The Souls of the Streets
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Information about The Souls of the Streets (1904), by Arthur Ransome.
The Souls of the Streets is Arthur Ransome’s 2nd published book. This page contains publication, availability, background and contents information.
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First Publication
Published by S C Brown, Langham & Co, London, August 1904.
Availability
Out of print.
Background
I opened it with shaking hands, to find half a dozen copies of my first book, bound in pale mottled paper boards, with a brown cloth spine and a label with the title on it.
In 1904 Ransome’s friend, the poet and playwright Gordon Bottomley, introduced Ransome to William Holmes, the owner of the Lanthorn Press, a small printer in Ulverston, Cumbria. Holmes wanted to expand into book publishing, but needed someone to act as both a talent scout, to find suitable young authors, and also as an agent, able to liaise with a suitable publisher in London to distribute his books. Ransome fitted both of Holmes’s needs, whilst Holmes offered Ransome the opportunity to publish his first book of essays.
Ransome regarded this as his first book, discounting The ABC of Physical Culture and his other ghost-written books of practical instruction.
Synopsis
The Souls of the Streets and Other Little Papers is a collection of eight short essays: The Souls of the Streets; A Tuscan Melody; The Hidden Lands; A Man Who Knew Himself; Two Tramps; Spring; The Secret of the Wild Rose.
