Date |
Events |
Notes |
| |
1874 |
|
7 January 1874 |
Letter to Browning from a London address, 51 Upper Gloucester Place, Dorset Square. Buchanan writes:
“For myself, I have been under a Shadow, but am beginning to see daylight.” |
|
12 January 1874 |
Notice in the Guardian:
“Mr. Robert Buchanan, who is submitting himself to hydropathic treatment at Malvern, has, the Examiner is informed, another volume of smaller poems in hand, which will include some already printed, amongst a considerable number of original ones.” |
|
February 1874 |
The Poetical Works of Robert Buchanan in 3 volumes, published in London by Henry S. King & Co. Advertised in The Graphic February 4th. The 3 volume edition is also published in Boston by James R. Osgood and Co. |
The advert in The Graphic states:
“Robert Buchanan’s Poetical and Prose Works. Collected Edition. 5 vols., crown 8vo, cloth extra, each 6s. Vol. 1 contains “Ballads and Romances,” “Ballads and Poems of Life.” With a Portrait of the Author. {Just out.”
I have found no evidence that the two volumes of the Prose Works ever appeared. |
July 1874 |
‘The Wedding of Shon Maclean’ published in the Gentleman’s Magazine. |
|
3 August 1874 |
A Madcap Prince produced at the Haymarket Theatre, London, starring Mrs. Kendal and Mr. Buckstone, for one performance on the final night of the season. It then tours the provinces, including Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Despite Mr. Buckstone’s announcement that it would open the Haymarket’s next season in October, this does not occur. |
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Late 1874 |
Buchanan writes to William Canton suggesting they collaborate on a novel. Buchanan’s first idea (which will form the basis of A Child of Nature published in 1881) is rejected. |
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20 December 1874 |
Writes to William Canton again with a second idea for a novel, which will eventually become The Shadow of the Sword. The working title is Romaine. |
Chapter XVIII of Jay includes several letters from Buchanan to Canton detailing this collaborative approach to novel-writing. |
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1875 |
|
January 1875 |
According to the letters to Canton, Buchanan is still enthusiastic about the novel. |
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17 February 1875 |
Buchanan writes to Canton apologising for the delay in writing and says he is “neck-deep in work”. |
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26 February 1875 |
Buchanan writes to Canton:
“I have been very busy and much worried: far too much of both to write any of ‘Romaine.’ Nothing has miscarried that you sent. The days flash by like lightning, and I find hardly a moment to spare. ... I don’t know how you stand, but I fear I cannot touch my portion for some little time yet, for I must have everything else off my mind ere I begin. ... Thank God I am not ill, though always shaky more or less, like a man on thin ice.” |
An extract from another letter to Canton in Chapter XXI of Jay refers to Buchanan being busy writing Balder The Beautiful at this time. |
April 1875 |
‘Thomas Love Peacock: A Personal Reminiscence’ published in the New Quarterly Magazine. R. E. Francillon writes to Buchanan asking him to contribute a poem to be inserted in the novel he is writing for the extra Christmas edition of the Gentleman’s Magazine.
Buchanan’s poem (which proves unsuitable for the novel) is ‘The Changeling’. |
Chapter XIX of Jay is written by R. E. Francillon and includes a letter from Buchanan discussing the request, dated April 14, 1875. |
14 April 1875 |
Letter to Canton indicating the collaboration has stalled somewhat: “I have been distraught on various accounts; partly with work. And you, I suppose on your side have been so deep in the folds of that ‘top coat,’ as to have forgotten ‘Romaine.’ If so wake up! The first free week I get I mean to plunge headlong into that work, but it wants thought, silence, and care.” |
|
30 April 1875 |
In a letter to Canton Buchanan mentions “longing for a run to London ... The worst of this region is its inaccessibility!—the journey to Town being both arduous and costly.” |
Jay gives the annual rent of Rossport Lodge as £50 (half Buchanan’s civil list pension) but she also includes this from a letter to William Canton:
“I came here for economy and just now, calculating up, I find it costs me as much as London, though we only live in a tiny cottage. There are so many Poor who must and will be assisted.” |
19 May 1875 |
Letter to Canton abandoning the collaboration.
“Shall you be very much— awfully—disappointed if I decide that the prose form won’t suit ‘Romaine’ after all, and that I should like to adhere to my original plan of making it a poem?”
He also promises to pay Canton for his trouble. |
Buchanan and Canton remained friends despite both the failure of the collaboration and Buchanan’s subsequent publication of the novel. |
Summer 1875 |
Jonas Fisher published anonymously. |
Jonas Fisher was written by James Carnegie, the Earl of Southesk, but the poem bore enough similarities in style and theme to the work of Buchanan, to cause Swinburne to assume he was its author. |
June 1875 |
Swinburne’s Essays and Studies published by Chatto & Windus. Advertised in The Times, 14 June, 1875.
The essay, ‘Matthew Arnold’s New Poems’, now has a footnote relating to David Gray. |
The insertion of this quite unnecessary (and rather cruel) footnote is an indication that Swinburne had not finished with Buchanan, since the most obvious reason for its inclusion is an attempt to draw Buchanan out to continue the ‘Fleshly School’ battle. |
September 1875 |
Harriett Jay’s first novel, The Queen Of Connaught, published (anonymously) by Richard Bentley and Son.
Advertised in The Times September 27, 1875. |
|
27 October 1875 |
Letter to Browning from the Dorset Square address, says he is in London for a short time and includes the following about Harriett Jay’s novel:
“You will be glad to hear that my sister-in-law, whom you know, and who has lived with us from childhood, has had a great success with her first story – “The Queen of Connaught.” A large first edition has been sold, & the second is out. You may guess how far more this delights me than any success of my own.”
In a postscript he adds this:
“The authorship of the “Queen of Connaught” is mentioned in confidence, but my sister particularly wishes you to tell Miss Browning, to whom she sends kindest regards (in which I join).” |
|
17 November 1875 |
Letter to Richard Gowing (published in Chapter XX of Jay) agreeing to terms for the serialisation of The Shadow of the Sword in the Gentleman’s Magazine. Buchanan receives 180 guineas (payable in monthly instalments) for the book. |
|
20 November 1875 |
Swinburne publishes the following poem in The Examiner, obviously aimed at Buchanan: He whose heart and soul and tongue
Once above-ground stunk and stung,
Now less noisome than before,
Stinks here still, but stings no more. |
The final sentence of Swinburne’s Under The Microscope describes Buchanan in similar terms: “But when once we have seen the fang, though innocuous, protrude from a mouth which would fain distil poison and can only distil froth, we need no revelation to assure us that the doom of the creature is to go upon its belly and eat dust all the days of its life.” |
27 November 1875 |
Review of Jonas Fisher in The Examiner speculates that Buchanan is the author:
“This anonymous poem is said by the “London Correspondents” to be the work either of Mr. Robert Buchanan or of the Devil; and delicate as may be the question raised by this double sided supposition, the weight of probability inclines to the first of the alternatives.” |
|
4 December 1875 |
Buchanan states in the Athenaeum that he is not the author of Jonas Fisher and has not even seen the poem. |
“The denial brought forth an acrid retort from the London Quarterly that since the real author had not signed the poem, he “thus afforded Mr. Robert Buchanan a favourable opportunity (not altogether lost) of getting up another fuss about himself” (XLV, 527-528).”
(‘Robert Buchanan and the Fleshly Controversy’, John A. Cassidy.) |
11 December 1875 |
A letter from Swinburne, under the title ‘The Devil’s Due’ and signed “Thomas Maitland - St. Kilda, December 28, 1875” is published in The Examiner. Buchanan decides to sue The Examiner for libel, claiming £5000 damages. |
Buchanan’s decision to sue must have been taken fairly soon after the publication of Swinburne’s letter since, according to The Letters of Algernon Charles Swinburne by Thomas Hake and Arthur Compton-Rickett (London, 1918 - p.120):
“Concurrently with the appearance of Swinburne’s article in Minto’s journal, The Devil’s Due was printed in pamphlet form, but suppressed immediately, for rumours of legal proceedings against the proprietor of the Examiner soon began to leak out.” Also, in The Brisbane Courier of 14 April, 1876, there is a brief piece from “our lady correspondent in London” dated February 3rd, discussing Buchanan’s libel case. |
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1876 |
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1876 |
Corinne published privately. |
|
January 1876 |
The serialisation of The Shadow of the Sword begins in the January issue of the Gentleman’s Magazine. |
|
26 June 1876 |
Corinne produced at the Lyceum Theatre, London. |
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29 June 1876 |
The case of Buchanan v. Taylor opens in the Common Pleas Division of the High Court before Mr. Justice Archibald and a Special Jury. Buchanan was suing Mr. Peter Taylor, M.P., proprietor of The Examiner, for £5000 damages, in relation to The Examiner’s publication of a review of Jonas Fisher falsely attributed to Buchanan, and Swinburne’s letter of 11 December, 1875, entitled ‘The Devil’s Due’.
Lord Southesk takes the stand and admits he is the author of Jonas Fisher. Buchanan takes the stand and the court is adjourned before the conclusion of his cross-examination. |
|
30 June 1876 |
Second day of the trial. Buchanan’s cross-examination continues. No other witnesses are called and the defence counsel (Mr. Hawkins Q.C.) confines himself to an attack on Buchanan, reading extracts from ‘The Session of the Poets’, White Rose and Red and the original ‘Fleshly School’ article, and also referring to Buchanan’s praise of “the infamously indecent poetry of Mr. Walter Whitman”. |
The diary of Edmund Gosse, who attended the trial on 30th June, contains this description of Buchanan: “We could not help remarking his appearance. A pale dissipated-looking man, with reddish-yellow hair, moustache & whiskers, attired in a dirty white waistcoat & loud trowsers, altogether shabby-genteel and anything but gentleman-like.” |
1 July 1876 |
Final day of the trial. According to the report in The Times, “Mr. Justice Archibald summed up the case at considerable length.” The jury retired for twenty minutes and returned with a verdict in favour of Buchanan but only awarding him £150 in damages. |
|
Summer 1876 |
Meets Charles Reade at a dinner given by Mr. John Coleman, manager of the Queen’s Theatre. |
|
November 1876 |
The Shadow of the Sword published by Richard Bentley and Son.
Advertised in The Times 30 November, 1876. Reviewed in The Guardian 1 January, 1877. |
|
Late 1876 |
The Dark Colleen, Harriett Jay’s second novel, published (anonymously) by Richard Bentley and Son.
Advertised in The Times 8 January, 1877. |
|
| |
1877 |
|
13 January 1877 |
A review of ‘The Theatres in 1876’ dismisses Corinne as follows:
“The year has closed as it began, with the performance of Macbeth; but during the temporary absence of Mrs. Bateman a play written by Mr. Buchanan was given, Corinne, though dealing with a dramatic, albeit well-worn subject, the French Revolution, was in itself so weak, both in construction and in writing, and, with one single exception, so worse than indifferently acted, that its life was brief indeed, nor is there much probability of its ever being revived from the limbo to which it was hastily consigned.” |
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15 January 1877 |
The Queen of Connaught, an adaptation of Harriett Jay’s novel by Buchanan and Jay, produced at the Olympic Theatre, London, starring Ada Cavendish. |
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17 March 1877 |
Final (53rd) performance of The Queen of Connaught at the Olympic Theatre. |
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June 1877 |
Balder the Beautiful: a song of divine death published by William Mullan and Son.
Noted in ‘Books Received’ in The Graphic, 30 June, 1877. |
|
September 1877 |
‘The Newest Thing In Journalism’ published in the Contemporary Review. Edmund Yates (whose paper, The World, was criticised in the article) responds with a letter, headed “A Scrofulous Scotch Poet”, which contains a merciless personal attack on Buchanan. |
|
25 October 1877 |
Letter to Browning (from the Dorset Square address) saying: “I have just returned to Town after a long spell in Ireland.” |
Jay places the leaving of Rossport Lodge and Ireland soon after the publication of Balder the Beautiful. The letter to Browning mentions no imminent return, so one presumes by October 1877, Buchanan and family had settled back in London. According to Jay:
“He took a furnished house in the neighbourhood of the Swiss Cottage, and for several years he continued to live in furnished houses in or near London.”
Although the Dorset Square address(es) had provided his London base since January 1874 (at least according to the Browning correspondence) and he also wrote from there in February 1878. |
| |
1878 |
|
5 February 1878 |
Writes to Browning asking him to contribute to a new journal which Buchanan intends to publish, starting around March 1st. |
|
February/March |
Buchanan writes to Anthony Trollope asking if he will contribute a story in six parts (24,000 words) for £110:
“I don’t presume to dictate, but we strongly desire a tale with great sexual interest.” Trollope replies on 3rd March that most, indeed probably the whole, of the story would be in his hands by March 18, 1878, and The Lady of Launay was published in the first six numbers of the new journal, beginning on April 6. |
Information from The Chronicler of Barsetshire: A Life of Anthony Trollope by R. H. Super (University of Michigan Press, 1991). In 1861, Trollope had provided the London Review (in its first year) with two stories which had caused a bit of a public outcry on the basis of their low moral tone and Buchanan presumably was after something similar to help publicise his new journal. |
6 April 1878 |
First issue of Buchanan’s new weekly journal, Light, appears. |
Presumably the finance for this new venture (and for the move back to London) came from the success of The Shadow of the Sword. |
c. October 1878 |
Final issue of Light. |
|
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1879 |
|
3 June 1879 |
Buchanan writes to Browning asking if he would like to call on him at 97 Burton Road, Brixton:
“The place is very convenient either by cab, bus, or train from Westminster. Cab fare from Charing Cross, 2/- I mention this to show you that, though Brixton sounds a long way off, it isn’t! And it is really very pretty just now.” |
|
17 June 1879 |
Buchanan’s final (surviving) letter to Browning repeating the invitation to call. |
|
September 1879 |
Madge Dunraven, Harriett Jay’s third novel, published by Richard Bentley and Son.
Advertised in The Times 17 September, 1879. |
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October 1879 |
Buchanan (and family) visit Ireland again. They arrive in Mulranny, near Westport, County Mayo, on the day when Mr. Sidney Smith, Lord Sligo’s land-agent, had been attacked by an armed gang. The incident was reported in The Times on 3rd. October, 1879. |
Jay recounts the incident in Chapter XXI, but places it after the failure of Light (which would have been October 1878.)
The incident in question is very similar to the Devil’s Bridge scene in The English Rose by Buchanan and Sims, produced in 1890. |
November 1879 |
Buchanan and family leave Ireland and return to London. |
|
| |
1880 |
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August 1880 |
Letter to William Canton from the Isle of Man. Buchanan is there on business and says that they are currently living at Hampton Wick. He writes:
“The details of your letter are very painful to read, and I deeply sympathise with you: the more so, as my own wife is just now dangerously ill with cancer.” |
|
Autumn 1880 |
Mary Buchanan’s health improves slightly and they move to a furnished house at 5 Larkhall Rise, Clapham. |
|
5 November 1880 |
The Guardian prints the following announcement:
“Miss Harriett Jay, the novelist, is about to make her début as an actress in the Olympic version of her own novel, “The Queen of Connaught.” She will appear for the first time in London at the Crystal Palace Matinée on November 17, and will play the part originally sustained by Miss Ada Cavendish.” |
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18 November 1880 |
Harriett Jay’s London début as an actress in The Queen of Connaught, at a Crystal Palace matinée. ‘Cherubino’ in the The London Figaro reviewed her performance as follows:
“Much curiosity, was awakened by the novelty of an authoress appearing as an actress—an event scarcely paralleled in the present generation. The result, on the whole, warranted the very hazardous attempt, chiefly on account of the young lady’s very unusual personal advantages. Miss Jay is very young, tall, and graceful, with a good voice and expressive face, and her acting, though far from perfect, showed careful study and preparation. At the conclusion, in answer to a boisterous call, Mr Neville led Miss Jay forward, and warmly shook hands with her before the audience. There is no doubt that the lady will be an acquisition to the stage.” |
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22 December 1880 |
The Nine Days Queen, starring Harriett Jay in the role of Lady Jane Grey, has a matinée performance at the Gaiety Theatre.
The review in The Scotsman is favourable towards the play and Harriett Jay:
“The principal character, Lady Jane Grey, was played by Miss Harriet Jay, a lady who, as the authoress of “The Dark Colleen” and “The Queen of Connaught,” has won a high reputation as a novelist. Miss Jay has only once before made her appearance on the stage, and her performance was indubitably one of high promise. She has, as was only to be expected, much to learn, but still her acting is sympathetic and intelligent, and she evidently spares no pains to embody the author’s ideas. With more experience and confidence, and a more entire abandonment of herself to the situation, she will one day be an acquisition to the stage.” |
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1881 |
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14 February 1881 |
The Nine Days Queen, starring Harriett Jay, opens at the Royal Connaught Theatre.
Buchanan also provides the one-act curtain-raiser, Only A Vagabond, based upon his poem, ‘Attorney Sneak’. |
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March 1881 |
A Child of Nature published by Richard Bentley and Son.
Advertised in The Times 3 March, 1881. |
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21 March 1881 |
The Nine Days Queen, starring Harriett Jay, is performed at the Gaiety Theatre, Glasgow. |
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3 April 1881 |
The date of the 1881 census. Robert Buchanan and Harriett Jay are listed as boarders at the lodging house of George Remnant at 3 Guildford Place, St Pancras, London. Buchanan (39) now lists himself as ‘Author and Dramatist’. Harriett Jay (Authoress & Actress) gives her age as 24 (making her birth year 1857) and her birthplace as Kent. Meanwhile, Mary Buchanan is staying with her elder sister, Eliza Dear, in East Ham. |
1881 census returns: Robert Buchanan and Harriett Jay Mary Buchanan |
7 May 1881 |
The Exiles of Erin: or St. Abe and his Seven Wives, starring Harriett Jay, produced at the Olympic Theatre. |
|
9 May 1881 |
The Shadow of the Sword produced at the Theatre Royal, Brighton.
The Stage gives it a rave review, whereas The New York Times calls it “a most complete failure”, although it acknowledges that the novel is “quite a modern classic.” |
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13 May 1881 |
The title of The Exiles of Erin: or St. Abe and his Seven Wives, is changed to The Mormons: or St. Abe and his Seven Wives. |
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Summer 1881 |
Buchanan and family move to Southend-on-Sea. |
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2 June 1881 |
Final performance of The Mormons: or St. Abe and his Seven Wives at the Olympic Theatre. |
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3 June 1881 |
There is a benefit performance for Harriett Jay at the Olympic Theatre, the programme consisting of A Madcap Prince (in which she appears as the heroine, Elinor Vane) and the final act of The Nine Days’ Queen. |
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July 1881 |
The Priest’s Blessing, or Poor Patrick’s Progress from this World to a Better by Harriett Jay, published by F. V. White and Co.
Advertised in The Times 29 July, 1881. |
|
November 1881 |
God and the Man published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times 7 November, 1881.
The novel includes a dedicatory verse ‘To an Old Enemy’ - an apology to Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Two Men and a Maid by Harriett Jay, published by F. V. White and Co.
Advertised in The Times 19 November, 1881. |
According to Jay, God and the Man was first serialised in the Day of Rest magazine. |
6 November 1881 |
Letter to F.J. Furnivall (founder of the Browning Society), enclosing a copy of God and the Man. Buchanan writes:
“Like Browning himself, I have suffered for years from the persecution of a literary Inquisition; and as it is such men as you that scatter light & fight on the side of minorities, I would gladly secure your sympathy in more or less measure.” He goes on to criticise the Athenaeum “a journal which, to my mind, is a synonym for nepotism & cowardly malignity.”
The address on the letter is 38 Queen Anne Street, Cavendish Square, which was presumably Buchanan’s London base at this time. |
|
7 November 1881 |
Death of Mary Buchanan, aged 36. |
|
10 November 1881 |
A second letter to F.J. Furnivall from 2 Devereux Terrace, Southend, contains the following:
“I thought to be in Queen Anne St temporarily this week, but on Monday night my beloved wife died here. While this great darkness is upon me, I cannot respond to your kindness as I could wish; but I look forward to seeing you some day soon.” |
|
13 November 1881 |
Funeral of Mary Buchanan. She is buried in the churchyard of St. John the Baptist in Southend-on-Sea. In a letter to Roden Noel concerning the funeral arrangements (quoted in Jay) Buchanan writes:
“God bless you for your kind words. I see it all as you see it, but ah! so darkly. If this parting is only for a time, I see its blessedness—but if, as I dread and fear, it is a parting forever, what then? Ah, God, what then? ... She looks so beautiful in her coffin. I feel as if she were my child too, child and wife; for she had a child’s angelic disposition.” |
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c. 1881 |
Chatto & Windus take over the copyright of Buchanan’s poetry. |
Information from Andrew Nash’s article on the Literary Encyclopedia website. |
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1882 |
|
1882 |
According to Chapter XXIII of Jay:
“After the death of his wife he wished to remain quietly at Southend, but instead of following his own inclination he listened to the advice of his friends and again took to roaming. After a few months spent in France he returned to London, settling again in a furnished house, and taking from time to time various trips to Southend, which little town had by association become very dear to him.” |
|
February 1882 |
Selected Poems published by Chatto & Windus.
Buchanan dedicates the book to his late wife: “TO MARY. Weeping and sorrowing, yet in sure and certain hope of a heavenly resurrection, I place these poor flowers of verse on the grave of my beloved Wife, who, with eyes of truest love and tenderness, watched them growing for more than twenty years. ROBERT BUCHANAN.
Southend, February, 1882.” The book also includes an announcement of the planned reprint of Buchanan’s books of poetry by Chatto & Windus. |
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March 1882 |
Ballads of Life, Love, and Humour published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times 23 March, 1882. |
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8 April 1882 |
Lucy Brandon (adapted from Bulwer-Lytton’s Paul Clifford) produced at a matinée at the Imperial Theatre, Westminster, with Harriett Jay in the title role. The Shadow of the Sword produced at the Olympic Theatre, following a provincial tour. |
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May 1882 |
The Martyrdom of Madeline published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times 25 May, 1882. |
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22 November 1882 |
Harriett Jay appears in a special matinée performance of A Madcap Prince at the Gaiety Theatre. The last act of The Nine Days Queen is also performed. |
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29 November 1882 |
Harriett Jay appears in a matinée performance of The Nine Days Queen at the Gaiety Theatre. |
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December 1882 |
My Connaught Cousins by Harriett Jay, published by F. V. White and Co.
Advertised in The Times 5 December, 1882. The Hebrid Isles. Wanderings in the Land of Lorne and the Outer Hebrides. A revised edition of The Land of Lorne published by Chatto & Windus.
Reviewed in The Scotsman 5 December, 1882. Love Me For Ever published in the Christmas supplement of the Illustrated London News. |
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1883 |
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January 1883 |
Buchanan’s novel, The New Abelard, begins serialisation in The Gentleman’s Magazine. |
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February 1883 |
Love Me For Ever published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times 26 February, 1883. |
|
14 March 1883 |
Storm-Beaten (based on his novel, God and the Man) produced at the Adelphi Theatre.
First theatrical success for Buchanan. |
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11 April 1883 |
Lady Clare (adapted from Georges Ohnet’s Le Maître de Forges) produced at the Globe Theatre, with Harriett Jay in the cast playing her first male role, the Hon. Cecil Brookfield. Of Harriett Jay’s performance the critic of The Scotsman wrote:
“Miss Harriet Jay played a lad with infinite truth and many pleasant touches of humour. This lady has, indeed, rarely been seen in a part which showed her to so much advantage.” |
|
June 1883 |
Buchanan’s poem, ‘The White Robe; or, Zola in a Nutshell’ (published in The New Rome, 1898) is dated “Paris, June, 1883”, indicating a visit to France around this time. |
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8 June 1883 |
Last night of Storm-Beaten at the Adelphi Theatre. |
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29 June 1883 |
Last night of Lady Clare at the Globe Theatre. |
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30 June 1883 |
Buchanan stages a version of J. B. Buckstone’s 1847 play, The Flowers of the Forest at the Globe Theatre, London. Harriett Jay is in the cast as the gypsy boy, Lemuel. |
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3 September 1883 |
First provincial performance of Lady Clare at the New Royal Theatre, Bristol. |
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October 1883 |
A Poet’s Sketch-Book. Selections from the prose writings of Robert Buchanan published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times 13 October, 1883. |
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1 October 1883 |
Lady Clare revived at the Pavilion Theatre, London. Buchanan attended the opening night. |
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15 October 1883 |
A Sailor and his Lass (written in collaboration with Augustus Harris) produced at the Drury Lane Theatre. Harriett Jay plays Mary Morton (the ‘Lass’). |
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November 1883 |
Through the Stage Door by Harriett Jay, published by F. V. White and Co. |
I’ve been unable to find any domestic adverts for Through the Stage Door, but it was listed among ‘the most notable works of fiction to be published in London’ in the New Zealand paper, the Taranaki Herald, on November 2nd, 1883.
The book was the subject of two contrasting reviews in
The Spectator, which caused Harriett Jay to write a letter to the Standard and this incident was later referred to in George Gissing’s New Grub Street. |
26 November 1883 |
Storm Beaten is produced at the Union Square Theater, New York by Messrs. Shook & Collier.
According to a piece in The New York Times (6th Jan. 1884) Buchanan sold the play for $12,000. |
|
December 1883 |
Annan Water published by Chatto & Windus.
Reviewed in The Scotsman 28 December, 1883.
The book is dedicated to “Miss Leigh, of the English Mission, Paris.” |
|
8 December 1883 |
Last night of A Sailor and his Lass at the Drury Lane Theatre. |
|
| |
1884 |
|
25 January 1884 |
75th performance of Storm Beaten at the Union Square Theater, New York. |
|
13 February 1884 |
Lady Clare produced at Wallack’s Theatre, New York by Lester Wallack. |
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April 1884 |
The New Abelard published by Chatto & Windus.
Reviewed in The Times 11 April, 1884. |
|
13 April 1884 |
The following item appears in the Brooklyn Eagle:
“Harriet Jay, the novelist and actress, is going to the United States under the management of Colonel Sinn, of Brooklyn. She will appear in Mr. Robert Buchanan’s historical dramas.” |
Although Harriett Jay did not appear in “Mr. Robert Buchanan’s historical dramas” “under the management of Colonel Sinn”, this item does indicate that Buchanan and Jay are considering the American trip at this point. It also marks an earlier connection with Colonel Sinn than the Philadelphia production of Alone in London. |
15 April 1884 |
Buchanan attends the funeral of Charles Reade at Willesden Churchyard. |
|
18 May 1884 |
The following report appears in The New York Times:
“Mr. Robert Buchanan, the adapter of “Lady Clare,” has written a new comedy which he is trying to get produced in London. Mr. Buchanan is led to this reckless course through the success of “Lady Clare” and the large royalties which have poured into his pocket from this country ever since the production of this piece. In London Mr. Buchanan is not regarded with enthusiasm by theatrical managers. In the first place he has written a large number of pieces, none of which, barring “Lady Clare,” has been successfully performed in the English metropolis. In the second he has a sister-in-law named Harriet Jay, who is the cause of travail and sorrow in managerial circles. Whenever Mr. Buchanan writes a play he insists, as far as he can, upon having Miss Jay perform the principal character. The lady is an amiable and interesting person when she does not try to act. But the quickest preparation for a London exodus lies through the appearance of Miss Jay in public. It is because Mr. Buchanan, metaphorically speaking, goes around with a bundle of manuscript under one arm and his sister-in-law under the other that he is not enthusiastically regarded by English managers.” |
|
Summer 1884 |
Buchanan and Harriett Jay go to America. |
Although the actual dates of Buchanan’s trip are not known, the report of his attendance at the Grand Opera House says that he is “fresh from London”. |
25 August 1884 |
Buchanan attends a performance of Storm Beaten at the Grand Opera House, New York. |
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September 1884 |
Foxglove Manor published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times 15 September 1884. |
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1 September 1884 |
Bachelors (written in collaboration with Hermann Vezin, adapted from a German play by Julius Roderich Benedix) produced at the Haymarket Theatre. |
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11 November 1884 |
Constance, produced at Wallack’s Theatre, New York. Buchanan and Jay attend the first night: “Mr. Buchanan, the ‘author’ of the play, sat in a proscenium box ready to receive the calls for the author. He was not called. His sister in law, Harriet Jay, sat with him. She is very tall, blonde, and has rather sharp features. For some extraordinary reason the audience thought she was Ellen Terry, and the play was forgotten during the half hour following her arrival, while they gazed at her. She shielded her face with a huge white fan, so that people were a long while finding out that it was not Miss Terry.”
(Brooklyn Eagle, 16 November, 1884) |
Jay makes no mention of Constance in her brief account of the American trip. She also states that the play Buchanan had contracted to provide for Messrs. Shook and Collier was never written. However, a court case, not resolved until 1888, reveals that the play was called A Hero in Spite of Himself, which was a satire on American life and it was rejected by the managers of the Union Square Theatre as being unsuitable for an American audience. |
20 November 1884 |
Lottie (an adaptation of Harriett Jay’s novel, Through the Stage Door) produced at the Novelty Theatre, London. There was no author’s name attached to the play but it was subsequently attributed to Robert Buchanan. |
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26 November 1884 |
Harriett Jay makes her American début at a matinée performance of Tom Taylor’s Clancarty at the Madison Square Theatre, New York. |
According to an article about Harriett Jay published in The Theatre in April 1888, she had toured the provinces in this play just prior to her performance in Lady Clare in April 1883. |
December 1884 |
The Poetical Works of Robert Buchanan published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times 22 December, 1884 as “The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Buchanan. Carefully revised by the Author.”
The only notable omission is Ballad Stories of the Affections: from the Scandinavian, which was essentially a translation. A revised version of Napoleon Fallen (retitled ‘The Fool of Destiny’) is included in the section, ‘Political Mystics’. The Drama of Kings is represented by a section entitled ‘Songs of the Terrible Year’ and is prefaced by a note from Buchanan:
“The ‘Drama of Kings’ was written under a false conception, which no one discarded sooner than the author”. |
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1885 |
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5 January 1885 |
A revival of Lady Clare is produced at Niblo’s Garden, New York, starring Cora Tanner, with Harriett Jay reprising her role as the Hon. Cecil Brookfield. |
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February 1885 |
Stormy Waters (a novelization of the 1883 play, A Sailor and His Lass) published by John and Robert Maxwell.
Advertised in The Times 13 February, 1885. Matt: A Story of a Caravan (U.S. title: Matt: A Tale of a Caravan) published in London by Chatto & Windus, in New York by D. Appleton.
Reviewed in The New York Times 24 February 1885. |
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March 1885 |
While in Philadelphia preparing for the opening of Alone in London Buchanan visits Walt Whitman at Camden, New Jersey. The poem, ‘Socrates in Camden’ published in The New Rome (1898) is dated: “Indian Rock, Philadelphia, PA., March 1885.” |
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12 March 1885 |
Despite the efforts of Buchanan and Jay, The New York Times remained unimpressed:
“Mr. Robert Buchanan has succeeded in disposing of one more play in this country. This piece is called “Alone in London,” and it is to be tried on in Philadelphia some time in May next. If “Alone in London” proves successful it will be brought out in New-York at the beginning of the following season, and after that it will be sent through the general country. “Alone in London” has a material attachment in the shape of Miss Harriet Jay, who appears to be generously thrown in with the most of Mr. Buchanan’s theatrical bargains. Miss Jay is regarded by Mr. Buchanan as the most beautiful woman and the most accomplished actress in the world, and this fact indicates the degree of generosity which induces him to insist that managers who accept his plays shall also receive the further boon of having them performed by the radiant and accomplished Miss Jay.” |
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21 March 1885 |
Agnes (a two-act adaptation of Molière’s L’École des Femmes) is produced at the Comedy Theatre, London, as a curtain-raiser to Nemesis in order (according to The Times, “to enable Miss Adelaide Detchon, a young American actress, to make her début in London in an ingénue part.” |
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30 March 1885 |
Alone in London (written in collaboration with Harriett Jay) is produced at the Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia by Buchanan himself, having failed to find an American backer for the play. Harriett Jay plays another male role, Tom Chickweed. The play is a success and is acquired by Colonel William E. Sinn, of Brooklyn, for a two years’ tour of the United States and Canada. |
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May 1885 |
A Marriage Of Convenience by Harriett Jay, published by F.V. White and Co.
Advertised in The Times 29 May, 1885. |
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18 May 1885 |
Col. Sinn’s production of Alone in London, opens at the Park Theatre, Brooklyn, with Cora Tanner in the leading role of Annie Meadows. |
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25 May 1885 |
A Sailor and his Lass revived at the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton. |
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Summer 1885 |
Return to England.
“On his return to England he went again to Southend, taking this time a house which he furnished himself, so resolved was he to make Southend his home. This house, which had already been the home of Sir Richard Cunliffe Owen and Sir Edwin Arnold, was a quaint old country place with extensive gardens and eight acres of meadow, and it was known as ‘Hamlet Court.’” (Jay, Chapter XXIII).
Henry Murray first meets Robert Buchanan. |
Jay gives no date for the return to England but does say that the reason for the return was Buchanan’s ill health.
The meeting with Henry Murray - “in the summer of 1885” - is mentioned in his essay on Buchanan in Robert Buchanan: A Critical Appreciation And Other Essays. |
24 August 1885 |
Revival of Lady Clare at the Pavilion Theatre, London, with Harriett Jay in the cast. |
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31 August 1885 |
After the summer recess, Col. Sinn’s production of Alone in London, opens at the Park Theatre, Boston. |
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September 1885 |
Buchanan offers the actress Amy Roselle the leading part of Annie Meadows in the English production of Alone in London at a salary of £30 a week, for a guaranteed six weeks. |
Reports in The Times of the court case brought by Amy Roselle against the management of the Olympic Theatre in January 1887 provide several details about the initial reception of the play. |
October 1885 |
The Master of the Mine published by Richard Bentley and Son.
Advertised in The Times 23 October 1885. |
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2 November 1885 |
Alone in London opens at the Olympic Theatre, London. Harriett Jay repeats her role of Tom Chickweed. |
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6 November 1885 |
A letter from ‘The Authors of Alone in London’ in The Times complains about an organised attempt to disrupt the first night of the play. |
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December 1885 |
The Earthquake published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times 5 December 1885. |
This was the first part of the poem. In a Prefatory Note Buchanan wrote: “The present volume, containing the first three days or sections, is practically complete in itself. The second and concluding volume is ready, and will be published after a short interval.”
The second volume was never published, presumably due to poor sales of the first. It’s also fairly safe to assume that the second volume was never ‘ready’. |
3 December 1885 |
Amy Roselle’s contract terminated. Harriett Jay takes over the part of Annie Meadows (at a salary of £10 per week). |
According to the court case, the play was not a success and was losing £200 a week, as a result of which some of the actors (including Amy Roselle) were asked to take a 50 percent cut in their wages. Amy Roselle refused to do this. |
