Content
Correspondence with authors including Michael Fraenkel, 1938-1956, Alfred Haffenden
1932-1938, Stephen and Rosa Hobhouse 1933-1962, Richard Lee 1929-1939, Josiah Oldfield
1928-1936, Joseph P. Swan 1936-1939, Leo Tolstoj 1906-1907, Helen Trevelyan 1934-1936,
G.T. Wrench 1938-1954 and many others; minutes book of general meetings 1935-1972;
articles of partnership 1922; cash books, ledgers, accounts and other financial documents
1911-1974; authors sales statements 1924-1972; notebooks 1911-1972; manuscripts (typescripts)
by Mary Everest Boole, Vladimir G. Čertkov, Hendrik W. Dunnewolt, Petar J. Stankovic
and William Watson; typescripts of translations of works by Leo Tolstoj; proofs 1907-1968;
a file on court cases against Charles W. Daniel in 1917-1918; clippings. Papers of
Denise M. Waltham: correspondence with Ian and Jane Miller 1972-1987 and others 1916-1987;
other documents (1815-) 1934-1988; Papers of others: documents of Jeremy Goring and
of some other persons (1865-) 1907-1992.
Historical Note
Founded in 1902, the company was named after its owner, Charles William Daniel, who
determined its character to a very large degree; Daniel was born in Islington, London
1871; went to work at thirteen after his father died; held a job in the Walter Scott
Publishing Company in the late 1890s, whose publications included the works of Lev
Tolstoj, which greatly influenced him; started the C.W. Daniel Company Ltd. with the
purpose of further propagating the ideas of the Russian writer; visited Tolstoj at
Jasnaja Poljana in 1909; founder and editor of the magazine The Crank in 1904, later
renamed The Open Road, a forum for Tolstojans, anarchists, pacifists and health food
promoters; married Florence E. Worland in 1905; participated in anti-war propaganda
in the First World War; condemned and imprisoned for the publication of pacifist pamphlets;
the company published the works of authors like Mary Everest Boole, Michael Fraenkel,
Emma Goldman, Stephen and Rosa Hobhouse, Søren A. Kierkegaard, H. Valentine Knaggs,
S.S. Koteliansky, D.H. Lawrence, José Ortega y Gasset, W.T. Symons and many others;
he also published the periodicals The Healthy Life and Purpose, a literary journal
in the 1930s; in 1941 the offices of the publishing house were blasted in an air raid
and the firm was evacuated to Ashingdon in Essex, where Charles Daniel died in 1955;
the company was continued by Denise Waltham until it was sold in 1971; Daniel was
the author of `Instead of Socialism' based on the ideas of P.J. Proudhon and Henry
George (c. 1909) and the editor of `An Indictment of War', an anthology from the works
of more than two hundred great thinkers (1919).
Processing Information
Inventory made by Tiny de Boer in 1994 and 2005.
Preferred Citation
Archives Charles William Daniel Company , inventory number ..., International Institute
of Social History, Amsterdam
5.02 m. meter
Introduction
The C.W. Daniel Company Ltd. was founded in 1902 in Cursitor Street, London. The
company published books, pamphlets and journals and from 1908 it also had a bookshop.
The company was named after its founder and owner Charles William Daniel , born in
Islington, London, on 24 April 1871. He was an anarchist and pacifist and a supporter
of vegetarianism. From the late 1890s he had worked at the Walter Scott Publishing
Company, whose publications included works of Leo Tolstoy, which greatly influenced
Charles Daniel . He started his own publishing company with the purpose of further
propagating the ideas of Tolstoy and these publications became his principal stock
in trade. He obtained the agency of the Free Age Press Publications of Tolstoy's works.
The editor of the Free Age Press was Vladimir G. Tchertkoff, who was Tolstoy's only
literary representative outside Russia. In 1909 Charles Daniel visited Tolstoy in
Yasnaya Polyana, Russia. Besides Tolstoy's works he published books on health by Valentine
Knaggs , books on child psychology and education by Mary Everest Boole , Eleanor Cobham
and other educational pioneers, books on vegetarianism by Ernest Savage, who later
changed his name into Edgar J. Saxon , and books on many other subjects as long as
these did not oppose his beliefs. Charles Daniel was a pioneer of the cheap paperbacks.
A series of paperbacks for the price of one penny, called 'People's Classics', 'printed
to place in the hands of the masses, at the cheapest price, the richest thoughts of
the world's greatest thinkers', containing the works of Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau,
Emerson, Francis Bacon and Lao Tze, were the company's speciality. Other cheap paperback
series were 'Christian Mystics' and 'Pearls from the Poets'.
Charles Daniel met Florence Worland at the London Tolstoyan Society, who was one of
the visitors of the meetings. Although often critical of Tolstoy's teachings, she
nevertheless collaborated with Charles Daniel in writing a book about the Tolstoyan
Society. They married in 1905 and went to live at Downham, near Wickford, Essex.
In 1904 Charles Daniel founded and edited the monthly periodical The Crank , later
re-named The Open Road , a forum for Tolstoyans, anarchists, pacifists and health
food promoters, which existed until 1913 when publication was ceased. In 1908 Charles
Daniel opened a book shop in Amen Corner.
Here he first met Edgar J. Saxon, who as author and editor worked together with him
for nearly half a century. Saxon was also the editor of Daniel's magazine The Healthy
Life , later renamed Health and Life, which was devoted to nature cure and food reform.
From 1913 Denise M. Waltham worked as the main colleague of Charles Daniel . She shared
the same opinions on vegetarianism, anarchism and pacifism as Charles Daniel .
After 1914 wartime restrictions reduced the flow of books. But at the same time the
war gave a stimulus to Daniel's publishing activities. It gave him and his fellow
Tolstoyans a cause to fight for. Being above military age himself, his contribution
to the anti-war effort took the form of pacifist propaganda. In 1916 he published
a pamphlet calling for the end of the 'cruel and ruinous war', for which he was condemned
and sent to prison at Wormwood Scrubs, and in 1919 he was imprisoned again during
three months for publishing a novel dealing with homosexuality and conscientious objection.
Besides publishing Charles Daniel also wrote the book 'Instead of Socialism', which
was based on the ideas of Proudhon and on the 'single tax' theories of Henry George
(c. 1909) and he edited 'An Indictment of War', an anthology from the works of over
two hundred great thinkers (1919). From the 1920s The C.W. Daniel Company published
works of various authors like Alfred Adler , Emma Goldman , Stephen and Rosa Hobhouse
, Soren Kierkegaard , S.S. Koteliansky , D.H. Lawrence , José Ortega y Gasset , Nelly
Shaw , W.T. Symons , Anton Tchekov and many others. A monthly magazine Focus on matters
of health, wealth and life was published in the 1920s and edited by Florence Daniel-Worland
, but ceased after her death in 1927. Charles Daniel wrote in this magazine under
the pseudonyms 'The Odd Man' and 'John Marlow'. Towards the end of 1928 the Company
took a house in Bernard street, Bloomsbury, and there the quarterly Purpose was launched
in January 1929 in succession to Focus. Founder and editor was W.T. Symons , a close
friend of Charles Daniel and later director of The C.W. Daniel Company. Religion,
philosophy, psychology, science, art and sociology came within the orbit of Purpose
and among its contributors were V.A. Demant , Philippe Mairet , Maurice B. Reckitt
, Henry Miller , Dorothy Richardson , A.M. Ludovici , Lord Northbourne and Neil Montgomery
. In 1934 Charles Daniel revived the monthly periodical The Healthy Life , which appeared
as Health and Life under the editorship of Edgar J. Saxon . The magazine was published
by the company until the end of 1950 when it was sold. The new proprietors continued
it under the same editorship. Regular features included articles on nature cure and
food reform.
After Desmond Hawkins joined the editorial board in 1935 as literary editor Purpose
became a literary journal of the first rank and the contributors consisted of the
literary avant-garde of the 1930s, including W.H. Auden , T.S. Eliot , Elizabeth Bowen
, Stephen Spender , Hugh GordonPorteous , RaynerHeppenstall , Dylan Thomas and E.K.
Barlow . The publication of Purpose ceased in July 1940. In 1936 The C.W. Daniel Company
Ltd. had moved to premises in Great Russell Street, which included a small shop and
made possible a window display of books.
After 1939, when paper and labour shortage during the war made publishing conditions
difficult, it was decided to limit the Company's output of new books to those on nature
cure, food reform, soil regeneration and kindred subjects, including the non-exploitation
of animals. Among them were books by M. Bircher-Benner, a Swiss doctor whose dietary
ideas have since become world-renowned and the writings of Edward Bach , a physician
who discovered 'flower remedies' as a treatment. When in 1941 the publishing offices
in Great Russell Street were blasted by an air raid, the business was evacuated to
Ashingdon in Essex. When peace came in 1945 Charles Daniel , at 74, was too old to
start again. He did not want to return to London and stayed in Ashingdon, where he
went on publishing a few books, until he died on 15 January 1955 at Rochford, Essex,
at the age of 85. (From: 'A Tribute to the Memory of Charles William Daniel ' by Denise
M. Waltham and from: 'The Centenary of a 'Crank' Publisher' by Jeremy Goring , inv.nos.
107-108, 189-190).
Denise Waltham continued the company until it was sold in 1973 to Ian and Jane Miller
, who continued the C.W. Daniel Company at Muswell Road in London. Almost until the
end of her life she gave help and advise to the new directors of the C.W. Daniel Company.
Denise Waltham died in 1990 at Ashingdon, Essex, at the age of 93.
ARCHIVE
The archive was received by the IISH in 1992. Series of correspondence were mainly
found in numbered and 'carded' parcels. These parcels were split up and arranged into
an alphabetical and chronological series of correspondence, which consist of correspondence
with authors and publishers, mainly covering a number of years and also containing
agreements with authors, outlines of manuscripts, reviews, photographs, clippings,
notes and some correspondence concerning authors.
An amount of earlier correspondence and other documents might have been lost at the
bombing of the premises in 1941 during the Second World War, as happened with many
manuscripts of Charles Daniel on his impressions of life in Russia (From: 'A Tribute
to the Memory of Charles William Daniel ' by Denise Waltham ).
The archive contains many financial registers of which, except for the ledgers, no
official bookkeeping terms were given. These registers have been arranged according
to the superscriptions, although it was not always completely clear, where the registers
were used for.
The 'Tolstoy'-manuscripts mainly consist of English translations. Some typed 'Tolstoy'-manuscripts
in Russian without subscription are to be found in inv.no. 111 and 117, and typed
manuscripts with the typed subscription of Tolstoy are to be found in inv.no. 120
and 124. These could be original manuscripts by Tolstoy, although this is not certain.
The years of the translations of the 'Tolstoy'-manuscripts are unknown, therefore
the chronology has been based on the original dates on the manuscripts. Because several
of these manuscripts were in a very poor condition photocopies have been made and
added to the manuscripts.
Some personal papers of the shareholders of The C.W. Daniel Company Ltd: Charles
W. Daniel and Denise M. Waltham and a few papers of relatives are to be found in the
annex of the inventory and this also includes papers of R.E. Way , of which the connection
with the archive is not clear.
In addition to the archive the IISH also received books of The C.W. Daniel Company
which have been transferred to the library of the IISH and can be found by using the
collection code "C.W.Daniel". Pamphlets on Charles Daniel and Florence Daniel-Worland
and some other books and periodicals that had not been separated earlier from the
archive, have now been transferred to the library; photographs of Leo Tolstoy and
Denise Waltham and a poster have been transferred to the audiovisual department of
the IISH.
Subjects
Subjects:
Anarchist movements
Culture, media and arts
Pacifism/Peace movements
Geographic names:
United Kingdom
Personal names:Fraenkel, Michael Haffenden, Alfred Hobhouse, Stephen and Rosa Lee, Richard Oldfield, Josiah Swan, Joseph P. Tolstoj, Leo Trevelyan, Helen Waltham, Denise M. Wrench, G.T.
Genre of the material:
Archival material
Personal names: Charles William Daniel Charles Daniel Charles Daniel Knaggs Mary Everest Boole Edgar J. Saxon Charles Daniel Charles Daniel Florence Worland Charles Daniel Charles Daniel Charles Daniel Denise M. Waltham Charles Daniel Charles Daniel Charles Daniel Proudhon Henry George Alfred Adler Emma Goldman Rosa Hobhouse Kierkegaard S.S. Koteliansky D.H. Lawrence José Ortega y Gasset Nelly Shaw W.T. Symons Anton Tchekov Florence Daniel-Worland Charles Daniel W.T. Symons Charles Daniel V.A. Demant Philippe Mairet Maurice B. Reckitt Henry Miller Dorothy Richardson A.M. Ludovici Lord Northbourne Montgomery Charles Daniel Edgar J. Saxon W.H. Auden T.S. Eliot Elizabeth Bowen Stephen Spender Hugh Gordon Porteous Rayner Heppenstall Dylan Thomas E.K. Barlow Edward Bach Charles Daniel Charles William Daniel Denise M. Waltham Jeremy Goring Denise Waltham Jane Miller Denise Waltham
Corporate names: C.W. Daniel Company Ltd. The Crank The Open Road The Healthy Life Health and Life, Purpose Purpose The Healthy Life Purpose Purpose
Personal names: Charles Daniel Charles William Daniel Denise Waltham Charles W. Daniel Denise M. Waltham R.E. Way Charles Daniel Florence Daniel-Worland Leo Tolstoy Denise Waltham
Creator: Charles William Daniel Company
International Institute of Social History
( Cruquiusweg 31 , 1019 AT Amsterdam , The Netherlands )