Preface to Mabel Vaughan

In 1857 the publisher Sampson Low commissioned EG to prepare an English edition of Maria S. Cummins’s novel Mabel Vaughan, first published in Boston by J. P. Jewett and Company. The American novelist’s earlier novel, The Lamplighter (1854) had been a best-seller in both England and America, 70,000 copies having been sold in the first twelve months, according to one source. ¹ Her new novel attracted two English publishers, Low and George Routledge. Routledge published a straightforward reprint, while Low prepared his own edition, in two formats, one in cloth at 3s.6d. and a ‘cheap’ edition at 1s.6d. ² He invited EG to edit the more expensive cloth bound version, providing a Preface, glossing words and phrases, and making alterations. The ‘alterations’ consisted of both excisions and additions. Of the latter, the most substantial was an episode later separately published as ‘An Incident at Niagara Falls’, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (see pp.315–20). Low acted as the English agent for the American publishing firm from the 1840s until his death in 1886.