Biographical Note
Novelist, short story writer, playwright, editor, journalist, and
scholar, Enoch Arnold Bennett was born 27 May 1867, in the pottery district of
northern England in Hanley, Stoke-on- Trent, Staffordshire, England, the son of
Enoch (a potter turned solicitor) and Sarah Ann Longson Bennett. The large
house the family moved to in Burslem later became the Arnold Bennett Museum.
Bennett attended Burslem Endowed School and also attended art school. As the
eldest of six children in an achievement-oriented family, Bennett felt
pressured to succeed; he developed a lifelong stammer that would later prevent
him from giving public readings. He worked as a clerk in his father's law
office from ca.1885-1888. In 1888 Bennett twice failed his legal examinations;
his father, though exasperated, consented to his move to London to become a
shorthand clerk in a law office. In London, Bennett frequented "cultural"
circles. He sent stories to magazines, and began selling old and rare books by
mail. In 1894 he gave up the law and, with his father's help, took a position
with the weekly magazine
Woman.
At
Woman, Bennett served as assistant editor,
1893-1896, and editor, 1896-1900. Bennett the journalist is a lively writer,
usually amusing, often wise, always readable. His interests range widely across
worldly affairs, his observations are realistic and shrewd, his judgments
detached and compassionate. In the six years 1894-1899 Bennett published more
than seven hundred periodical pieces. By far the greatest number were book
reviews, followed in order by theater reviews, music reviews, and his own light
fiction. In 1900 he quit his editorship to become a full-time writer. In 1895,
he published the story "A Letter Home" in the prestigious magazine
The Yellow Book, and began a novel,
A Man from the North, which, upon its
publication in 1898, was regarded as an impressive debut. One month after that
novel's publication, Bennett's
Journalism for Women was published,
helping establish the pattern of prolific, diverse output that would typify his
career. He contributed articles to the journal
Academy; was director of the
New Statesman, 1915; wrote weekly "Books
and Persons" column for
New Age under the pen name Jacob Tonson,
1908-1910, and for the
London Evening Standard, 1926-1931. He
co-managed the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London, with Sir Nigel Playfair and
Alistair Tayler, during the 1920s.
Despite a widening experience of the world, the temperamentally shy
Bennett longed for a settled married life. In 1906, at age thirty-nine, he
proposed to an American woman, Eleanor Green, with disastrous results. Green,
sister of the novelist Julian Green, broke off the engagement after wedding
invitations had been sent out, for reasons that have never been clearly
explained. Green herself later described the fiasco as a ridiculous
misunderstanding. After this rebuff, Bennett met and married on 4 July 1907 a
tall, striking, French dressmaker's assistant, Marie Marguerite Soulie, who had
recently become his secretary in Paris where he had gone to live after the
death of his father in 1902. He and Marguerite made their home in the French
countryside near Fontainebleau and then in Paris for several years. In 1912
they went to live in Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex. They had no children. The marriage
was a failure, ending in separation in 1921 when Soulie would not grant Bennett
a divorce. However, his early married years evidently provided him with the
proper environment to create his first masterpiece, the 1908 novel
The Old Wives' Tale. This two hundred
thousand-word book was written in ten months, by hand, during a period in which
Bennett--an insomniac--also produced two shorter, comic novels, 1908's
Buried Alive and
Helen with the High Hand, published in
1910.
The year of
The Old Wives' Tale, 1908, also saw the
publication of Bennett's most successful "pocket philosophy,"
How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, as well as
the first indications of his success as a dramatist with
Cupid and Common Sense. Bennett would have
major box-office successes with 1911's
The Great Adventure, 1912's
Milestones, and 1922's
Mr. Prohack, as well as numerous smaller
successes, but dramatic writing was, for him, a swimming against the current:
George Bernard Shaw, who tried to teach him the craft, finally concluded that
Bennett wrote plays as if they were novels.
Clayhanger, the first novel in a trilogy
of that name, was published in 1910. It was immediately successful in England
and America, and helped solidify Bennett's position as an important man of
letters, as did its sequel,
Hilda Lessways, published one year later.
By World War I, Bennett was one of the most famous authors of the day
in England, and his views were sought, and they were given in profusion. He had
friends in government, he served on voluntary and official war committees and
eventually in the government itself, in the ministry of information as director
of propaganda in 1918. Occasionally he wrote at the request of the government,
as with the small book that followed from his official tour of the front (
Over There: War Scenes on the Western
Front, 1915), and in articles on the Irish uprising in 1916. Bennett's
postwar life was marked by marital strife and a decline in his journalistic
output. Both, however, began to improve after he met the actress Dorothy
Cheston in 1922; the two moved into a house in London, and though they were not
formally married, Cheston eventually took the name Bennett by deed poll. Near
the end of that year, Bennett began writing
Riceyman Steps, often considered his
finest later novel, which was received favorably upon its 1924 publication by
such luminaries as Wells, Hardy, and Joseph Conrad. In 1926 Cheston gave birth
to Bennett's daughter, Virginia, and Bennett published another successful, dark
novel,
Lord Raingo, which has been called one of
the great political novels in English.
Bennett's last novel, 1930's
Imperial Palace, was a long-planned opus
that examines in detail the workings of a great hotel. It was Bennett's second
hotel novel, the early
The Grand Babylon Hotel being his first;
but while ambitious, serious, and commercially profitable,
Imperial Palace was trumped by another
hotel novel published the same year, Vicki Baum's bestselling
Grand Hotel. On January 1, 1931, he dined
with James and Nora Joyce; at the hotel, he insisted on drinking water despite
the waiter's warning that it was not safe, and within twenty-four hours Bennett
was ill. Bennett died 27 March 1931, in London, England, of typhoid fever.
Scope and Content
The collection contains Arnold Bennett's correspondence with his
agents, colleagues, and publishers; manuscripts of some of his articles and
books; and six watercolors he painted.
The correspondence with Bennett's publishers concerns topics such as
the design of bookcovers, illustrations, various proofs of manuscripts,
publishers asking for autographed copies of certain novels, publishers asking
Bennett to write prefaces for other authors' books they publish, discussion
about the rights Bennett has over works in Europe and in the United States,
publishing new editions of Bennett's books, and working out new contracts and
serializing his stories.
Jonathan Cape Limited mislabeled and misquoted Bennett in an
advertisement for James Joyce's
Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. Cape
used a quote from Bennett's review of
Ulysses by mistake, and then went on to
incorrectly portray what Bennett actually said, showing Bennett to compliment
the whole book, when Bennett was only writing about one chapter, and that he
actually criticized other parts of the book. The ad is included in the
collection, as are Cape's letters of apology.
Newman Flower, Bennett's editor at Cassell and Company, the major
publisher of his novels in England, received a letter of complaint about
Bennett's
The Pretty Lady from the Catholic
Federation of the Archdiocese of Westminster who saw Bennett's book as "grossly
offensive to Catholics," and wanted Flower to take action about it (i.e., stop
circulation). Bennett sent a three-page letter asserting strongly that it was
not intentional, end of discussion. Newman Flower also received a letter from
Mrs. Thomas Hardy, and relates to Bennett that she said about his book,
Riceyman Steps, Thomas Hardy was "absorbed
by it," and highly praised the book.
George H. Doran Company was Bennett's primary American publisher.
George Doran had a very close friendship with Bennett; Doran visited and stayed
with Bennett every year or so, and the two swapped updates on how their wives
and Doran's daughter were doing. The Doran correspondence highlights the
"butting of heads" of Doran and James B. Pinker, Bennett's agent, and Doran's
attempts to expand Bennett's publicity by getting his works published in
popular periodicals such as the
Saturday Evening Post. Pinker's letters
can be found in a separate sub-series.
In many letters Doran and Bennett discuss the state of the war (World
War I) and how Bennett is a member of the Wounded Allies Relief Committee of
Sardinia House, Kigsway, London. Doran talks about the war efforts of his
office by making it headquarters for allied literature, and Bennett discusses
how he's in charge of British propaganda for France. Doran writes to Bennett in
1928 to inform him that his company has merged with Doubleday. Bennett
expresses regret over the absorption of Doran's name into the name of any other
firm, however big.
The correspondence with James B. Pinker and Sons concerns matters of
royalties, contracts with publishers and magazines, copyright issues and
American piracy, obtaining placement of Bennett's articles, plays, and books in
Europe and the United States, and content issues. Pinker sold the rights of
numerous works to various countries: Russia, France, Spain, Hungary, Poland,
Finland, Germany, among others. Blind people transcribed several of Bennett's
stories into braille. The correspondence also includes Bennett's monthly
account with Pinker's agency, as well as periodic updates on the sales figures
of his works. Several American university professors ask permission to use
excerpts of his work in their classes.
In 1913, James Pinker became Bennett's dramatic agent as well as
literary agent. Doris Keane, an American actress, wants to have Bennett's
Sacred and Profane Love made into a play
either by Bennett or someone else, as she wants to play the leading female
role. A 1914 letter contains Henry James' thought on Bennett's
The Price of Love.
In 1918, Bennett was asked to take an important post in the Ministry
of Information. American newspapers want Bennett to go to Russia in 1920 to
interview important people and describe the conditions under Soviet rule. Major
Drapkin Limited Company wants Bennett to write a series of articles on the
pleasure of smoking which they would use in conjunction with the company's ads
though he would not have to cite a specific brand. At first Bennett thinks it
beneath him, but changes his mind when he remembers preaching that decent
writers should write ads, so he cannot refuse.
In 1922, James Pinker dies and his eldest son, Eric, takes over the
business. Eric's brother, Ralph, joins the firm later. Bennett continues
working with the sons and by 1926 Bennett sold the film rights of
The Great Adventure,
Buried Alive,
The Grand Babylon Hotel,
The Card,
The Old Wives Tale,
Sacred and Profane Love, and
Milestones. The following year Bennett
sold the film rights to
The City of Pleasure to a German firm and
The Sinews of War to Victor Savile; and
Death, Fire, and Life in 1928. Alfred
Hitchcock does not like Bennett's
Punch and Judy film story in its present
form; Hitchcock wants them to be circus characters. In 1930, Victor Savile
wants to make
The Pretty Lady into a talkie and thinks
he can get past the censors despite the story dealing with a prostitute.
Eric Pinker and Bennett discuss who he will want to be his new
American publisher since George Doran left Doubleday-Doran, following a series
of events within the publishing house, to be William Randolph Hearst's
ambassador to Europe for Hearst's Cosmopolitan Book Corporation. Bennett's
unstinting loyalty to Doran originally prohibits him from considering making a
contract with Hearst because he does not like Doubleday's list and thinks they
are too conceited. However, Bennett decides not to make a contract with either
of them.
After Bennett's death in 1931, his estate executor authorizes Eric
Pinker and J. Ralph Pinker to complete negotiations and to receive any money
due to the estate for the film rights to, or an option on,
Imperial Palace.
