“Here at our Sea-Washed, Sunset Gates Shall Stand a Mighty Woman with a Torch…” Or: The Birth of the Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty in New York is something that I’m certain almost everyone reading this will have seen in pictures, films and books, and some of you will have seen it with your very eyes in ‘real life’ too. I’ve never seen it with my very eyes, but was thinking about the statue the other day and wondering when it was built. It wasn’t something I’d ever considered, the thought had never crossed my mind, and before I checked, I made an educated(?) guess as to when it appeared in New York, and my guess was between 1905 and 1910.

I was wrong.

If she were a real woman, I’m sure she would have been flattered at my guess, because I misjudged her age in her favour by around a quarter of a century. I’m not sure why, but I still struggle to see America in the context of the nineteenth century, I have some kind of mental block that tells me nothing happened there other than prospectors and the wild west, they didn’t do anything, Victorian means Europe. Although I know that is far from the case and I continue to try and change my blinkered perspective.

To remedy my bizarre blindness to America in the nineteenth century I have written a few posts related to the USA, or American people, which, if you wish, you can see by clicking on the ‘label’ marked ‘America’ in the right hand column of this blog, toward the bottom. (or, click here)

Anyway, I was delighted to note that the great Statue of Liberty IS a Victorian, and so I set my fingers about finding out more.

Frederic Bartholdi

Her origins go even further back that the 1880’s, with the first idea for her creation thought to have been mooted by liberal French politician Edouard Laboulaye in 1865 during an after-dinner conversation at his home. Laboulaye supposedly said; "If a monument should rise in the United States, as a memorial to their independence, I should think it only natural if it were built by united effort – a common work of both our nations."

This comment did not fall upon stony ground, but rather the fertile imagination of young sculptor Frederic Bartholdi, who was within earshot of the remark made by his host. 

The young sculptor discussed the possibility of building a monument for America, but the somewhat stifling regime of Napoleon III made things difficult, and Bartholdi soon realized that building any such memorial for America would not be possible.

Instead, with the kernel of an idea in his mind that he was desperate to cultivate, he presented an idea to the Egyptians, in which he proposed to build a large lighthouse at the northern entrance to the Suez Canal, which had opened in 1869.

Bartholdi did not intend this to be any ordinary lighthouse, but rather, it was to be shaped like a female Egyptian peasant holding up a torch, based loosely on the statue ancient Greek statue ‘The Colossus of Rhodes’ which was built in around 290 – 280 B.C, and stood at the entrance to a harbour holding aloft a light to guide boats. The Colossus of Rhodes was destroyed by an earthquake in 226 B.C, but the picture on the left gives an impression of what it looked like.

Although Bartholdi made sketches and models for his Egyptian peasant lighthouse, it was never built.

In 1870, the economically disastrous Franco-Prussian war broke out, during which Napoleon III was captured in the Battle of Sedan, surrendered and was duly removed from power. France also lost its place as the major power in continental Europe to Germany, but on the positive side for the French, a more liberal republic (The French Third Republic, which lasted until the start of World War 2) was installed. Bartholdi and Laboulaye resumed discussions regarding a statue in America, and, in June 1871, Bartholdi, with letters of introduction from Laboulaye in his pocket, set sail for New York in order to discuss his proposals with the United States.

When he arrived in New York, Bartholdi noted that he sailed past an island in the harbour. All boats arriving in New York had to pass it, and he decided that this would be the perfect place for the American ‘Colossus of Rhodes’, holding its light aloft for travelers arriving in New York and coming into the harbour. Bartholdi asked to whom the island belonged. The island in question was Bedloe Island, named after Issack Bedloo, a Dutch businessman who claimed the island as his after the struggle for American land between England and the Netherlands in the 1660’s. The Dutchman’s name stuck to the island, 9although he himself named it ‘Love Island’) and Americans referred to it as Bedloe Island. (It did not become Liberty Island until very recently in this context – 1960)

After being informed that Bedloe was American soil, belonging to the United States Government, Bartholdi declared it the perfect home for his statue.U.S President Ulysses S. Grant gave the all-clear for the island to be declared the site of the structure, and Bartholdi returned to France to begin work on ideas and sketches for the statue.

In 1875, with France recovering well economically after the Franco-Prussian war, Laboulaye decided that the forthcoming Centennial Exhibition, which was to be held in America to celebrate one hundred years since the declaration of their independence, would be the ideal reason to present the United States with the gift of a statue, and informed Bartholdi that he may begin construction.

Prior to its manufacture, the project needed funding, and so when the project was announced, Laboulaye declared that the Franco-American Union would act as a fundraising organization to gather money for the project. It was decided between the two countries that France would pay for the statue, and America would pay for, and build, the pedestal upon which it would stand. The announcement also gave the name of the statue for the first time. Laboulaye declared that the monument would be named;

Liberty Enlightening the World.

With the project in motion, Laboulaye set about raising money. He organized a series of events that would attract rich and influential people from all over France, including a special Opera by Charles Gounod entitled ‘La Liberté éclairant le monde’, or, in English; ‘Liberty Enlightening the World.’ This was, of course, named after the statue in a bid to drum up interest.

Laboulaye’s fundraising schemes were extremely successful, not only with the rich, but all manner of people from all aspects of society came together to donate the money needed. Even the copper required to manufacture the skin of the statue was donated by copper merchants Japy Frères, saving huge costs, with the copper thought to be worth 64,000 Francs. (Over £200,000 or $300,000 in today’s money)

At the workshops of Gaget, Gauthier & Co, Bartholdi began work on the head of the statue, and also the right arm that would bear the torch, hoping to have the latter ready to exhibit at the Centennial Exhibition.

In 1876, when the American Centennial Exhibition opened in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, a French Delegation which included Bartholdi visited. Once there, they planned to exhibit a huge painting of what the finished statue would look like, with the actual finished right arm to follow them to and be displayed at the exhibition.

The Arm on Display at the Centennial Exhibition

The arm was a popular exhibit with Americans after it arrived, and upon the closing of the exhibition, was transported to Madison Square Gardens, where it was put on display for a few years before returning to Paris to be added to the rest of the statue.

In 1877, Bartholdi returned to France to complete the head of the statue, which was to be displayed at the Paris World’s Fair of 1878, whilst in America, the Franco-American Union was forming committees in New York, Boston and Philadelphia to begin raising money to fund the building of the statue’s pedestal. Donations were initially slow and reluctant, but enthusiasm picked up after the exhibiting of the arm. Journalist Joseph Pulitzer was doing all he could to raise more interest in the project. Pulitzer, of the New York committee of the Franco-American Union, was helped in his cash raising efforts by a young man only nineteen years of age named Theodore Roosevelt, who would go on to become president of the United States in 1901.

With one arm built and the head underway in France, President Grant ensured the statue would come to America by signing an agreement on his last day in office with the incoming president, Rutherford B. Hayes. Hayes agreed to accept the statue from France, to continue building the pedestal, and to agree to the use of Bedloe Island as its home.

In France, further funds were being raised by selling tickets to the workshops of Gaget, Gauthier & Co to the public so that they could watch the statue being built. Models of the statue were also sold, and silver plate and terracotta models of the statue were listed as prizes in a government authorized lottery. Ticket sales from this lottery, along with tickets sold to watch the building process and money raised from sales of models raised somewhere in the region of 250,000 Francs, (around £800,000, or £1.3 million in today’s money)

In 1879, with everything going well, the project hit its first snag; Viollet-le-Duc, who had been instrumental in building the head and arm in France, fell ill, and very soon died. With le-Duc gone, nobody knew quite how he had planned to fix all of the parts of the statue together.

This caused chaos and panic until 1880, when Bartholdi turned to the man who had built the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. Eiffel brought his structural engineer to the project, Maurice Koechlin, and together they decided that the best strategy would be to build an iron frame with the copper skin fixed to the outside, so that the outside of the statue was completely non load-bearing, but all the weight was supported by the iron framing inside – almost the same principal as building a tent.

How the Framework Looks

They also decided to attach each different piece of the statue together using a metal mesh rather than rivet the parts directly together. This would allow some movement in the statue, which would invariably move a little in the winds of the harbour, and also allow for the metal expanding in heat. The mesh would move with the elements, and prevent any part of the statue cracking under stress.

With the problems they faced conquered, the constituent parts of the statue were built, and by 1882 it was completed from the feet up to the waist. This joy, though, was followed by sadness when in 1883, the man who had been so instrumental in the birth of the statue, Edouard Laboulaye, died. He would never see the statue that had been born out of a remark made at his dinner table completed. Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal, took Laboulaye’s place as chairman of the French committee, and the project continued.

The statue was finally completed in Paris in 1884, nineteen years after the germ of an idea had been planted in Bartholdi’s head by a comment made by Laboulaye at the latter’s dinner party. It was formally presented to Ambassador Morton at a ceremony in Paris on 4th 1884, and then remained in Paris whilst America completed the pedestal.

Being Built in Paris

In order to ship the statue to America, it had to be completely dismantled into three hundred and fifty separate pieces, packed into two hundred and nineteen large crates and packed onto the French ship, Isere, which carried the disassembled statue to America in 1885.

By that year, the Americans had, after much difficulty, completed the pedestal upon which the statue was to sit. Richard Morris Hunt had designed it after being appointed by the New York Committee as architect. He had originally proposed a pedestal 114 feet tall, but due to financial difficulties caused by the Panic of 1873, which had led to an economic depression in America, the committee was forced to reduce the height (and therefore the cost) to 89 feet. The original plans also stated that it was to be made of granite, but, again, due to cost constraints, these plans were changed and concrete used.

Despite the statue project receiving enthusiasm after the Centennial Exhibition, the Panic of 1873 had dampened the spirits of Americans and caused them to resent the project. They were particularly aggrieved with France for insisting that they build, and pay for, the pedestal. After all, was this not supposed to be a gift from the French? Fund raising for the project was tough, and even when the finished statue arrived in New York Harbour on board the Isere in June 1885, the pedestal still was unfinished due to a lack of funding.

Pulitzer

Pulitzer, still desperately trying to raise money for the pedestal project, came up with an ingenious idea that captured the imagination of the American public; he promised that the name of every person who donated money – no matter how much or how little – would be printed in the newspaper he had purchased two years previously, the ‘New York World’. Some of the contributors, such as "A young girl alone in the world" who donated "60 cents, the result of self denial” and the statement that a group of children sent a dollar, which was "the money we saved to go to the circus with” appear to have made the public take a look at themselves, and dig deep into their pockets. Pulitzer’s scheme worked, and went on to raise $100,000 ($2.3 million in today’s money, or £1.4 million)

As the donations flooded in, the committee resumed work on the pedestal, and when the statue arrived in June 1885, the fresh enthusiasm for the project amongst the American people led two hundred thousand of them to New York Harbour to watch the Isere arrive with the statue.

Re-assembly of the statue could not take place until the pedestal was complete, however, and by April 1886 all work on it had finished and the building could take place. The iron framework was anchored to the concrete pedestal, and the various sections of the skin attached to the iron frame one by one. The pedestal was fairly narrow, and so the workers were unable to put up any scaffolding around the frame, and so had to hang from it by ropes whilst they attached each part. Although this sounds extremely dangerous, nobody died during the re-construction.

The statue was to be officially dedicated to America by France in a special ceremony in Bedloe Park, and Frederick Law Olmstead, who had designed Central Park in New York, was charged with supervising a tidying up operation of Bedloe, which had previously been an all-but-abandoned piece of land, and then become a building site whilst the pedestal and then the statue were being built. Along with Olmstead’s cleanup, a power plant was built on the island to provide light to the torch of the statue.

The dedication ceremony took place on 28th October 1886 with the day beginning with parades in New York, and a marching band that played from Madison Square to Battery Park, with up to a million people in attendance to watch the proceedings.

When the dedication began, the first speech was made by chairman of the French Committee de Lesseps, and his speech was followed by one from his opposite number, chairman of the American Committee, Senator William Evarts. Evarts’s speech, though, was interrupted by an all-too-eager Bartholdi, who, holding a French flag over the face of the statue, mistook a pause in Evart’s speech as the end, and dropped the flag, unveiling the statue whilst Evart was mid-speech. The crowd cheered and only stopped when President Cleveland stood to speak. He said;

“[The statue’s] stream of light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and man's oppression until Liberty enlightens the world”

During the fundraising process, poet Emma Lazarus had been asked to write a poem about the statue so that it could be auctioned off to raise money. She had refused on the grounds that she could not, for some reason, write a poem about a statue. At the time she was working with refugees who had arrived in New York, fleeing Anti-Semitic violence in Europe. After some thought about the statue’s location and what it was to symbolize, she changed her mind, and wrote a poem in sympathy of the refugees entitled ‘The New Colossus’ which she read out at the dedication ceremony. The poem she wrote is as follows;

The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
with conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
with silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Stirring words indeed. The poem is inscribed on a plaque and held in a museum in the base of the statue.

Thus ends my fifth blog post on Victorian America, and I have another in the pipeline soon helping me to dispel the myth in my own mind about nineteenth century America being all Clint Eastwood in a poncho and gold mines. It must be remembered by people like me that Dickens visited America twice and was received as a celebrity – certainly the first time, and from the way he spoke and wrote of the place it sounds not entirely different from Victorian England. 

Dealers in Victoriana: Or: A Victorianist Special: Q & A With Great Victorian Authors of Today:

As a special treat, and to commemorate the forthcoming one year anniversary of this blog, I have pestered five of the best ‘peddlars of Victoriana’ that I could find, all of whom have work sitting on the shelves of my bookcase at home, into answering some questions. I have enjoyed quizzing these authors and experts, despite the fact that my efforts will not have the likes of Paxman and Marr fearing for their careers. 
Kicking things off:

Author of two Victorian novels and blogger, Faye L. Booth:

What first interested you about the Victorian period in particular?

In a sense it's hard to say (it's not always easy to analyse one's reasons for 'clicking' with a particular topic), but I think that at least part of it is down to the massive leaps forward - technologically, educationally and socially - the Victorians made when you compare them to earlier times: think of the likes of Charles Darwin, Joseph Lister, John Stuart Mill etc. However, I have a theory that as a society becomes more technically advanced, it's as if they sometimes become a little frightened of the speed at which they're moving, and so they subconsciously put the brakes on in other areas, often by becoming - outwardly, at least - more socially conservative: compare the Victorians to the 18th and early 19th centuries preceding them, which often seem to our eyes to have been more permissive. That being said, I think the Victorians' apparent stuffiness is often taken at face value these days, and perhaps excessively so - this is the era which invented the camera and then promptly set about taking pornographic shots and photographing corpses for the family album, after all! On a purely superficial level, too, I think the Victorian era was more aesthetically pleasing than any time before or since.

Can you describe in a sentence how it feels to see your work on the shelf in places like Waterstones, Borders etc?

Mind-boggling - it still doesn't feel quite 'real’ when I see one of my own books sitting there with all the others!

How many novels or books did you write / half write / come up with a title and an opening paragraph and then give up on, before you came up with your first published piece of work? 
Actually, Cover the Mirrors was the first novel I ever wrote, and went on to be the first one I published. I have since written a book which, upon completion, I decided I wasn't happy with and consigned it to the metaphorical bottom drawer, but that was a couple of years ago. The third novel I completed is sitting on the back burner for the time being, too.

Do you still have them?

Oh, they're on my hard drive somewhere! I doubt that the one I gave up on will ever see the light of day, but the third book I finished may or may not appear in some form at some point in the future, depending on whether I and/or my agent decide it's a good idea!

Are they the same genre as the work we know you for?

Yes.

Would you ever write a book in a different genre?

I can't see it happening at this stage - I do write the occasional contemporary short, but all my full-length novel ideas thus far have been historical. That being said, if I did get an idea for a non-historical novel, I would naturally pursue it.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?

That's hard to say, because I believe that being a writer is an integral feature of one's personality - just look at how many people write when they get home from their day job, because it's something they're compelled to do. So to imagine what I'd do if I didn't have that strange urge to make stuff up and write it down requires me to try to project upon myself a different personality, which makes it difficult to know where I'd be and what I'd want to be doing. As for what I'd be doing now if I wasn't making any money at all from writing; well, I recently qualified as a proofreader and copy-editor, so I expect I'd be doing that as a main occupation.

When you knew you wanted to become a writer, who inspired you, and who are your literary heroes that you wanted to emulate?

Again, it's hard to say, because for as long as I can remember I've liked to make up stories, so my inspirations then would have been quite different to now! These days, I like to read work by 19th century authors, of course (particularly Poe, Wilde and Hardy); and as far as living writers go I enjoy Michel Faber, Ian McEwan, Lionel Shriver, Maggie O'Farrell...lots of different people, really. I wouldn't say that I aim to emulate them as such - you can be a second-class version of someone else or a first-class version of yourself, as the saying goes - but equally I think that you do learn something from every piece you enjoy; then you can put your own spin on it.

What is your favourite modern novel set in the nineteenth century, and why?

Oh, I'm in awe of The Crimson Petal and the White - so much so I couldn't bring myself to watch the recent BBC adaptation in case it joined the swollen ranks of disappointing screen versions of amazing books! That's probably unfair of me - it might actually be good - but I love that book so much, the thought of a bad adaptation made me nervous. I could go on all day about why I love it - a cast of memorable, flawed characters, none of whom fall into the prosaic 'hero/villain' trap; a pungently vivid depiction of Victorian London; it's genuinely funny at times (Bodley and Ashwell!) and extremely unsettling at others (Agnes' decline and William's conflicted emotions on the subject, the gradual unpacking of Sugar's history) - I love it more each time I re-read it.

Are there any other era’s in history other than Victorian that you’re keen on?

I'm interested in the Edwardian era, too, and the period leading up to WW1. (In fact, the current WIP spans those times...) I enjoy reading about a variety of other periods, too, although not necessarily writing about them at this stage, the odd short story aside.

If you could take the credit for authoring any Victorian novel, which would it be?

I couldn't do that - I know how incandescent I'd be if someone passed off my work as their own! That being said, I love the characterisation in Jude the Obscure. Little Time is a lot like me as a child (which is a bit worrying, really!).

If you could go back in time to the Victorian era for just one day, what specific event, person or place would you back and see?

To be honest, I'd probably spend the day doing basic research - prices of things and so on - as that would serve me well for a good time to come; although obviously with each book there are usually one or two events that would be helpful to witness. However, because the WIP is early 20th century, I can't count anything for that under the Victorian umbrella! As for which events I would want to witness for that book, all will (hopefully!) be revealed in due course!

How much input do you have in the design of the covers for your books?

The same as any author, I think - contractually it's not our final decision and the publishers don't have to consult us, but I have been shown my covers and asked for my thoughts on them. In the first draft of the UK edition of Trades of the Flesh, for instance, the model had red hair - the sort of red hair that doesn't occur in nature - and I asked if it might be tweaked to a more natural colour as obviously they didn't have Directions or Manic Panic in the 1880s, so it was changed to brown (the hair colour of the book's protagonist, Lydia). I like to be involved, but I wouldn't presume to have too much input into covers - I know very little about cover design, and the design department don't tell me how to do my job!

What can we expect from you in the near future?

I have a book being touted around by my agent at present - it's set in the 1860s and is a much longer and more complicated book than I've written previously, so I like to think that it's a significant progression for me! It's certainly my 'favourite child', anyway, and as soon as I have more news on that score I will naturally share it on my blog. And of course there's the WIP - I recently started work on that, and it's shaping up to be another long book, so I'm not sure yet when it will be finished.

For anyone unfamiliar with your work, what have you written and how would you describe it?

Oooh...dark Victoriana with conflicted characters! Cover the Mirrors (my first book) is about a fraudulent 'medium', and Trades of the Flesh (my second) is about a prostitute turned porn model turned anatomist's assistant. Annoyingly, I consider the book that best represents what I'm about and what I'm trying to do to be the one that's on submissions at the moment, so obviously I can't tell you to read that just yet, but if any lovely people want to read Mirrors and/or Trades too while they're waiting, I'd be very happy about that!

I take it these publications are available in all good bookshops and online at a very fair price?

But of course!

Faye Blogs at fayelbooth.blogspot.com

*****

Author of recently released Victorian gothic novel ‘The Somnambulist’ Essie Fox:

What first interested you about the Victorian period in particular?

I think the fact that photography was invented and therefore this is the first historical era from which we can actually see the true representations of people – rather than works of art. It brings them to life. It makes us realise how like us they were. Some Victorian photographs look incredibly ‘modern’ and vivid – as if they were taken only yesterday – for instance that of Robert Cornelius. Google him. He might be a young man on the street today!

Can you describe in a sentence how it feels to see your work on the shelf in places like Waterstones, Borders etc?

A little bit frightening, to be honest. What if no-one buys them? But of course, I’m also immensely proud (if that’s not too much of a sin) and to be honest, I don’t think it’s actually sunk in that they are really there.

How many novels or books did you write / half write / come up with a title and an opening paragraph and then give up on, before you came up with your first published piece of work?

I didn’t give up on anything. I wrote another novel called The Diamond which actually led me to find an agent and came very close to being bought. But sadly, in the end, it only found a publisher in Russia. It’s a shame as I am still excited by that story.

Do you still have them?

Oh yes! The file keeps twinkling at me from my PC’s desktop.

Are they the same genre as the work we know you for?

It is another Victorian gothic novel – so yes. But, it does have more ‘magical’ elements of fantasy too – which makes it rather more cross genre.

Would you ever write a book in a different genre?

I would like to write a contemporary comedy.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?

I would probably go back to being an illustrator - which was the career I had for many years before I plucked up the courage to try and write.

When you knew you wanted to become a writer, who inspired you, and who are your literary heroes that you wanted to emulate?

I think I always wanted to be a writer but just couldn’t see the wood for the trees. Even as a little girl I was always ‘dreaming’ up stories and conducting imaginary conversation in my head. I have so many inspirations, but I suppose the first was Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies – a book that I find quite pompous now, but as a little girl, with that book being the first I took out of the local library, I found it absolutely captivating – particularly the illustrations.

What is your favourite modern novel set in the nineteenth century, and why?

I have a few – but I think Charles Palliser’s The Quincunx is absolutely superb – a must for any fan of modern Victorian pastiche . It kept me up for several nights running.

I also like Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith, and Affinity. And I am very fond of Michael Cox’s The Meaning of Night – not forgetting Michel Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White.

Are there any other era’s in history other than Victorian that you’re keen on?

I am beginning to get interested in the 1920’s

If you could take the credit for authoring any Victorian novel, which would it be?

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

If you could go back in time to the Victorian era for just one day, what specific event, person or place would you back and see?

I would love to go to the opening day of The Great Exhibition of 1851.

How much input do you have in the design of the covers for your books?

Ideas are welcomed but, at the end of the day, it’s really the choice of the publishers and their marketing team.

 

What can we expect from you in the near future?

I’m working on a new Victorian novel which will be based on an artist who is obsessed with painting mermaids – much inspired by the work of John William Waterhouse.

For anyone unfamiliar with your work, what have you written and how would you describe it?

My novel, The Somnambulist, is a Victorian gothic mystery with themes of loss, deception and betrayal.

  

I take it the above mentioned work is available in all good bookshops and online at a very fair price.

I hope it will be considered fair! But yes, it’s available through Amazon: here

It’s online and at most branches of: Waterstones

And through other online book retailers as well as my publishers, Orion Books.

Catch Essie’s blog in her guise as the Virtual Victorian at The Virtual Victorian

*****

Doyenne of Victorian London, author of numerous Victorian crime novels, and proprieter of VictorianLondon.org Lee Jackson

What first interested you about the Victorian period in particular?

A combination of things: Victorian architecture in London; Peter Ackroyd's Dickens biography; reading London Labour and the London Poor after visiting the Museum of London,

Can you describe in a sentence how it feels to see your work on the shelf in places like Waterstones, Borders etc?

There was an initial excitement; but I found it more exciting when I (once) saw my name on one of those little nicely printed 'name tag' things they put on shelves, to highlight where you'll find particular people in the alphabet. Totally random, but it felt strangely special. 

How many novels or books did you write / half write / come up with a title and an opening paragraph and then give up on, before you came up with your first published piece of work?

My first book was the first thing I wrote. Since then, however, I have given up on several novels. 

Do you still have them?

Some I still possess; I have one half-finished novel at the moment, which I'm not sure if I will ever finish. I tend to think that if you aren't ploughing on, that's enough reason to leave it. You need to have that ongoing enthusiasm.

Are they the same genre as the work we know you for?

My current very unfinished novel is a Victorian book with fantasy elements. I've also a science fiction novel (well, a third of one) somewhere on the hard drive.

Would you ever write a book in a different genre?

I would and have tried. And so far, I seem to have failed.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?

Web nerd or librarian. I am still the former, a couple of days a week, although it's not quite my official title at work.

When you knew you wanted to become a writer, who inspired you, and who are your literary heroes that you wanted to emulate?

I never knew I wanted to become a writer. In fact, I'm still ambivalent about being a 'writer'. Do I keep writing until I drop? Do I write if I don't get published? It's an odd sort of 'profession'.

What is your favourite modern novel set in the nineteenth century, and why?

I would say 'Affinity', Sarah Water's second book. It is genuinely haunting.

Are there any other era’s in history other than Victorian that you’re keen on?

I enjoyed Ancient Greece / the Athenian Empire when I did Ancient History as a student, but I can't claim I've kept that interest up.

If you could take the credit for authoring any Victorian novel, which would it be?

I'm a big fan of George Gissing and Wilkie Collins. I'd settle for Wilkie Collins's 'Armadale'.

If you could go back in time to the Victorian era for just one day, what specific event, person or place would you back and see?

It would have to be the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, on a busy day, packed with tourists.

How much input do you have in the design of the covers for your books?

Generally not much. Snowbooks, who have published my latest 'The Diary of a Murder', were very collaborative on the cover, which was great.

What can we expect from you in the near future?

Probably not fiction, although I am trying to get a comic-book off the ground. Most likely some history; probaby self-published via Kindle. There's a growing market for it, I think.

For anyone unfamiliar with your work, what have you written and how would you describe it?

Seven Victorian crime novels, most recently 'The Diary of a Murder'.

I take it these publications are available in all good bookshops and online at a very fair price?

Some of my books are in most bookshops; that's the best I can promise. 'The Diary of a Murder' is certainly available via Amazon Amazon; also 'Daily Life in Victorian London', my bestselling Kindle anthology of all things Victorian London (which has a very fair price indeed). Is available here.

Anyone yet to cross the threshold of Lee’s victorianlondon.org must do so immediately, and also pay a visit to the addendum blog, The Cats Meat Shop

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Author of the Lady Julia Grey series, Deanna Raybourn:

What first interested you about the Victorian period in particular?

The duplicity of it. I am intrigued by the fact that there was this veneer of propriety and perfect manners, but it often masked a reality that was quite different. Restoration and Regency folk were forthright in their pleasures, but Victorians liked to hide theirs, and that secretiveness is much more interesting. I’m also fascinated by how drastically the world changed in that relatively short period of time. I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been to adapt from horses and candles to the first motorcars and electricity.

Can you describe in a sentence how it feels to see your work on the shelf in places like Waterstones, Borders etc?

It’s still a strange out-of-body experience. I look at the books on the shelf and it doesn’t quite register that they’re mine, that I wrote them, that people actually pay money for them and take them home and read them.

How many novels or books did you write / half write / come up with a title and an opening paragraph and then give up on, before you came up with your first published piece of work?

I wrote for fourteen years before I got my first publishing contract, so there’s quite a bit of unpublished work still hanging around—probably seven novels and partial manuscripts of two more, with loads of notebooks full of ideas for others. I haven’t seen them in years.

Do you still have them?

Whenever I finish a book, published or not, the manuscript and all the research material gets boxed up and shoved in the attic. I never go back and reread anything, so the unpublished material has languished for quite a long time. Hopefully some friendly mice will get better use out of them than I have. They would make lovely nests.

Are they the same genre as the work we know you for?

They’re a bit all over the map. I have a Gothic, a few Regencies, even a contemporary that dabbled in magical realism. If you squinted, you could probably make out the beginnings of the books I write now, but you would have to look pretty hard.

Would you ever write a book in a different genre?

My published books are cross genre; they are historical fiction with a bit of mystery and romance, and that suits me very well. I don’t imagine I would stray too far from that territory, but the proportions might change and certainly the historical periods will.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?

Dead. I have been making up stories since before I could hold a pencil, and I will probably be telling one on my deathbed. There is no ‘me’ without invention.

When you knew you wanted to become a writer, who inspired you, and who are your literary heroes that you wanted to emulate?

There are authors I adore, such as Jane Austen and Daphne du Maurier, but very few I’d like to actually emulate. The trouble is that so few managed to combine a successful career with a happy marriage and children. I think Agatha Christie finally got there, but she was the exception rather than the rule. Reading biographies of female authors, I keep finding a pattern of unhappy marriages or alcoholism or financial insolvency. When I find one that chronicles a pleasant home life with a tidy bit of success, I’ll stop reading and she will be my role model.

What is your favourite modern novel set in the nineteenth century, and why?

I think the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters is delightful, and I was raised on a steady diet of Victoria Holt, so I tend to favor the lighter touch rather than some serious, weighty novel that lacks humor.

Are there any other era’s in history other than Victorian that you’re keen on?

Several! I always think the Regency must have been great fun, as well as the 1920s. I also love books set in England between the wars. I’m not as keen on anything before 1800 or so except for the Restoration and bits of particular Tudor and Plantagenet reigns. Those periods are more about the personalities involved—I should have loved to have met Charles II or Anne Boleyn or Katherine Swynford simply to understand the aura of glamour they carried.

If you could take the credit for authoring any Victorian novel, which would it be?

Either Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights. They are both really fabulous frauds. Charlotte Brontë uses one of the most blatant coincidences in modern literature, and Emily Brontë gives us a hero who hangs his wife’s dog, and yet we are so carried away that we believe the coincidence without a qualm and we idolize Heathcliff as one of the greatest heroes ever written. Brilliant.

If you could go back in time to the Victorian era for just one day, what specific event, person or place would you back and see?

I ought to choose one of the Ripper murders just to answer some obvious and lingering questions, but I’m far too squeamish. Let’s say May 1, 1851—the opening of the Great Exhibition. Royalty, technology, culture, everything that made up the age all gathered in one place.

How much input do you have in the design of the covers for your books?

None. For the American covers, I will submit a fact sheet of information from the book—setting, characters, etc. The art department will then mock up a cover and as a courtesy I am sent a copy before it is put into production. On occasion, I’ve been able to see the cover and write in a scene where my main character is actually wearing the ensemble they have photographed her in--or the art department will take the outfit directly from the text--so it’s a nice bit of continuity for the reader. I only see the foreign covers long after production when I am sent my author copies.

What can we expect from you in the near future?

I am taking a break from the Lady Julia Grey series for just a bit. I am venturing outside the comfortable boundaries of the Victorian age for the first time with a new project, so I am tremendously excited and a wee bit nervous as well. I do have the sixth Lady Julia book plotted out and ready to go when my publisher is ready to dive back in.

For anyone unfamiliar with your work, what have you written and how would you describe it?

I write the Lady Julia Grey books--a Victorian mystery series with a dash of romance. It is fun, twisty, and always a little unexpected.

I take it these publications are available in all good bookshops and online at a very fair price?

But of course! I also blog five days a week at deannaraybourn.com and can be friended on Facebook and found on Twitter doing Twitterly things.

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Victorian era expert, historian, and author of fine Victorian non-fiction, Judith Flanders: 

What first interested you about the Victorian period in particular?

I actually came to it backwards -- I found my subject (four Victorian women) first, then realized I was much more interested in the period than I was in them.

Can you describe in a sentence how it feels to see your work on the shelf in places like Waterstones, Borders etc?

Two conflicting feelings battle it out: 1) I feel a fraud, my books are not good enough to be bought with anyone's hard-earned cash; and 2) I think, 'What? They're only stocking one copy?' So, it's like the old Jewish joke about the lady who complains about the quality of the food, and the fact that it comes in such small portions -- I think they're not worth buying, and am outraged if the shop fails to stock them.

How many novels or books did you write / half write / come up with a title and an opening paragraph and then give up on, before you came up with your first published piece of work?

None, I'm afraid. I sold my first book on a proposal, then just wrote it.

Would you ever write a book in a different genre?

I tried to write a comic whodunit once. I thought it was very funny. No one agreed with me.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?

I was a publisher for a long time, so I guess that's your answer.

When you knew you wanted to become a writer, who inspired you, and who are your literary heroes that you wanted to emulate?

I never knew I wanted to be a writer until I'd already become one. But my literary hero is Hilary Mantel, even though I have no hope of ever writing a hundredth bit as well.

What is your favourite modern novel set in the nineteenth century, and why?

Hmmm, I'm not sure I have one. I'll wait to see what everybody else answers and say, 'Why didn't I think of that?'

Are there any other eras in history other than Victorian that you’re keen on?

Plenty that I love reading about -- but I'm happy to stick with the Victorians for my own work.

If you could take the credit for authoring any Victorian novel, which would it be?

Great Expectations.

If you could go back in time to the Victorian era for just one day, what specific event, person or place would you back and see?

I would like to see the streets, to find out what they really sounded/looked/smelt like. And maybe visit Evans's supper rooms (dressed as a man) to see if the songs were really as rude as the books I've just found suggest. (I was shocked -- SHOCKED, I tell you.)

How much input do you have in the design of the covers for your books?

It's like a government 'listening exercise': they let you talk, then they do what they want.

What can we expect from you in the near future?

A book on the streets of London, 'The Victorian House' Outdoors, if you will. Coming to all good bookstores near you in autumn 2012.

For anyone unfamiliar with your work, what have you written and how would you describe it?

I've written one biography and three books of social history, in which I try and discover not what the Great Men (and a few Women) were doing, but what everyday life was like in the 19th century.

I take it these publications are available in all good bookshops and online at a very fair price?

I certainly hope so!

Follow Judith on her blog at judithflanders.co.uk

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Thanks so much to the very kind authors above for taking time out to answer these questions, and adding a touch of expertise to ‘The Victorianist’ at last!

I welcome answers to the above questions from anyone reading, I should be interested to hear what everyone would do if they could go back to the nineteenth century for one day…