BAXTER'S Procrustes is
one of the publications of the Bodleian Club. The Bodleian Club is composed of
gentlemen of culture, who are interested in books and book-collecting. It was
named, very obviously, after the famous library of the same name, and not only
became in our city a sort of shrine for local worshipers of fine bindings and
rare editions, but was visited occasionally by pilgrims from afar. The Bodleian
has entertained Mark Twain, Joseph Jefferson, and other literary and histrionic
celebrities. It possesses quite a collection of personal mementos of
distinguished authors, among them a paperweight which once belonged to Goethe,
a lead pencil used by Emerson, an autograph letter of Matthew Arnold, and a
chip from a tree felled by Mr. Gladstone. Its library contains a number of rare
books, including a fine collection on chess, of which game several of the
members are enthusiastic devotees.
The activities of the
club are not, however, confined entirely to books. We have a very handsome
clubhouse, and much taste and discrimination have been exercised in its
adornment. There are many good paintings, including portraits of the various presidents
of the club, which adorn the entrance hall. After books, perhaps the most
distinctive feature of the club is our collection of pipes. In a large rack in
the smoking-room -- really a superfluity, since smoking is permitted all over
the house -- is as complete an assortment of pipes as perhaps exists in the
civilized world. Indeed, it is an unwritten rule of the club that no one is
eligible for membership who cannot produce a new variety of pipe, which is
filed with his application for membership, and, if he passes, deposited with
the club collection, he, however, retaining the title in himself. Once a year,
upon the anniversary of the death of Sir Walter Raleigh, who it will be
remembered, first introduced tobacco into England, the full membership of the
club, as a rule, turns out. A large supply of the very best smoking mixture is
laid in. At nine o'clock sharp each member takes his pipe from the rack, fills
it with tobacco, and then the whole club, with the president at the head, all
smoking furiously, march in solemn procession from room to room, upstairs and
downstairs, making the tour of the clubhouse and returning to the smoking-room.
The president then delivers an address, and each member is called upon to say
something, either by way of a quotation or an original sentiment, in praise of
the virtues of nicotine. This ceremony -- facetiously known as "hitting
the pipe" -- being thus concluded, the membership pipes are carefully
cleaned out and replaced in the club rack.
As I have said,
however, the raison d'etre of the club, and the feature upon which its fame
chiefly rests, is its collection of rare books, and of these by far the most
interesting are its own publications. Even its catalogues are works of art,
published in numbered editions, and sought by libraries and book- collectors.
Early in its history it began the occasional publication of books which should
meet the club standard, -- books in which emphasis should be laid upon the
qualities that make a book valuable in the eyes of collectors. Of these, age
could not, of course, be imparted, but in the matter of fine and curious
bindings, of hand-made linen papers, of uncut or deckle edges, of wide margins
and limited editions, the club could control its own publications. The matter
of contents was, it must be confessed, a less important consideration. At first
it was felt by the publishing committee that nothing but the finest products of
the human mind should be selected for enshrinement in the beautiful volumes which
the club should issue. The length of the work was an important consideration,
-- long things were not compatible with wide margins and graceful slenderness.
For instance, we brought out Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, an essay by Emerson,
and another by Thoreau. Our Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam was Heron-Allen's
translation of the original MS in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, which, though
less poetical than FitzGerald's, was not so common. Several years ago we began
to publish the works of our own members. Bascom's Essay on Pipes was a very
creditable performance. It was published in a limited edition of one hundred
copies, and since it had not previously appeared elsewhere and was copyrighted
by the club, it was sufficiently rare to be valuable for that reason. The
second publication of local origin was Baxter's Procrustes.
I have omitted to say
that once or twice a year, at a meeting of which notice has been given, an
auction is held at the Bodleian. The members of the club send in their
duplicate copies, or books they for any reason wish to dispose of, which are
auctioned off to the highest bidder. At these sales, which are well attended,
the club's publications have of recent years formed the leading feature. Three
years ago, number three of Bascom's Essay on Pipes sold for fifteen dollars; --
the original cost of publication was one dollar and seventy-five cents. Later
in the evening an uncut copy of the same brought thirty dollars. At the next
auction the price of the cut copy was run up to twenty-five dollars, while the
uncut copy was knocked down at seventy-five dollars. The club had always
appreciated the value of uncut copies, but this financial indorsement enhanced
their desirability immensely. This rise in the Essay on Pipes was not without a
sympathetic effect upon all the club publications. The Emerson essay rose from
three dollars to seventeen, and the Thoreau, being by an author less widely
read, and, by his own confession commercially unsuccessful, brought a somewhat
higher figure. The prices, thus inflated, were not permitted to come down
appreciably. Since every member of the club possessed one or more of these
valuable editions, they were all manifestly interested in keeping up the price.
The publication, however, which brought the highest prices, and, but for the
sober second thought, might have wrecked the whole system, was Baxter's
Procrustes.
Baxter was, perhaps,
the most scholarly member of the club. A graduate of Harvard, he had traveled
extensively, had read widely, and while not so enthusiastic a collector as some
of us, possessed as fine a private library as any man of his age in the city.
He was about thirty-five when he joined the club, and apparently some bitter
experience -- some disappointment in love or ambition -- had left its mark upon
his character. With light, curly hair, fair complexion, and gray eyes, one
would have expected Baxter to be genial of temper, with a tendency toward
wordiness of speech. But though he had occasional flashes of humor, his
ordinary demeanor was characterized by a mild cynicism, which, with his gloomy
pessimistic philosophy, so foreign to the temperament that should accompany his
physical type, could only be accounted for upon the hypothesis of some secret
sorrow such as I have suggested. What it might be no one knew. He had means and
social position, and was an uncommonly handsome man. The fact that he remained
unmarried at thirty-five furnished some support for the theory of a
disappointment in love, though this the several intimates of Baxter who belonged
to the club were not able to verify.
It had occurred to me,
in a vague way, that perhaps Baxter might be an unsuccessful author. That he
was a poet we knew very well, and typewritten copies of his verses had
occasionally circulated among us. But Baxter had always expressed such a
profound contempt for modern literature, had always spoken in terms of such
unmeasured pity for the slaves of the pen, who were dependent upon the whim of
an undiscriminating public for recognition and a livelihood, that no one of us
had ever suspected him of aspirations toward publication, until, as I have
said, it occurred to me one day that Baxter's attitude with regard to
publication might be viewed in the light of effect as well as of cause -- that
his scorn of publicity might as easily arise from failure to achieve it, as his
never having published might be due to his preconceived disdain of the vulgar
popularity which one must share with the pugilist or balloonist of the hour.
The notion of
publishing Baxter's Procrustes did not emanate from Baxter, -- I must do him
the justice to say this. But he had spoken to several of the fellows about the
theme of his poem, until the notion that Baxter was at work upon something fine
had become pretty well disseminated throughout our membership. He would
occasionally read brief passages to a small coterie of friends in the
sitting-room or library, -- never more than ten lines at once, or to more than
five people at a time, -- and these excerpts gave at least a few of us a pretty
fair idea of the motive and scope of the poem. As I, for one, gathered, it was
quite along the line of Baxter's philosophy. Society was the Procrustes which,
like the Greek bandit of old, caught every man born into the world, and
endeavored to fit him to some preconceived standard, generally to the one for
which he was least adapted. The world was full of men and women who were merely
square pegs in round holes, and vice versa. Most marriages were unhappy because
the contracting parties were not properly mated. Religion was mostly
superstition, science for the most part sciolism, popular education merely a
means of forcing the stupid and repressing the bright, so that all the youth of
the rising generation might conform to the same dull, dead level of democratic
mediocrity. Life would soon become so monotonously uniform and so uniformly
monotonous as to be scarce worth the living.
It was Smith, I think,
who first proposed that the club publish Baxter's Procrustes. The poet himself
did not seem enthusiastic when the subject was broached; he demurred for some
little time, protesting that the poem was not worthy of publication. But when
it was proposed that the edition be limited to fifty copies he agreed to
consider the proposition. When I suggested, having in mind my secret theory of
Baxter's failure in authorship, that the edition would at least be in the hands
of friends, that it would be difficult for a hostile critic to secure a copy,
and that if it should not achieve success from a literary point of view, the
extent of the failure would be limited to the size of the edition, Baxter was
visibly impressed. When the literary committee at length decided to request
formally of Baxter the privilege of publishing his Procrustes, he consented,
with evident reluctance, upon condition that he should supervise the printing,
binding, and delivery of the books, merely submitting to the committee, in
advance, the manuscript, and taking their views in regard to the bookmaking.
The manuscript was duly
presented to the literary committee. Baxter having expressed the desire that
the poem be not read aloud at a meeting of the club, as was the custom, since
he wished it to be given to the world clad in suitable garb, the committee went
even farther. Having entire confidence in Baxter's taste and scholarship, they,
with great delicacy, refrained from even reading the manuscript, contenting
themselves with Baxter's statement of the general theme and the topics grouped
under it. The details of the bookmaking, however, were gone into thoroughly.
The paper was to be of hand-made linen, from the Kelmscott Mills; the type
black-letter, with rubricated initials. The cover, which was Baxter's own
selection, was to be of dark green morocco, with a cap-and-bells border in red
inlays, and doublures of maroon morocco with a blind-tooled design. Baxter was
authorized to contract with the printer and superintend the publication. The
whole edition of fifty numbered copies was to be disposed of at auction, in
advance, to the highest bidder, only one copy to each, the proceeds to be
devoted to paying for the printing and binding, the remainder, if any, to go
into the club treasury, and Baxter himself to receive one copy by way of
remuneration. Baxter was inclined to protest at this, on the ground that his
copy would probably be worth more than the royalties on the edition, at the
usual ten per cent, would amount to, but was finally prevailed upon to accept
an author's copy.
While the Procrustes
was under consideration, some one read, at one of our meetings, a note from
some magazine, which stated that a sealed copy of a new translation of
Campanella's Sonnets, published by the Grolier Club, had been sold for three
hundred dollars. This impressed the members greatly. It was a novel idea. A new
work might thus be enshrined in a sort of holy of holies, which, if the
collector so desired, could be forever sacred from the profanation of any
vulgar or unappreciative eye. The possessor of such a treasure could enjoy it
by the eye of imagination, having at the same time the exaltation of grasping
what was for others the unattainable. The literary committee were so impressed
with this idea that they presented it to Baxter in regard to the Procrustes.
Baxter making no objection, the subscribers who might wish their copies
delivered sealed were directed to notify the author. I sent in my name. A fine
book, after all, was an investment, and if there was any way of enhancing its
rarity, and therefore its value, I was quite willing to enjoy such an
advantage.
When the Procrustes was
ready for distribution, each subscriber received his copy by mail, in a neat
pasteboard box. Each number was wrapped in a thin and transparent but very
strong paper through which the cover design and tooling were clearly visible.
The number of the copy was indorsed upon the wrapper, the folds of which were
securely fastened at each end with sealing-wax, upon which was impressed, as a
guaranty of its inviolateness, the monogram of the club.
At the next meeting of
the Bodleian, a great deal was said about the Procrustes, and it was
unanimously agreed that no finer specimen of bookmaking had ever been published
by the club. By a curious coincidence, no one had brought his copy with him,
and the two club copies had not yet been received from the binder, who, Baxter
had reported was retaining them for some extra fine work. Upon resolution,
offered by a member who had not subscribed for the volume, a committee of three
was appointed to review the Procrustes at the next literary meeting of the
club. Of this committee it was my doubtful fortune to constitute one.
In pursuance of my duty
in the premises, it of course became necessary for me to read the Procrustes.
In all probability I should have cut my own copy for this purpose, had not one
of the club auctions intervened between my appointment and the date set for the
discussion of the Procrustes. At this meeting a copy of the book, still sealed,
was offered for sale, and bought by a non- subscriber for the unprecedented
price of one hundred and fifty dollars. After this a proper regard for my own
interests would not permit me to spoil my copy by opening it, and I was
therefore compelled to procure my information concerning the poem from some
other source. As I had no desire to appear mercenary, I said nothing about my
own copy, and made no attempt to borrow. I did, however, casually remark to
Baxter that I should like to look at his copy of the proof sheets, since I
wished to make some extended quotations for my review, and would rather not trust
my copy to a typist for that purpose. Baxter assured me, with every evidence of
regret, that he had considered them of so little importance that he had thrown
them into the fire. This indifference of Baxter to literary values struck me as
just a little overdone. The proof sheets of Hamlet, corrected in Shakespeare's
own hand, would be well-nigh priceless.
At the next meeting of
the club I observed that Thompson and Davis, who were with me on the reviewing
committee, very soon brought up the question of the Procrustes in conversation
in the smoking-room, and seemed anxious to get from the members their views
concerning Baxter's production, I supposed upon the theory that the
appreciation of any book review would depend more or less upon the degree to which
it reflected the opinion of those to whom the review should be presented. I
presumed, of course, that Thompson and Davis had each read the book, -- they
were among the subscribers, -- and I was desirous of getting their point of
view.
"What do you think,"
I inquired, "of the passage on Social Systems?" I have forgotten to
say that the poem was in blank verse, and divided into parts, each with an
appropriate title.
"Well,"
replied Davis, it seemed to me a little cautiously, "it is not exactly
Spencerian, although it squints at the Spencerian view, with a slight
deflection toward Hegelianism. I should consider it an harmonious fusion of the
best views of all the modern philosophers, with a strong Baxterian
flavor."
"Yes," said
Thompson, "the charm of the chapter lies in this very quality. The style
is an emanation from Baxter's own intellect, -- he has written himself into the
poem. By knowing Baxter we are able to appreciate the book, and after having
read the book we feel that we are so much the more intimately acquainted with
Baxter, -- the real Baxter."
Baxter had come in
during this colloquy, and was standing by the fireplace smoking a pipe. I was
not exactly sure whether the faint smile which marked his face was a token of
pleasure or cynicism; it was Baxterian, however, and I had already learned that
Baxter's opinions upon any subject were not to be gathered always from his
facial expression. For instance, when the club porter's crippled child died
Baxter remarked, it seemed to me unfeelingly, that the poor little devil was
doubtless better off, and that the porter himself had certainly been relieved
of a burden; and only a week later the porter told me in confidence that Baxter
had paid for an expensive operation, undertaken in the hope of prolonging the
child's life. I therefore drew no conclusions from Baxter's somewhat
enigmatical smile. He left the room at this point in the conversation, somewhat
to my relief.
"By the way,
Jones," said Davis, addressing me, "are you impressed by Baxter's views
on Degeneration?"
Having often heard
Baxter express himself upon the general downward tendency of modern
civilization, I felt safe in discussing his views in a broad and general
manner.
"I think," I
replied, "that they are in harmony with those of Schopenhauer, without his
bitterness; with those of Nordau, without his flippancy. His materialism is
Haeckel's, presented with something of the charm of Omar Khayyam."
"Yes," chimed
in Davis, "it answers the strenuous demand of our day, -- dissatisfaction
with an unjustified optimism, -- and voices for us the courage of human
philosophy facing the unknown."
I had a vague
recollection of having read something like this somewhere, but so much has been
written, that one can scarcely discuss any subject of importance without
unconsciously borrowing, now and then, the thoughts or the language of others.
Quotation, like imitation, is a superior grade of flattery.
"The
Procrustes," said Thompson, to whom the metrical review had been
apportioned, "is couched in sonorous lines, of haunting melody and charm;
and yet so closely inter-related as to be scarcely quotable with justice to the
author. To be appreciated the poem should be read as a whole, -- I shall say as
much in my review. What shall you say of the letter-press?" he concluded,
addressing me. I was supposed to discuss the technical excellence of the volume
from the connoisseur's viewpoint.
"The
setting," I replied judicially, "is worthy of the gem. The dark green
cover, elaborately tooled, the old English lettering, the heavy linen paper,
mark this as one of our very choicest publications. The letter-press is of
course De Vinne's best, -- there is nothing better on this side of the
Atlantic. The text is a beautiful, slender stream, meandering gracefully
through a wide meadow of margin."
For some reason I left
the room for a minute. As I stepped into the hall, I almost ran into Baxter,
who was standing near the door, facing a hunting print of a somewhat humorous
character, hung upon the wall, and smiling with an immensely pleased
expression.
"What a ridiculous
scene!" he remarked. "Look at that fat old squire on that tall
hunter! I'll wager dollars to doughnuts that he won't get over the first
fence!"
It was a very good
bluff, but did not deceive me. Under his mask of unconcern, Baxter was anxious
to learn what we thought of his poem, and had stationed himself in the hall
that he might overhear our discussion without embarrassing us by his presence.
He had covered up his delight at our appreciation by this simulated interest in
the hunting print.
When the night came for
the review of the Procrustes there was a large attendance of members, and
several visitors, among them a young English cousin of one of the members, on
his first visit to the United States; some of us had met him at other clubs,
and in society, and had found him a very jolly boy, with a youthful exuberance
of spirits and a naive ignorance of things American that made his views
refreshing and, at times, amusing.
The critical essays were
well considered, if a trifle vague. Baxter received credit for poetic skill of
a high order.
"Our brother
Baxter," said Thompson, "should no longer bury his talent in a
napkin. This gem, of course, belongs to the club, but the same brain from which
issued this exquisite emanation can produce others to inspire and charm an
appreciative world."
"The author's view
of life," said Davis, "as expressed in these beautiful lines, will
help us to fit our shoulders for the heavy burden of life, by bringing to our
realization those profound truths of philosophy which find hope in despair and
pleasure in pain. When he shall see fit to give to the wider world, in fuller
form, the thoughts of which we have been vouchsafed this foretaste, let us hope
that some little ray of his fame may rest upon the Bodleian, from which can
never be taken away the proud privilege of saying that he was one of its
members."
I then pointed out the
beauties of the volume as a piece of bookmaking. I knew, from conversation with
the publication committee, the style of type and rubrication, and could see the
cover through the wrapper of my sealed copy. The dark green morocco, I said, in
summing up, typified the author's serious view of life, as a thing to be
endured as patiently as might be. The cap-and-bells border was significant of
the shams by which the optimist sought to delude himself into the view that
life was a desirable thing. The intricate blind-tooling of the doublure
shadowed forth the blind fate which left us in ignorance of our future and our
past, or of even what the day itself might bring forth. The black-letter type,
with rubricated initials, signified a philosophic pessimism enlightened by the
conviction that in duty one might find, after all, an excuse for life and a
hope for humanity. Applying this test to the club, this work, which might be
said to represent all that the Bodleian stood for, was in itself sufficient to
justify the club's existence. If the Bodleian had done nothing else, if it
should do nothing more, it had produced a masterpiece.
There was a sealed copy
of the Procrustes, belonging, I believe, to one of the committee, lying on the
table by which I stood, and I had picked it up and held it in my hand for a
moment, to emphasize one of my periods, but had laid it down immediately. I
noted, as I sat down, that young Hunkin, our English visitor, who sat on the
other side of the table, had picked up the volume and was examining it with
interest. When the last review was read, and the generous applause had
subsided, there were cries for Baxter.
"Baxter! Baxter!
Author! Author!"
Baxter had been sitting
over in a corner during the reading of the reviews, and had succeeded
remarkably well, it seemed to me, in concealing, under his mask of cynical
indifference, the exultation which I was sure he must feel. But this outburst
of enthusiasm was too much even for Baxter, and it was clear that he was
struggling with strong emotion when he rose to speak.
"Gentlemen, and
fellow members of the Bodleian, it gives me unaffected pleasure -- sincere
pleasure -- some day you may know how much pleasure -- I cannot trust myself to
say it now -- to see the evident care with which your committee have read my
poor verses, and the responsive sympathy with which my friends have entered
into my views of life and conduct. I thank you again, and again, and when I say
that I am too full for utterance, -- I'm sure you will excuse me from saying
any more."
Baxter took his seat,
and the applause had begun again when it was broken by a sudden exclamation.
"By Jove!"
exclaimed our English visitor, who still sat behind the table, "what an
extraordinary book!"
Every one gathered
around him.
"You see," he
exclaimed; holding up the volume, "you fellows said so much about the
bally book that I wanted to see what it was like; so I untied the ribbon, and
cut the leaves with the paper knife lying here, and found -- and found that
there wasn't a single line in it, don't you know!"
Blank consternation
followed this announcement, which proved only too true. Every one knew
instinctively, without further investigation, that the club had been badly
sold. In the resulting confusion Baxter escaped, but later was waited upon by a
committee, to whom he made the rather lame excuse that he had always regarded
uncut and sealed books as tommy-rot, and that he had merely been curious to see
how far the thing could go; and that the result had justified his belief that a
book with nothing in it was just as useful to a book-collector as one embodying
a work of genius. He offered to pay all the bills for the sham Procrustes, or
to replace the blank copies with the real thing, as we might choose. Of course,
after such an insult, the club did not care for the poem. He was permitted to
pay the expense, however, and it was more than hinted to him that his
resignation from the club would be favorably acted upon. He never sent it in,
and, as he went to Europe shortly afterwards, the affair had time to blow over.
In our first disgust at
Baxter's duplicity, most of us cut our copies of the Procrustes, some of us
mailed them to Baxter with cutting notes, and others threw them into the fire.
A few wiser spirits held on to theirs, and this fact leaking out, it began to
dawn upon the minds of the real collectors among us that the volume was
something unique in the way of a publication.
"Baxter,"
said our president one evening to a select few of us who sat around the
fireplace, "was wiser than we knew, or than he perhaps appreciated. His
Procrustes, from the collector's point of view, is entirely logical, and might
be considered as the acme of bookmaking. To the true collector, a book is a
work of art, of which the contents are no more important than the words of an
opera. Fine binding is a desideratum, and, for its cost, that of the Procrustes
could not be improved upon. The paper is above criticism. The true collector
loves wide margins, and the Procrustes, being all margin, merely touches the
vanishing point of the perspective. The smaller the edition, the greater the
collector's eagerness to acquire a copy. There are but six uncut copies left, I
am told, of the Procrustes, and three sealed copies, of one of which I am the
fortunate possessor."
After this deliverance,
it is not surprising that, at our next auction, a sealed copy of Baxter's
Procrustes was knocked down, after spirited bidding, for two hundred and fifty
dollars, the highest price ever brought by a single volume published by the
club. Charles W. Chesnutt.