1863, and died in Birmingham in April 1903. The collection includes twenty-one volumes of his diaries, including newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, sketches, and various other items inserted by Gunn. Diary entries date from July 7, 1849, to April 7, 1863, and include his experiences with the New York publishing and literary world, his descriptions of boarding houses, his travels throughout the United States, and his experiences traveling with the Federal army as a Civil War correspondent. |
| Publisher: | Missouri History Museum |
| Rights: | Copyright 2011 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
