The Roots of RSVP and VPR: A Talk with Louis James
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[End Page 244]
How did you first become interested in Victorian periodicals?
My interest in Victorian periodicals started when I was writing my doctoral thesis at Oxford. While I was at the British Library in London, I discovered a large archive of penny-issue novels and periodical fiction that had been donated by Barry Ono, a music hall artist. It had never been catalogued. One of the curators let me access this magnificent collection of magazines, and it became the subject of my thesis. Later it was published as Fiction for the Working Man.
What year did you complete your doctorate?
I finished my doctorate in 1958, and the book was published in 1963. Then I met Michael Wolff and in 1970 went out to teach summer school at the University of Indiana in the States. In the library basement, I found piles of the newly started Victorian Periodicals Newsletter. I contributed to it a year later. The other person I got to know when I was in the States was Martha Vicinus, who was also researching working-class literature. When I came back to the UK, I kept up with Victorian periodical studies and attended RSVP conferences in the United States. I remember one in particular in Indiana which I thought was dramatic. The conferences were one of the ways to remain in contact—and obviously the society grew and grew.
Were you involved in the founding of the organization?
I wasn’t directly involved in the founding of the organization, but I was one of the earliest subscribers. I was studying fiction but discovered that the dominant way of publishing in the nineteenth century was through periodicals. [End Page 245]
Are there any people that you particularly remember?
Michael Wolff, in particular. He became a good friend, as did Anne Humphreys and Laurel Brake. It was always a wonderful social occasion at RSVP conferences.
How did the society influence your work?
It had a strong influence on my next book, Print and the People, 1819–1851. When working with the John Johnson collection of printed ephemera, I found that a lot of the material that interested me was published in magazines. Periodicals were the major source for the work I was doing, especially since I was investigating illustrations and artists like George Cruikshank.
Why is it that both you and Michael Wolff went to Oxford yet ended up studying working-class publications?
It was interesting. My background was lower middle class. I grew up in a boarding school in South Africa where we never read novels. I went to Oxford and won a scholarship to Jesus College. I had a different background than most who went to Oxford then. Young people like me had been reading comics mainly, so when I had to prepare for A-levels, I looked at literature from an independent point of view. At Oxford I was happy to have plenty of time to read by myself; I had only two seminars a week. When I left Oxford, I went to teach literature for the Hull University Extramural Department in Lincolnshire where the students were farm labourers and one of my colleagues was Richard Hoggart. It was a bit like selling vacuum cleaners. I had to go out and convince people that they should come out for a year in all weathers, to come out and take a class. So I was outside the regular academic world.
After that I went to Jamaica in 1961 to teach at the University of West Indies for three years, which was again outside the usual academic world.
Were you taught by any famous teachers?
Well, I went to lectures in Oxford given by C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. From them I picked up a great imaginative energy, though they were not outstanding lecturers. It was a wonderful time to be in Oxford: there was a lot of freedom, even in exams...
