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 The book that could not be published here, was translated and republished in every language in Europe, and returning to this country, found thousands of delighted readers.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.”