A Letter From America #30

An American Boy in London

From the Rare Book Review

The importuning Editor wants to know my favorite book on London. He should know very well that book dealers do not have favorite books, as it is necessary to reserve enthusiasm for what’s on offer. Favorite books also lead toward the slippery slope of “best book” lists, then on into the lifeless chasm of PMM and other forms of collecting by rote. I will not be party to such tomfoolery.

However, the question did set me to thinking about books on London, and instead of honing in on one I spiraled out to the many. Fact or fiction? Does the whole book have to be on topic, or will a chapter do? Does Sherlock Holmes count?  Some of my most treasured slices of literary London come in odd chapters of books largely set elsewhere.

It struck me that, as an American who loves London, I have seen the town in slices across the course of my adult life, ranging from changing planes to staying two months. Aside from an inordinate part of that time spent in book fairs or getting drunk with English booksellers (timeless occupations one can indulge in wherever rare books are sold), I’ve managed to get around some of the further corners of the city and fall in love with it. In that sense I feel a connection with other Americans who have made the journey from the former colonies to the metropolis and were enthralled by what they found. So, rather than name a favorite book, I’ll propose an entertaining theme for a collection; American Visitors to London. These can be found in some surprising places. They could also be collected expensively, in first editions, or cheaply, in “best” modern editions.

My first example is Herman Melville’s Redburn, a novel based loosely on Melville’s own first voyage and visit to England in 1839. The fictional narrator describes how, as a boy, he looked longingly at the word “London” on title pages in his father’s library. Indeed, I have in my own collection one of the books the real Melville stared at, the copy of Kearsley’s Stranger’s Guide…Through London… (London, 1791), signed by Allan Melville in 1807 and later signed by Herman in 1850, the year after Redburn was published. Only one chapter of the book, “A Mysterious Night in London,” is set there, but most modern critics agree it is the crux of the novel. The youthful protagonist is taken on a whirlwind tour from Liverpool to a night on the town by his shifty friend Harry Bolton, ending up in a high-toned establishment that exemplifies metropolitan dissolution. Whether it’s a gambling hell or homosexual brothel depends on what critic you read, but it is a bizarre climax from an author who loved London dearly. Happily, the real Melville spent most of his time in London patronizing antiquarian booksellers.

The Education of Henry Adams is an American classic, originally published privately in 1907, but never out of print after the author’s death. The great-grandson and grandson of American Presidents, Adams came to London at the beginning of the Civil War as secretary to his father, who was the American ambassador. It was a difficult position to be in; Great Britain was on the verge of recognizing the Confederacy, and many Englishmen held the United States in contempt. Adams felt at first that his situation as a diplomatic outcast, “one of the small fry of the legations,” “was too appalling to face.” From this unappealing prospect Adams was rescued by one of the great London hosts, Monckton Milnes, who took the Harvard boy under his wing and introduced him to a broad range of acquaintances, including Swinburne. Eventually, Adams came to believe that London held “the perfection of human society.” About a quarter of the Education is set in London, and it gives a wonderful picture of the society and politics of the times. My readers might particularly enjoy the five pages devoted to Adams’ thinking he has gotten a tremendous find at Sotheby’s in the form of an unidentified Rafael, and his visits to conflicting experts trying to prove it (he never did – I wonder where it is now).

Finally, a more recent American who loved London passionately was the entertaining diarist Chips Channon. A rich young man from the Mid-West who became an English citizen and a Member of Parliament, Channon rose to the pinnacle of London society. Start browsing with his account of his party for the Prince of Wales and Mrs. Simpson, where Chips livens the dull occasion by spiking the punch with speed, and you’ll be hooked, just as I am on London.

– William S. Reese