Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Biographical Note
Scope and Content
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: John Stuart Verschoyle papers,
Date (inclusive): 1884-1915
Collection number: MS.2007.001
Creator: Verschoyle, John
Stuart
Extent:
2 boxes (1 linear foot)
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library.
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
Los Angeles, California 90095-1490
Abstract: Correspondence sent to John Stuart Verschoyle
from a wide-ranging group of fin-de-siecle notables, dating 1881-1915
and undated. Though much of the correspondence issues from Verschoyle's
role as assistant editor of the Fortnightly Review, a significant number
of items related to African colonial interests are also included.
Physical location: Clark Library.
Language of Material: Collection materials in English
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to the William Andrews Clark Memorial
Library, UCLA. All requests for permission to publish or quote from
manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Librarian. Permission
for publication is given on behalf of the William Andrews Clark Memorial
Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to
include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be
obtained.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], John Stuart Verschoyle papers, MS.2007.001, William
Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Acquisition Information
The items in this collection were acquired by the Clark Library in
2007.
Biographical Note
John Stuart Verschoyle was born in Ireland in 1853 to Anglo-Irish
gentleman James J. Verschoyle and his wife Catherine Foster. After
receiving his B.A. from Pembroke College, Cambridge University in 1881,
he was appointed curate of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Marylebone,
London in 1882. During his early years in London, Verschoyle made the
acquaintance of Frank Harris, whom he introduced to his group of literary
friends and assisted by editing his early submissions to various London
periodicals. This helped lead to Harris' appointment as the editor of
the
London Evening News in 1883. In 1886, Harris left the
Evening News for a post editing the
Fortnightly Review, which he would continue to do
until 1894. While Verschoyle's formal role as editor during this entire
time is unclear, it seems that by at least 1889, he was formally
installed as an assistant editor at the
Fortnightly, where, as several
contemporaries remarked, he seemed to take on the lion's share of the
work. During this time, he did not function just as an editor of Harris'
writing, but actively solicited contributions to the
Fortnightly from
prominent individuals in a wide variety of fields, which is
well-reflected in the correspondence collected here. In 1891, Verschoyle
moved out of London and would not live in the city again for the rest of
his life. During the years he served as the rector of Creeting St Peter,
Suffolk (1891-1893), and Huish Champflower, Somerset (1893-1915), he
still apparently visited London, helped Harris with editorial matters
and kept in regular correspondence with his literary and political
friends. His editorial work seems to have largely tapered off by the
early 1900s, and there are several letters from this time also inquiring
after his poor health.
In addition to Verschoyle's activity in literary circles, he was also
quite involved in the "Scramble for Africa" in the late 19th century,
which is well represented in his correspondence. He apparently spent
some time in Africa in his youth, and became a staunch advocate of
British mining interests. In 1889, he convened a dinner for Cecil Rhodes
and Harry H. Johnston at his London apartment in order to facilitate
their meeting, and throughout the 1880s and 90s published pro-Rhodes
articles and editorials (some anonymously as "Imperialist" in British
journals and newspapers). His advocacy on behalf of Rhodes reached its
apex with his writing of a laudatory 1900 Rhodes biography apparently
commissioned by Rhodes himself. Though it was published under the
pseudonym "Vindex," Verschoyle's support of Rhodes was well-known enough
that several contemporary reviewers suspected him as the author.
Verschoyle's work for social reform, is somewhat less overtly
prominent in this correspondence, but is nonetheless significant. His
activism, particularly in the anti-vivisection movement, seems to have
its roots in his relationship and admiration for suffragist and reformer
Frances Power Cobbe, whom he met as an undergraduate in 1878. At that
time, he was involved organizing government petitions against the death
sentence handed to Isabel Grant, a woman who had killed her abusive
husband, and after this was apparently a close member of Cobbe's circle
until her death in 1904. She recruited him to be the editor of the
anti-vivisection journal
The Abolitionist in 1899, and some of his
letters seeking contributions for that paper are included here.
Verschoyle is most often remembered in the memoirs, biographies and
histories of his friends and colleagues as a footnote or in a few short
paragraphs at most. Those who mention Verschoyle in detail describe a
handsome man, powerfully built with very blond hair and mustaches, of
very broad theology but very hard-working and dedicated to his
parishioners. The paradox of a clergyman working closely with the
famously profane Harris seems odd, and indeed, Harry H. Johnston
described Verschoyle as "one of the strangest characters of [his]
acquaintance." (Johnston, The story of my life, p. 218) He often
entertained parties both large and small in his London apartment,
convening together groups of writers, journalists, politicians and
social reformers.
John Verschoyle died on July 30, 1915 in a nursing home in Taunton,
Somerset.
Scope and Content
This collection includes approximately 400 letters written to John
Stuart Verschoyle between 1881-1915 by a diverse group of leaders in
late Victorian literature, politics, journalism, social reform and
society. The majority of letters are related to Verschoyle's work as an
assistant editor of the
Fortnightly Review and the social circle he
built as a result of this work, but Verschoyle's connections to colonial
African mining interests are also well-represented. Many letters also
document his commitment to and involvement in social reform causes.
Frequent correspondents include Frank Harris, Theodore Watts-Dunton,
Oswald Crawfurd, Frances Power Cobbe, Edward Dowden, Edmund Gosse and
Emile Joseph Dillon. Other important names represented here include
Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, W.T. Stead, and A.C.
Swinburne.
The collection is organized into the following series:
- Series 1. Correspondence, 1881-1915. 2 boxes (1 linear foot)
- Series 2. Miscellany, 1888-1893. 3 folders
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Africa -- Colonization
Animal rights activists --
England -- 20th century
Journalism -- England --
19th century
Genres and Forms
Letters.