PISANUS FRAXI
107
sellers John Camden Rotten and William Dugdale. Both of them
appear to have been personally known to Ashbee, and he supplies us
with a good deal of information about the way they ran their opera–
tions. Rotten seems to have been, so to say, the Maurice Girodias of
Victorian England; he was, as Ashbee observes, "almost the only
respectable English publisher of tabooed literature," a circumstance
in
which "he took great delight." As is well known, Rotten published
Swinburne's
Poems and Ballads,
agreeing to take over the volume
after Moxon's had withdrawn it from circulation because of the violent
reception it had met with in the press. Re also seems to have had
a hand in the publication and popularization of American writers
In
England. Rotten's life was short-he was born in 1832 and died
In
1873-but very active. Ashbee writes that "his private library of
erotic literature was extensive, and was, at his death, purchased
en
bloc
by a London amateur." That amateur, there is reason to believe,
was Ashbee himself, since in his small essay on Rotten he reprints
some of Rotten's scribblings toward an autobiographical narrative,
and adds that these are from "a MS still existing in his own handwriting."
Rotten was born in London and, according to his own account,
"showed a great passion for books" at an early age. At the age of
fifteen, he prevailed upon one Petheram, "the author of an Anglo–
,Saxon Grammar, and other kindred works" and owner of a book
shop, to allow him to spend a few hours each day in the shop. Thomas
Babington Macaulay, Rotten's account proceeds, "used to make daily
visits to Mr. Petheram's shop for the purpose of securing any old
books and tracts which might suit his collections. I used to lay aside
anything which I thought might interest the historian, and would
often submit to him memoranda of books I had seen elsewhere.
These little attentions made me a favorite with Macaulay, who how–
ever, on one occasion when in an irritable mood, threatened me with
chastisement for not speedily obtaining change for a £5.-Note, and
in the heat of the moment actually did topple upon me a large quarto
volume which he held in his hand at the time." It
is
difficult to
determine to what extent young Rotten's brains were scrambled by the
trauma of this event, but it is certain that something went wrong.
Soon after this, the narrative continues, Rotten departed for the West
Indies, accompanying an elder brother on "a Robinson Crusoe scheme
of adventure," whatever that may mean. Eventually the brothers wound
up
in New Orleans, where they separated, the elder going off to
Minnesota, and Rotten himself accepting "the offer of a gentleman
to accompany him to"--of all places-Galena, Illinois. One knows what
has to come next, and it does: "The Tannery of Mr. Grant, now
