Bruce MARSHALL
A Collection Of Papers And Correspondence Relating To The Publication History Of Four Early Novels By Bruce Marshall: From The Archives Of Victor Gollancz
V.P.: V.P., V.D.
A small quantity of typed and holograph contracts, correspondence and associated materials, between and concerning Bruce Marshall, his publisher, and other interested parties, and relating to four of his novels. Various sizes and dates, the whole housed in four manila folders. Some edgewear and toning consistent with the material's use and age, but a very well preserved collection.
A Collection of Papers and Correspondence FROM THE ARCHIVES OF GOLLANCZ Relating to the Publication History of Four Novels by Bruce Marshall.
The prolific novelist Bruce Marshall [1899-1987], although best known for his novel Father Malachy's Miracle [1931], enjoyed a literary career spanning seventy years. Born in Edinburgh, Marshall trained as an accountant, but by the age of nineteen was already a published author. He served in both wars, in World War Two as a liaison officer with the French Resistance. He lived as an expatriate for most of his life, but much of his writing speaks to his enduring love for Scotland in general and Edinburgh in particular. The World, The Flesh and Father Smith [1945], The Black Oxen [1972] are both firmly located in Scotland -- and Father Malachy's Miracle recreates much of Edinburgh's atmosphere and topography of the 1930s: the novel's disreputable dance hall, The Garden of Eden, is closely based on The Blue Lagoon which at the time was similarly disreputable and located in Picardy Place, and the book's primary location, the Church of St. Margaret, is in fact the Cathedral Church of St. Mary at the top of Leith Walk.
FOLDER ONE: PRAYER FOR THE LIVING (1934)
-- Three typed reader's reports on the novel (at the time entitled Introit to Mars). The lengthiest (7pp., 10 October 1933) is enthusiastic: 'This is a very striking, original and powerful book, and I call your particular attention to it with strong hopes of publication. [...] (The commercial prospects, by the way, would be seriously crippled by the title, which seems to me bad in every way, pretentious, misleading, and dull.)' Attention is drawn to 'points of bad language and impropriety' and 'satire on Christianity', but publication is strongly recommended. Two others are less certain, and much more troubled by the novel's irreligious tone (possibly telling us more about the readers themselves than the novel);
-- Correspondence between Victor Gollancz, Marshall, and Harold Rubinstein, the company lawyer to whom the whole Gollancz list was routinely passed for assessment as to possible legal action resulting from publication. (By the time this correspondence takes place -- November 1933 to January 1934 -- the novel now bears the title Prayer for the Living.) Discussions revolve around the possibility of libel, notably about the possibility of the Scottish Episcopalian school in the novel being based on an actual school (namely, Glenalmond), and the possible similarities between characters in the novel and real life counterparts. Among this correspondence are six ALS from Marshall, responding to the issues raised;
-- Typed Memorandum of Agreement between Marshall and Gollancz, 24 November 1933, initialled in two places and signed by Marshall. Additional, later (1944) correspondence attached, acknowledging reversion of rights to the author, including an ALS from Marshall: 'I shall always have happy memories of the days when you published me and no little gratitude for your many helpful suggestions.'
FOLDER TWO: THE UNCERTAIN GLORY (1935)
-- Three typed and (in two cases) less than complimentary reader's reports on Lord Provost (the title was later changed): 'This novel runs to 250,000 words and more, and is painfully and rather nauseatingly dull.' 'This book is so long, so rambling, so boring and so silly that the experience of reading it is almost intolerable. [...] It has been a real agony to get through the miserable performance...'. The third report is more positive: 'I think UNCERTAIN GLORY an amusing, stimulating, and divertingly improper book.';
-- Correspondence relating to the legal scrutiny of the novel -- including the Gollancz copy of Victor Gollancz's letter to Michael Joseph (then employed by Curtis Brown), 22 January 1935, in which the publication by Gollancz of a book so little thought of by its in-house readers is explained: 'There will certainly be a great deal of difference of opinion about the book -- in fact, one of my chief readers thought so little of it that, had I not personally enjoyed PRAYER FOR THE LIVING so much that I could not believe that the next book could be so bad, I might have rejected it without reading it myself, and so lost a "rare treat".' Included in this correspondence are three telegrams and five ALS from Marshall addressing the issues raised.
FOLDER THREE: LUCKYPENNY (1937)
-- Typed reader's report, 12 July 1937: '1) The book should, I think, be cut to 120,000 words at the utmost. 2)A lot of the little dirty jokes should be removed. 3) The end [bayoneting of priests, ravishing of nuns] should be cut altogether: you would not look at the book with the end as it is.';
-- TLS from Marshall to Victor Gollancz, 14 August 1937: 'I have cut about 50,000 words [...] and have removed the atrocities whose recounting you felt you could not publish.';
-- TLS from Rubinstein, 23 September 1937, clearing the book for publication;
-- Two further ALS from Marshall to Victor Gollancz, September 1937, agreeing to minor changes before October publication;
-- Typed Memorandum of Agreement for the publication of Luckypenny, initialled and signed by Marshall. Attached are three items of later (1945) correspondence, in which it is agreed that the rights to the book have reverted to the author.
FOLDER FOUR: LADIES OF PARIS
-- An exchange of correspondence between Marshall and Victor Gollancz including three ALS from Marshall, September/October 1936, in which Gollancz expresses his approval of the book, and suggesting a few changes;
-- An exchange of correspondence between Gollancz and Marshall's agents Curtis Brown, September/October 1936, including a handwritten list of sales for Marshall's last two novels showing The Uncertain Glory to have sold 5510 copies, but Canon to the Right of Them only 2246 copies;
-- Typed Memorandum of Agreement for publication of the book, 14 October 1936, initialled and signed by Marshall, and with a handwritten and initialled correction to the book's title, removing the definite article;
-- TLS from Rubinstein to Gollancz, 23 November 1936, warning against publication in its current form on the grounds of obscenity. Gollancz turns Norman Collins for advice. In a typed report dated 30 November 1930, he writes: 'I really think that Rubinstein is going a little far when he suggests there is any serious danger of prosecution in this book. [...] For my part, I am bound to say that I did not like the book [...] I now find myself more than a little bored by [Marshall's] ecclesiastics and lovely girls. If we are going to keep Bruce Marshall on the map, I think he ought to be talked to quite seriously and the "one-trackedness" of his novels pointed out to him.' Also attached is a correspondence between Marshall and Dorothy Horsman at Gollancz, discussing possibly libellous references in the book;
-- An exchange of correspondence between Victor Gollancz and Marshall, April/May 1937, in which Gollancz explains the delay to the publication of the book: 'The fact is that my solicitor, when he read the book for libel expressed a definite opinion (which I have never known him to do before) that there is a good chance of the book being persecuted for obscenity.'
