FIRSTS ONLINE Winter 2020

10. [MacDONALD, George] [LEWIS, C.S.]
A Collection of Papers from the Archive of Publisher
Victor Gollancz, Relating to the Publication of the
Gollancz Edition of Phantastes and Lilith
V.p.: N.p., V.d.
A small quantity of typed and holograph correspondence, and associated
materials, between and concerning C.S. Lewis, his publisher, and interested
parties, relating to the publication of Phantastes and Lilith, various sizes
and dates, the whole housed in a manila folder. Some edgewear to larger
(outsize) items, but a well preserved collection.
PAPERS AND CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE ARCHIVE OF
VICTOR GOLLANCZ RELATING TO THE PUBLICATION OF
GEORGE MacDONALD’S PHANTASTES AND LILITH, WITH AN
INTRODUCTION BY C.S. LEWIS, INCLUDING AN ALS FROM
LEWIS TO GOLLANCZ DISCUSSING THE BOOK’S TITLE.
The Gollancz edition of Phantastes and Lilith was published in the UK in
1962, and carried an introduction by C.S. Lewis. The two novels were
first published in 1858 and 1895 respectively, and had been previously
published together in New York by Noonday Press in 1954, under the
title The Visionary Novels of George MacDonald. That edition had carried
an introduction by W.H. Auden. Correspondence in the file shows
that Gollancz’s original intention was to use both Auden’s introduction
and the Noonday edition’s modification of the text. Hilary Rubenstein
(Victor Gollancz’s nephew) soon tired of what he saw as Noonday’s
unreasonable demands, and in a letter dated 12 March 1962 cut all ties
with them in no uncertain terms, writing: ....there is no reason, in these
circumstances, why we should make use of your edition at all. We can
very easily obtain another introduction for our edition and simply set the
books ourselves from the original editions. In view of your letter, this is
what we now plan to do.’
On 3 April Rubenstein wrote to C.S. Lewis: ‘I plan to publish during
the Autumn, in one volume, Phantastes and Lilith. I should very much
like to reprint, as a preface, part of the preface you wrote for the Bles
Anthology [George MacDonald: An Anthology (London: Geoffrey Bles,
1946)]. , ....Could you, I wonder, suggest a title? Farrar, Straus of New
York [of which Noonday was a subsidiary] published edited versions of
the two novels some time ago, calling them “The Visionary Novels of
George MacDonald”. I don’t much like “visionary”, and I am particularly
anxious, anyhow, not to use their title. But I can’t for the life of me think
of an attractive alternative.’ In an undated ALS present in the file, Lewis
replies: ‘As for the title I shd. have thought the plain one Phantastes and
Lilith was the best. No doubt people will misunderstand it and take P. and
L. for the title of a single work, but I don’t see any commercial, literary or
ethical objection to their doing so! I made a similar mistake in boyhood
about the old Heinemann volume Siegfried and the Twilight of the Gods,
but neither Heinemann nor I nor Wagner was any the worse for it.’
On October 17 Alfred Knopf writes to Gollancz in a TLS: ‘...you said
at that pleasant lunch at the Savoy that you were reissung in a single
volume ‘Lilith’ and ‘Phantastes’ by George Macdonald, and suggested
that we do likewise. ... Would you be good enough to let me know just
what your plans are...?’ On the reverse of the letter Gollancz has written
his reply in red ink, which was typed up on the 22nd: ‘I am sending you
by separate post our edition of the MacDonald novels, which we are
publishing in January.’ (The finished book, although not published until
January 1963, carries a publication date of 1962.) In a reply dated 21
November, Knopf passes.
A remarkable collection of material, telling in great detail and at first
hand the story of the publication of a book linking Lewis to one of his
most important literary influences. As Lewis notes in his preface: ‘I have
never concealed the fact that I regarded [MacDonald] as my master;
indeed, I fancy I have never written a book in which I did not quote from
him.’
£3,500 (plus 20% VAT to EU purchasers)
On 13 April Bles and Gollancz agreed a fee of six guineas for the use of
Lewis’s (abridged) preface, payable on publication.
12