April 14 1813: Scott’s Disappointing Sales

Walter Scott’s poem Rokeby from January 14 1813 to April 14 1813 sold 8,000 copies with sales of £9,548. It was considered a disappointment.

This was the case even when the sales of Rokeby were comparable to those of his earlier and great success, Lady of the Lake. That work, from June 2 to September 22 1810, also sold about 8,000 copies producing about £7,800. The public perception of Scott had changed. He no longer offered the excitement of something new. In 1832, The Gentleman’s Magazine, Volume 102 in Scott’s obituary, would write of this period:

The public was now acquainted with his whole “fence,” and could, therefore, take no longer the same interest in his exhibitions. “The sale of fifteen thousand copies,” says Scott, “enabled the author to retreat from the field with the honours of war.” It is said that his friend, the proprietor of the scene of “Rokeby,” said to him jocularly, about this time, that evidently his works only found a tolerable sale, in consequence of having his name upon the title-page. To this Sir Walter is said to have answered rather testily, that he would put the assertion to the proof by publishing his next poetry anonymously. He therefore produced two smaller poems in succession, named “The Bridal of Triermain,” and “Harold the Dauntless;” but, to verify what his friend had said, they made a very slight impression upon the public. Yet it may be asserted, that an individual, without national or other prepossessions, beginning to read the author’s poetical works for the first time, would not find nearly so much difference between the early and late productions, as was found by the contemporary public. So much was the greater appreciation of the former owing to novelty.