REJOICE MY HEART. THE MAKING OF H.R. MILLÕS ÒTHE LIFE OF SIR ERNEST SHACKLETONÓ – THE PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. HUGH ROBERT MILL AND LADY SHACKLETON, 1922-33. Edited by Michael H. Rosove. 2007. Santa Monica, CA: AdŽlie Books. xxi + 142 p. illustrated, hard cover. ISBN 978-0-9705386-2-8. $US34.95; £18.95. www.adeliebooks.com
Sir Ernest H. Shackleton was laid to rest in Grytviken, South Georgia, on the 5th of March 1922. Forty-four days later, his widow, Emily, wrote to H. R. Mill asking if he would consider writing a biography of her husband. ÒI feel that no one could do it as you could . . .Ó She had spoken the week before with Mr Sydney Pawling of William Heinemann, Ltd., the publisher of both The Heart of the Antarctic and South, and enthusiasm was expressed for the project. She told Mill that she Òcould do a good deal of Ôspade workÕ, if it would be of assistance . . .Ó (Little did she know!) Mill answered Emily ShackletonÕs letter the very same day—a testament to the speed and efficiency of the postal system of that era—immediately agreeing to the undertaking: ÒI should be overjoyed . . .Ó Emily, in her turn, replied the next day, ÒYour kind letter rejoiced my heart.Ó
Thus began a correspondence that covered a myriad of details associated with the production of The Life of Sir Ernest Shackleton. Mill was always Ôall businessÕ and stuck to the point; Emily was more verbose, often wrote Ôin hasteÕ and tended at times to stray to unrelated matters in a newsy, conversational way. Each letter begins ÒDear Dr MillÓ or ÒDear Lady ShackletonÓ and ends with ÒYours very sincerely Emily ShackletonÓ or ÒYours very sincerely Hugh Robert MillÓ (except for one from Emily that unaccountably is signed ÒEmmieÓ). Between them from April 18, 1922 to March 2, 1933, 124 letters passed, those from Emily outnumbering those from Mill, 96 to 28. Most numerous are those leading up to the completion of the biography, which Mill announces in his letter of March 17, 1923, less than a year after he started work on the book. He writes:
I am very greatly indebted to you for the material
you supplied and the help
you gave so unsparingly, and also for the
consideration you showed on all
matters of uncertainty or difference of opinion. It
is very pleasant to be able to
look back on so long a stretch of difficult and
delicate authorship without the
slightest friction in its whole length and I am sure
that there is scarcely a woman
alive who could have aided the author of her
husband[Õ]s biography so ably and
understandingly as you have done all through.
The week before Emily had
written, ÒYou cannot think what a privilege it has been for me, to have been
allowed to work for you.Ó So they managed to survive the collaboration,
remaining friends and retaining their respect for each otherÕs efforts and
skills.
The Life of Sir Ernest
Shackleton was published on April 26, 1923,
just 15 months after ShackletonÕs death. ItÕs worth pondering that the first
biography of Robert F. Scott didnÕt appear until 1929, 17 years after his
death.
To produce a biography of Shackleton
no better team could have been fielded than H. R. Mill and Emily Shackleton. Not
only was he a skillful writer and knew many of those who would feature in the
work, but he had patience beyond measure. And she had the information—and
the time and energy to serve as family go-between, archivist, genealogist,
medallist, proofreader and sounding board. She would make suggestions (ÒWill
you cut out the sentence on page 45 . . .Ó); he would usually comply but not
always (Ò[The] Kipling episode must stand . . .Ó). They complemented each other
very well. ÒIt is curious how you anticipate many of my queries,Ó Mill wrote to
Emily.
Rejoice My Heart is a remarkable Antarctic book in many ways. To my
knowledge it is the only collection of letters with an Antarctic association
(excepting the recently published love letters of Paquita Delprat and Douglas
Mawson). The correspondence is instructive in showing the collaborative process
in full swing and the mechanics of book publishing in the era of letterpress.
What a contrast to today where communication would be by e-mail (and probably
not preserved to appear in book form years later), layout and composition would
be computerized, proofreading would be by Ôspell checkerÕ and printing and binding
no doubt done half-way around the world.
A most unusual arrangement makes the
biography out of the ordinary: Mill received no portion of the profits; they
all accrued to Emily. (And in the same spirit one half of the proceeds of Rejoice
My Heart will flow to SPRIÕs William Mills
Library Acquisitions Fund.)
But of most appeal and value is what
the correspondence tells us about Shackleton, those he knew and served with,
his family and the times in which he lived. Frank and enlightening opinions of
people and events abound, including some Ôbent nosesÕ in the Antarctic
community (ÒCaptain England is much hurt . . .Ó). The letters go far to
emphasize and explain ShackletonÕs intense love of poetry. And isnÕt it a
surprise that Emily and Captain OatesÕ mother, Caroline, knew each other (ÒShe
has been a very dear friend to me since 1915.Ó Emily would stay with her in
London; and her son Ray visited Mrs Oates at Gestingthorpe)? The restrained
relationship between Emily and Kathleen Scott, now remarried, comes out (ÒI
screwed up my courage and wrote Mrs. Hilton Young last Friday . . .Ó). Up to
now ScottÕs eccentric though strong widow has been the sole woman character of
note in the Heroic Age drama; of Emily we knew nearly nothing. The appearance
of these letters may very well change that.
Rejoice My Heart is the third title to appear from AdŽlie Books,
which is, in truth, the alter ego of Michael H. Rosove who is well known in the
community of Antarctic collectors, bibliographers and historians. (How this
prominent UCLA physician and clinical professor has time for such labors of
love is a great mystery.) Unlike the first two offerings, the latest is more
traditional in design and has less of the Ôlimited editionÕ look to it. But it
is limited, there being a press run of only 500. The Honourable Alexandra
Shackleton adds an informative Preface on Emily and T. H. Baughman does the
same for Mill—Òthe finest Antarctican who never went thereÓ—in a
nine-page Introduction. Dr Rosove, then, contributes a five-page EditorÕs
Note which tells the story of how the book came about. He recounts his reading
of EmilyÕs letters to Mill, which are held at the Scott Polar Research
Institute.
The
correspondence was fascinating, and I wondered whether letters Lady Shackleton
received from Dr. Mill had been saved and what they might have revealed. When
certain items from the Shackleton Collection were offered at auction in
September 2003 at ChristieÕs London, that correspondence was in the
sale—it indeed existed.
Unfortunately
a few letters are missing, and efforts to trace them have failed.
Nevertheless,
with the appearance of Dr. MillÕs letters to Lady Shackleton the
story
behind the first Shackleton biography can be told, and much about the
personalities
of Dr. Mill and Lady Shackleton can be revealed for the first time.
The letters run for 119 pages and are then followed by 13 pages of ÒExtracts from Press ReviewsÓ (one of the two reviews Mill considered ÒbadÓ is not included, perhaps an oversight), a two-page Bibliography and an Index. There are extensive footnotes throughout. There are eight plates including two that appeared in The Life (a portrait of Shackleton and one of Emily and the three children), a portrait of Mill, the initial two hand-written letters in the correspondence (also adapted as the bookÕs endpapers), the front cover and spine and a detail of the coat of arms that appears on the cover, as well as the title page of the first edition of The Life. Two illustrations that are not included but I wish were are photographs of Hill Crest, MillÕs house in Surrey, and 14 Milnthorpe Road in Eastbourne, where nearly all the letters either originated or were destined.
My chief complaints with the book relate to its design and format, not the content. The Preface, Introduction and EditorÕs Note run on together while each should begin on an odd page. (The Preface is really not a preface, which is the work of the author or editor in this case, but a foreword or introduction and should be treated equally with BaughmanÕs Introduction as they are of the same nature. The EditorÕs Note is really a preface.) A table of contents should have been included. There are numerous Òwidows and orphansÓ (pages ending or beginning with a single line of text). This could have been easily overcome and doing so would have made for a more pleasant appearance and easier reading. The text would have benefited from hyphenation; as it is, itÕs a bit ragged. The illustrations might have been acknowledged as to source, and I always like to know something about the typography of a book and by whom it was printed and bound. Some of the footnotes and information in brackets seem unnecessary. WouldnÕt any reader of this book know that MS means manuscript and that William Wordsworth was an English poet?
These quibbles aside, all Antarcticans and Shackletonians will be informed by reading this book and pleased to have it on their shelves alongside The Life of Sir Ernest Shackleton, happily again in print. (Robert B. Stephenson, The Antarctic Circle, P. O. Box 435, Jaffrey, New Hampshire 03452, USA.)