The Life of the Author and a Note on the Text
At the funeral of Robert Dodsley, a prominent English bookseller-turned-publisher-turned-author, the Shakespearean commentator Isaac Reed had the following to say: "It was his happiness to pass the greater part of his life with those whose names will be revered by posterity." Dodsley was the 1700's British literary circle's equivalent of Forrest Gump - the man who, without entirely meaning to, stumbles across some of history's most profound moments, finding himself in the right time, at the right position, in any given point in time. He introduced the public to some of the most prominent authors of his day - Dr. Johnson, Edmunde Burke, Defoe and Pope. His name, as publisher and editor, preceded the titles of some of the era's masterworks - and yet, while the work he published lives on, many have forgotten about the man himself. Dodsley never set out to attain that particular state in life. Born outside Nottinghamshire some time in 1703, Dodsley would try his hand at weaving, teaching and at being a footman before finally stumbling across what would make him a very wealthy - and famous, albeit forgettable - man.
His first work, titled Servitude: A Poem written by a Footman, was published in 1729 at the age of 26, and came attached with a note on the text by Daniel Defoe, noted journalist, spy and author who had attained fame with his publication of Robinson Crusoe ten years prior. This work awarded Dodsley a degree of fame and a following amongst the wealthy British upperclass, who granted him enough patronage to publish a follow up collection in a subscription format, titled A Muse in Livery, or, The Footman's Miscellany. With money earned from patronage and sales, as well as money borrowed from friends he made while moving in literary circles (as legend has it, a hundred pounds borrowed from Alexander Pope) Dodsley established himself as a bookseller at Tully's Head in Westminster, London.
From there, it was a logical leap to publishing original works, often sourced by Dodsley from his friends in highly esteemed literary circles - his first publication was Samuel Johnson's London, and many of Johnson's early works, as well as his English Dictionary, were co-financed and published by Dodsley himself. Besides publishing a great number of works, Dodsley founded literary magazines and served as editor, publisher and, to a degree, literary agent. He solicited his friends and other noted authors of the time for submissions, and spanning twenty years and four wholly unique periodicals (one of which continued for quite some time after Dodsley's death) featured work by Edmunde Burke, Lord Lyttleton, Lord Chesterfield and other notable names.
Dodsley continued his work on the periodicals while simultaneously assembling a number of well-received collections of poetry, dramatic works, short story and fable. Shortly after the publication of his best-received dramatic work Cleone (which held a long running in Convent Garden and sold over 2000 copies on its first day in print), Dodsley gave up on verse and focused on what would become his secret project, his masterwork. By 1757, he had become ill with gout, and was often struck with frequent attacks. Not until October 10th, 1758, in a letter written to the poet William Shenstone, does he reveal his secret. "I am at present," he says, "writing from Aesop and others, an hundred select Fables in prose, for the use of schools; we having no book of that kind fit to put into the hands of youth, from the wretched manner in which they are written." Over a summer spent at Durham, Dodsley wrote between forty and fifty original fables, which he proudly showed off to his literary friends, and garnered much praise. That fall, while focusing on writing a play, Dodsley wrote a further forty fables as idle distractions. His mission statement, as he puts it to Shenstone: "Indeed, we have no Collection of Fables in prose, that are fit to be read; and as the are amongst the first things that are put into the hands of young people, were they judiciously chosen, well told, in a Style concise & clear, & at the same time so plainly couch'd in the Narrative as to need no detach'd explanatory Moral at the end, I think it might possibly be a useful & acceptable work, and not altogether unentertaining."
The collection took an agonizingly long time for Dodsley to polish, refine and eventually print. Says Shenstone to a friend, explaining Dodsley's delay: "As to Dodsley's publishing this winter, he may possibly do so without loss of credit; but when one considers that [Dodsley's collection of fables] are, or ought to be, the standard for years to come, one can hardly avoid wishing him to give them the polish of another summer." After much revision and editing - and contributions from Shenstone, among others - and a few short years away from his untimely death, Dodsley published the first edition of his collected Fables, which sold out at an astonishing pace. Mere days after the publication of the first edition, Dodsley discusses the possibility of a second and even a third edition, which he would go on to write, edit and publish. Shenstone, in letters, truly believes in Dodsley's vision - that this collection, for the information and entertainment of youth, will live on to be taught for decades to come.
Why Dodsley, and his masterwork, have faded into obscurity, only time knows. His name lives on as a footnote on the lives of the authors he inspired, aided or recruited, famed and made wealthy, befriended and harrowed.
Dead and buried in Durham, Dodsley's tombstone bears the inscription:
If you have any respect
for uncommon industry and merit,
regard this place,
in which are deposited the remains of
MR. ROBERT DODSLEY:
who, as an author, raised himself
much above what could have been expected
from one in his rank of life,
and without a learned education:
and who, as a man, was scarce
exceeded
by any in integrity of heart,
and purity of manners and conversation.
He left this life for a better,
Sept. 25. 1764,
in the 61st year of his age.
The collection we have chosen to republish, titled Fables Designed for the Instruction and Entertainment of Youth, stands as the 58 best fables spanning all three of Dodsley's collections of fables. Oddly enough, this collection of English stories is published in Paris in 1800, cited within the text as the Eighth Year of the French republic. It is published for two specific Parisian booksellers, also cited in the text: Vergani and Favre. This collection follows Dodsley's original choice of separating the fable from the moral - the only morals contained within this edition exist in an index found at the collection's end, which also serves as the only index for the content therewithin. It is our goal to republish a selection of fables from this collection in a searchable context for the modern reader, and to highlight the exemplary work of a man who, for all intents and purposes, is lost to history.
