Charles Dickens may not have made a fortune on the publication of A Christmas Carol, but he did leave the world a little richer. We can’t help but believe that he made himself a little richer, too.
Aside from boosting people’s awareness of the plight of the poor in Victorian England, though, Dickens also had a more immediate need: cash. He’d spent too much on his 1842 American tour, Golden writes, and he needed to support his large family. “Thinking creatively, he wrote himself out of his dilemma,” she reports.
The already well-known writer’s solution worked, to a degree. He sold out the first print run in a week, all 6,000 copies of it. By the end of the next year, writes Brandon Ambrosino for Vox, the book had sold more than 15,000 copies. But due to the book’s lavish bindings and the relatively low price he chose to sell it for, writes Michael Varese for The Guardian, much of that money didn’t make it back to the author, who was hoping to make at least £1000 from the book. “What a wonderful thing it is that such a great success should occasion me such intolerable anxiety and disappointment!” he wrote.
Read the whole thing (with lots of links) over at The Smithsonian here.
One can be rich in poems, too. After our post a few days ago for Edwin Arlington Robinson‘s birthday with his Christmas sonnet, we got a message from poet R.S. Gwynn suggesting that “Karma” was in fact Robinson’s best Christmas poem. So we include it below:
Christmas was in the air and all was well
With him, but for a few confusing flaws
In divers of God’s images. Because
A friend of his would neither buy nor sell,
Was he to answer for the axe that fell?
He pondered; and the reason for it was,
Partly, a slowly freezing Santa Claus
Upon the corner, with his beard and bell.
Acknowledging an improvident surprise,
He magnified a fancy that he wished
The friend whom he had wrecked were here again.
Not sure of that, he found a compromise;
And from the fulness of his heart he fished
A dime for Jesus who had died for men.
December 25th, 2016 at 9:56 pm
Ernest Hilbert posted another Christmas sonnet by Robinson that is quite good as well:
“A Christmas Sonnet (For One In Doubt)” by Edwin Arlington Robinson
While you that in your sorrow disavow
Service and hope, see love and brotherhood
Far off as ever, it will do no good
For you to wear his thorns upon your brow
For doubt of him. And should you question how
To serve him best, he might say, if he could,
“Whether or not the cross was made of wood
Whereon you nailed me, is no matter now.”
Though other saviors have in older lore
A Legend, and for older gods have died—
Though death may wear the crown it always wore
And ignorance be still the sword of pride—
Something is here that was not here before,
And strangely has not yet been crucified.
A very powerful ending to be sure, but the poem has almost no imagery. “Karma” doesn’t have much either, but that image of the freezing Santa is brilliant. In the last two lines “fished,” “Jesus,” and “men” occur close to one another. Again, brilliant.
After reading both of these and having survived the obligatory seasonal viewing of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” I was thinking of EAR’s miser, the incomparable Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Potter, and another rich man whom I need not name. Thus,
Mogul Song for Yule
And from the fulness of his heart he fished
A dime for Jesus who had died for men.
–E. A. Robinson, “Karma”
I have dimes instead of dollars, and I hope a lot of callers
Will induce themselves to knock upon my door;
I shall wear a bat-wing collar and will greet them in the parlor
With a sack of small largesses for the poor.
I’ve got canned goods by the dozens for the kin and kith and cousins
Who delight at okra, Spam, and pickled beets–
Which I carefully have chosen (nothing fresh or even frozen!).
And I’ve horehound drops for children wanting sweets.
I have loads on loads of switches for the little sons of bitches
Who have tossed their snowballs at my silver Rolls.
Pretty patches for their britches have been purchased with my riches
And I’ve buckets full of black and shiny coals.
For their fathers and their mothers and a host of needy others
I’ve a slew of maxims they should know about.
Some advice for one another: Love your neighbor like a brother-
in-law. If his eye offends you pluck it out.
Let them come; I’ll make them very welcome here and also merry
As they bow and scrape before me on the rug.
Not a kiss for babes; I’m wary of afflictions they may carry,
But selected virgins may receive a hug.
December 25th, 2016 at 10:00 pm
“Christmas Sonnet” is the one we posted a few days ago, Sam, in time for the poet’s birthday. I still like it better, but thanks for bringing “Karma” to my attention. Joseph Brodsky was fond of E.A. Robinson, and we studied him in his class, but I don’t remember ever seeing these poems before.