{"id":8371,"date":"2012-10-29T17:42:42","date_gmt":"2012-10-29T15:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/fr\/?page_id=8371"},"modified":"2013-09-17T13:16:54","modified_gmt":"2013-09-17T11:16:54","slug":"from-didier-to-masson","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/history\/guizot-and-his-publishers\/from-didier-to-masson\/","title":{"rendered":"2. From Didier to Masson"},"content":{"rendered":"

[To access the article in pdf format, click here here<\/a>. To read it online, follow the page navigation].<\/em><\/p>\n

The 1er<\/sup> On 1 January 1839, Guizot signed a contract in two short articles granting Didier the right to publish his Modern history course<\/em> of 1828-1830, in other words its History of civilisation<\/em>. The proceeds would amount to 7,200 francs, payable in six instalments of 1,200 francs between 1839 and 1844: an old-fashioned agreement, in short, but a rather lucrative one. It is true that this course was to be reprinted at least nineteen times in the nineteenth century, until 1882, by Didier and then his successor \u00c9mile Perrin. This was not the beginning, but a stage in a collaboration that lasted nearly thirty-five years. Born in 1800, Pierre-Paul Didier had founded an academic bookshop in Paris in 1828, mainly to publish the lectures of professors at the Facult\u00e9 des Lettres. Together with Jean-Armand Pichon, who had been licensed as a bookseller in 1827, he took over from Fran\u00e7ois B\u00e9chet A\u00een\u00e9 and published a first edition of the Modern history course<\/em> in six volumes between 1829 and 1832, as well as a reprint of \"The<\/a>The death penalty in political matters<\/em> in 1828. It was then, at the latest, that Guizot met him. Since 1832, he had been publishing under his own name and on his own account, at 35 quai des Augustins. On 7 February 1840, in the same spirit as the contract of the previous year, Didier acquired for four years the right to reprint what was already a reference work in France and England, the two volumes of the\u2019History of the English Revolution<\/em>, In addition to the fight against Belgian counterfeiting, a preference clause was explicitly included. In addition to the explicit aim of combating Belgian counterfeiting, there was a preference clause: at the end of the four-year period, and \u00abat an equal price\u00bb, Didier would be preferred to any competitor, not only to reprint these two volumes, but also to publish their sequel, which promised to be substantial since Guizot had from the outset made known his intention to continue his account until 1688. This agreement, which takes up twenty-five lines and is signed as if in passing, was later to contribute greatly to the deterioration of relations between Didier and Guizot.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the latter had embarked on an adventure whose outcome was not to be very glorious. Approached by the solicitor Gabriel Bodiment, who, like others, had declared his admiration for him, on 22 November 1839 he concluded two treaties with him, even though he was not a real book professional. The first was for three volumes of Historical and political mixtures<\/em>, to be submitted within one year. Bodiment acquired the publication rights for four years, at a price of 4,000 francs per volume, payable on submission of the manuscript, and for a print run of 3,500 copies, after deducting - and this was a new feature - the \u00abmains de passe\u00bb, i.e. the manufacturing deficits. A complicated system of forfeiture and reimbursement in the event of failure to meet the agreed deadline, covering all or part of the entire work, showed that the two contracting parties were not assured of the successful completion of the project. Similar clauses appeared in the second, even more ambitious treaty: as Mr Guizot had \u00abexpressed his intention to write a history of Mirabeau\u00bb, Bodiment acquired the publication rights to this volume, which was to be delivered within two years. If the author decided to continue his work in the form of a history of the Constituent Assembly in two, three or four volumes, this time to be delivered within four years, and \u00abperhaps even later the history of the Convention and the Directoire\u00bb, Bodiment would purchase the rights under the same conditions. He committed himself to a print run of 17,000 copies, justified at the author's request - one can never be too careful - by a declaration signed by the printer, and each volume was paid 20,000 francs, a considerable sum, a little too good to be true perhaps, hence the luxury of precautions in the event of delays. Bodiment, unable to finance such an operation, joined forces on 25 November with the young banker - he was 31 - Mariano de Bertodano, a handsome knight of industry whose activities included managing the Compagnie Corse, which exploited the island's forests. He was to provide the necessary capital, up to a limit of 60,000 francs, with Bodiment taking care of the publication. The exorbitant commitments made by Guizot, who returned to the government a year later, were naturally not kept, since he only handed over the manuscript of half of the first volume of the Mixes<\/em>, The affair went badly wrong, especially as Bodiment died in 1840. In 1843, after tough negotiations, Guizot was forced to reimburse Bertodano 5,400 francs that he had received in December 1839 and January 1840 as an advance payment, which the contract did not provide for, and to pay him 2,866 francs as compensation for the cost of purchasing paper and printing. On 18 March 1844, an agreement was reached between the two parties to settle all accounts. The author, minister though he was, and no doubt anxious not to publicise the affair, had not had the last word.<\/p>\n

On 24 February 1848, the revolution made Guizot an exile in England. Having left empty-handed and settled with his family at 21 Pelham Crescent in Brompton, then a suburb of London, he felt a pressing need for money, which could only be provided by his writing. He immediately resumed his work, in particular the\u2019History of the English Revolution<\/em>, of which he recovered in 1845, for the first two volumes, the rights held by Didier under the terms of the 1840 agreement, and also the\u2019History of civilisation<\/em>, which Didier continued to publish regularly, with reprints in 1845 and 1846, and which Guizot intended to follow up. As far as can be reconstructed, he instructed his faithful friend Charles Lenormant\"Charles<\/a> de lui trouver un \u00e9diteur en France qui lui fasse les meilleures conditions. Lenormant, \u00e0 la demande de Guizot, commence par d\u00e9marcher Pierre-Paul Didier, auquel il n\u2019aurait pas trouv\u00e9 les reins assez solides pour procurer \u00e0 Guizot les sommes \u00e9lev\u00e9es auxquelles il pr\u00e9tend. La conversation entre les deux hommes se passe mal, et Didier pr\u00e9tendra plus tard que Lenormant s\u2019est montr\u00e9 insultant, le \u00ab\u202ftraitant en petit gar\u00e7on, en pauvre diable qui ne pouvait donner 50\u202f000 francs comptant en 1848{{1}}[[1]]Lettre du 2 f\u00e9vrier 1855 \u00e0 Auguste G\u00e9nie.[[1]].\u202f\u00bb Ce montant tr\u00e8s \u00e9lev\u00e9 \u00e9tait celui, affirmait Lenormant, que proposait par \u00e9crit un concurrent r\u00e9put\u00e9 plus dynamique, Masson. N\u00e9 en 1807, Victor Masson avait \u00e9t\u00e9 embauch\u00e9 comme commis par Louis Hachette en 1833. Apr\u00e8s une association avec le libraire Nicolas Crochard pour exploiter la Librairie m\u00e9dicale et scientifique, il s\u2019\u00e9tablit \u00e0 son compte et \u00e0 son nom en 1846, 17 place de l\u2019\u00c9cole de M\u00e9decine, et, tout en se d\u00e9signant comme \u00ab\u202fLibraire des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s savantes pr\u00e8s le Minist\u00e8re de l\u2019Instruction publique\u202f\u00bb, cherche \u00e0 \u00e9largir son catalogue. Guizot serait pour lui une recrue de choix, et c\u2019est donc vers lui que Charles Lenormant dirige son \u00ab\u202fillustre ami\u202f\u00bb, qui n\u00e9gocie directement les termes d\u2019un contrat sign\u00e9 le 24 novembre 1848, \u00e0 Brompton o\u00f9 Masson semble donc s\u2019\u00eatre rendu tout expr\u00e8s.<\/p>\n

This eleven-article document is of the greatest interest, as its clauses have clearly been weighed with a trebuchet. While the financial terms granted to Guizot are unprecedented, the publisher has surrounded them with hitherto unknown precautions. In addition, there were new elements compared with the contracts we have: the author's first print run on vellum was 25 copies, and above all the author retained all the rights for the English language, on the understanding that this foreign edition \u00abmay not appear a single day before the publication of the French-language edition\u00bb; this reservation of English-language rights would henceforth appear on all the contracts signed by Guizot, who considered himself, through his many connections across the Channel, to be in the best position to assert his interests. In fact, his major works, and even others, were translated into English within a short space of time, and were sometimes very successful in the book trade, generating substantial income that the author did not wish to share with the French publisher. Finally, and this article will often be found in later agreements, the transfer of rights granted by the author to the publisher cannot prevent the texts concerned from being included in any future Complete Works, provided that they are not presented separately and that a certain period of time is respected. Guizot therefore sold Masson the exploitation rights for the first period of \"History<\/a>l\u2019History of the English Revolution (1625-1649)<\/em>, already published by Didier, with an unpublished introduction to be submitted \u00abas soon as possible\u00bb, and the second period (1649-1660), which Guizot intended to write and deliver by 15 July 1850 at the latest. If he wrote the third period (1660-1688), Masson would benefit from the preference clause. As the price for this transfer, the author would receive 20,000 francs on delivery of the introduction, and the same amount on delivery of the second period. Victor Masson had therefore committed himself to 40,000 francs, and not 50,000 as Lenormant would have told Didier; even so, he had nothing to pay immediately. Did he suspect that Guizot, who was not ruling out the idea and even the hope of returning to politics, would not respect the timetable set? In any case, he was well placed to do so, since on 21 December 1848 he signed a contract with his new author granting him ownership of a political essay of 130 to 150 pages, entitled Democracy in France\"Democracy<\/a>. January 1849<\/em>. Guizot alors mettait la derni\u00e8re main \u00e0 cet \u00e9crit tr\u00e8s id\u00e9ologique dont il se promettait beaucoup, qui parut en effet en janvier suivant et s\u2019arracha en quelques semaines \u00e0 plus de 20\u202f000 exemplaires. En d\u00e9pit du satisfecit shakespearien que se d\u00e9cerne l\u2019\u00e9diteur – \u00ab\u202fMa conscience me dit que j\u2019avais fait des offres convenables, mais quand il s\u2019agit d\u2019\u00eatre ou de n\u2019\u00eatre pas l\u2019\u00e9diteur de M. Guizot, je ne puis h\u00e9siter{{2}}[[2]]Lettre \u00e0 G\u00e9nie du 17 d\u00e9cembre 1848.[[2]]\u202f\u00bb – cet accord conclu \u00e0 la h\u00e2te n\u2019avait pas \u00e9t\u00e9 cher pay\u00e9. Guizot s\u2019\u00e9tait retrouv\u00e9 retard\u00e9 dans son travail principal, comme Masson l\u2019avait pressenti, et du reste Guizot lui-m\u00eame. Ce dernier avait en effet accept\u00e9 que, si le manuscrit de la deuxi\u00e8me p\u00e9riode n\u2019\u00e9tait pas remis le 15 juillet 1850, l\u2019\u00e9diteur \u00ab\u202fserait investi, \u00e0 partir dudit jour et sans qu\u2019une mise en demeure soit n\u00e9cessaire, du droit de publier une \u00e9dition de l\u2019History of civilisation<\/em> as published by the bookseller Didier in five volumes\u00bb, in six thousand copies, and without producing any royalties, \u00abas compensation for the prejudice caused to him by the delay\u00bb in delivering the manuscript. He was granted this right until October 1855. Finally, if the manuscript of the second period was never delivered to him, in the knowledge that Guizot did not have the right to present it to another publisher at any time whatsoever, Masson \u00abwould find himself invested with absolute and unlimited ownership of the history of the first period\u00bb, and not just for twelve years. The leonine nature of these articles 8 to 10 was exorbitant, and if Guizot accepted them, it was either because he was really short of money, or because he imagined that he would soon regain his seat as a member of parliament and perhaps even better, or because he was presuming on his strength, which was nonetheless great. Pierre-Paul Didier, who was to bear the cost of the planned compensation even though he had up to then fulfilled his commitments, later complained bitterly about the procedure of which he had been the victim, and claimed that Guizot had allowed himself to be conned by the enterprising Victor Masson. It is true that he himself had omitted, \u00abinadvertently\u00bb he said, to include in the 1839 contract relating to the\u2019History of civilisation<\/em> une clause de pr\u00e9f\u00e9rence dont il affirmera que, dans son esprit, elle allait de soi, tant le cours d\u2019histoire moderne \u00ab\u202f\u00e9tait pour moi comme un enfant de la maison, et il ne pouvait me venir \u00e0 l\u2019id\u00e9e de m\u2019en s\u00e9parer{{3}}[[3]]Ibidem<\/em>.[[3]].\u202f\u00bb<\/p>\n

\"Why<\/a><\/em>It happened just as Masson had predicted. On 26 January 1850, he published the fourth edition of the two volumes of the first part, preceded by an introduction entitled Why did the English Revolution succeed? Discourse on the history of the English Revolution.<\/em> Masson also published a separate 180-page edition of this magnificent text, perhaps the most complete and dense ever written by Guizot, which was immediately translated by Sarah Austin, a very close friend of Guizot, and published shortly afterwards in London by John Murray. Once again, it was a resounding success. But 15 July was approaching, and the manuscript of the second period had barely begun. Masson was adamant: in 1851, by way of \u00abcompensation\u00bb, he published the five volumes of the\u2019History of civilisation. <\/em>In three years, he had pulled off a superb triple coup, actually spending only 24,000 francs. Guizot had fared less well. He never did business with Victor Masson again.<\/p>\n

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[Pour acc\u00e9der \u00e0 l’article en format pdf, cliquer ici. Pour le lire en ligne, suivre le cours des pages dans la navigation.] Le 1er janvier 1839, Guizot signait un contrat en deux courts articles conc\u00e9dant pour six ans \u00e0 Didier le droit de publier son Cours d\u2019histoire moderne de 1828-1830, autrement dit son Histoire de […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8520,"parent":8357,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8371","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","page_tags-auguste-genie","page_tags-brompton","page_tags-charles-lenormant","page_tags-civilisation","page_tags-compagnie-corse","page_tags-contrat","page_tags-didier","page_tags-editeurs","page_tags-edition","page_tags-emile-perrin","page_tags-exil","page_tags-francois-bechet","page_tags-gabriel-bodiment","page_tags-histoire-de-la-civilisation","page_tags-jean-armand-pichon","page_tags-john-murray","page_tags-louis-hachette","page_tags-manuscrit","page_tags-mariano-de-bertodano","page_tags-masson","page_tags-mirabeau","page_tags-nicolas-crochard","page_tags-peine-de-mort","page_tags-revolution-dangleterre","page_tags-sarah-austin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8371"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9458,"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8371\/revisions\/9458"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}