Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 First Considerations of an American Tour
- 2 Underway to America
- 3 An Auspicious Welcome: New York City
- 4 The Tour Begins: Upstate New York
- 5 Readings and Responses: Philadelphia, Boston and New York
- 6 The Second Swing: Baltimore and Washington
- 7 A Change of Managers: The Northeast
- 8 The ‘Double Difficulty’: Montreal, Toronto and Buffalo
- 9 The Final Circuit: Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago
- 10 Arguments and Accolades: Return to New England
- 11 Winding Down: New York and Wallingford
- Conclusion: Wilkie Collins and the American People
- Appendix A ‘The Dream Woman’
- Appendix B Performance Summary
- Appendix C Itinerary
- Appendix D Contacts
- Appendix E Press Portraits
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
8 - The ‘Double Difficulty’: Montreal, Toronto and Buffalo
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 First Considerations of an American Tour
- 2 Underway to America
- 3 An Auspicious Welcome: New York City
- 4 The Tour Begins: Upstate New York
- 5 Readings and Responses: Philadelphia, Boston and New York
- 6 The Second Swing: Baltimore and Washington
- 7 A Change of Managers: The Northeast
- 8 The ‘Double Difficulty’: Montreal, Toronto and Buffalo
- 9 The Final Circuit: Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago
- 10 Arguments and Accolades: Return to New England
- 11 Winding Down: New York and Wallingford
- Conclusion: Wilkie Collins and the American People
- Appendix A ‘The Dream Woman’
- Appendix B Performance Summary
- Appendix C Itinerary
- Appendix D Contacts
- Appendix E Press Portraits
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
On Saturday, 20 December, Collins and Ward arrived in Montreal for a reading the following Monday evening. Collins wrote to his friend Schlesinger with his impressions of the city, citing the ‘slippery walking in the streets’ and the ‘horrid stenches’ at their hotel, the St. Lawrence.
But Collins's real problems in Montreal were not physical. He wrote to Joseph Harper of his ‘coup d'état’ in changing managers, calling it ‘a double difficulty’. Indeed it was. In Montreal, the American Literary Bureau's unauthorized use of Collins's name and Brelsford's presumption in making arrangements without his knowledge or authority were revealed in a series of unpleasant public exchanges, with Redpath taking the hit.
The incident began with advertisements in the Montreal Gazette for two events:
For One Night Only!
The Famous English Novelist
MR. WILKIE COLLINS
Will read in
Queen's Hall
Monday Evening, Dec. 22
And
University Literary Society
The Eighth Public Meeting of
this Society will be held, in the
Association Hall, Corner of Craig and Radegonde Streets
on the Evening of Wednesday [sic]
the 22nd instant.
On 20 December, a letter was submitted to the Montreal Herald from members of the University Society, accusing James Redpath of breach of contract in disregarding his alleged promise to adhere to former arrangements for a reading, and instead scheduling Collins's appearance on the same night as the Society debate.
The University Society and Mr. Wilkie Collins / To the Editor of the Montreal Herald: Sir – Hearing that Mr. Redpath, of the Boston Lyceum, now in town as Mr. Wilkie Collins' agent, attempts to justify his course by saying that no arrangement for Mr. Wilkie Collins' services were made with him, the undersigned members of the Committee of the University Literary Society beg to state that Mr. Redpath had an interview with the Committee about ten days ago, when the arrangements with several lecturers under Mr. Redpath's charge were discussed, and upon his statement that he would in a few days have the management of Mr. Wilkie Collins' programs, it was distinctly promised by him that when his arrangements would be completed with Mr. Wilkie Collins, the former arrangements for a lecture before the Society would be adhered to by him.
[…]
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- Wilkie Collins's American Tour, 1873–4 , pp. 59 - 70Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014