Chapter Nine.
His First Romances.
Captain Mayne Reid now sought to find a publisher for his first romance, “The Rifle Rangers,” which he had written at Donn Piatt’s house in Ohio, and to which he had now put the finishing touches in London.
To find a publisher for a book by an unknown author was no easy task. Eventually the work was published by William Shoberl, Great Marlborough Street, in two volumes, at one guinea, on an agreement to pay the author half the profits. The preface to “The Rifle Rangers” is as follows:
“The incidents are not fictitious, but allowance must be made for a poetic colouring which fancy has doubtless imparted. The characters are taken from living originals, though most of them figure under fictitious names; they are portraits nevertheless.”
The book was dedicated to his friend, Lord Dudley Coutts Stuart.
“The Rifle Rangers” became at once a success, and the reviews in the press were of the most flattering description. The Observer, April 7th, 1850, says:
“Two extraordinary volumes, teeming with varied Mexican adventures, and written by no everyday man. Of Captain Mayne Reid may be said, according to his own analysis of himself, what Byron wrote of Bonaparte:
“‘And quiet to quick bosoms is a bell!’
“The volumes contain some wild love passages, and many descriptions of manners and scenery.”
Of this book a writer in an American journal says: “In London he found a publisher, and awoke to a world-wide fame. The book that could not be published here, was translated and republished in every language in Europe, and returning to this country, found thousands of delighted readers. Your correspondent, calling once to pay his respects to Lamartine, found that gentleman with Mayne Reid’s book in his hand, and the eminent Frenchman loud in its praise. Dumas, senior, said he could not close the book till he had read the last word.”
This was followed by his second romance, the world-famed “Scalp Hunters,” which was written by Mayne Reid in Ireland, at Ballyroney, in the old house in which he was born. On its completion he returned to London, and the book was published in 1851, by Charles Street, in three volumes.
It at once became one of the most popular books of the season, and has maintained its popularity ever since. Over a million copies have been sold in Great Britain alone, and it has been translated into as many languages as “The Pilgrim’s Progress.” The preface to “The Scalp Hunters” is dated June, 1851:
“My book is a trapper book. It is well known that trappers swear like troopers; some of them, in fact, worse. I have endeavoured to christianise my trappers as much as lay in my power. I, however, see a wide distinction between the impiety of a trapper’s oath and the immorality of an unchaste episode.”
There was not an adverse criticism in any of the press notices.
David Bogue, publisher, of Fleet Street, proposed to Mayne Reid to write a series of boys’ books of adventure, the books which earned for him the title of the “Boy’s Novelist.” The first of these was “The Desert Home,” or “English Family Robinson.” It was published by Bogue at Christmas, 1851, in an illustrated cloth edition at 7 shillings 6 pence. The Globe, February 2nd, 1852, says: “Captain Mayne Reid offers to the juvenile community a little book calculated to excite their surprise and to gratify their tastes for the transatlantic, and the wonderful. The dangers and incidents of life in the wilderness are depicted in vivid colours.”
In addition to his literary work Captain Mayne Reid now established a Rifle Club. His military ardour was not quite quenched. The Belvidere Rifle Club was the title.
The preliminary conditions for obtaining recognition by the Crown were stated by the Marquis of Salisbury, Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex, to be that the numbers of a Volunteer Rifle Corps should exceed sixty, and that particulars of the names of the members, and of the mode of training in arms practised, should be supplied.
The Christmas of 1852 saw the production of “The Boy Hunters.” “For the boy readers of England and America this book has been written, and to them it is dedicated; that it may interest them, so as to rival in their affections the top, the ball, and the kite—that it may impress them, so as to create a taste for that most refining study, the study of Nature—that it may benefit them, by begetting a fondness for books, the antidotes of ignorance, of idleness, and vice, has been the design, as it is the sincere wish, of their friend the author.”