Autobiography of Anthony Trollope

Autobiography of Anthony
Trollope

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by Anthony Trollope (#40 in our series by Anthony Trollope)
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Title: Autobiography of Anthony Trollope
Author: Anthony Trollope
Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5978] [Yes, we are more than one
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ANTHONY TROLLOPE ***

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Autobiography of Anthony Trollope
By Anthony Trollope

PREFACE

It may be well that I should put a short preface to this book. In the
summer of 1878 my father told me that he had written a memoir of his
own life. He did not speak about it at length, but said that he had
written me a letter, not to be opened until after his death, containing
instructions for publication.
This letter was dated 30th April, 1876. I will give here as much of it as
concerns the public: "I wish you to accept as a gift from me, given you
now, the accompanying pages which contain a memoir of my life. My
intention is that they shall be published after my death, and be edited by
you. But I leave it altogether to your discretion whether to publish or to
suppress the work;--and also to your discretion whether any part or
what part shall be omitted. But I would not wish that anything should
be added to the memoir. If you wish to say any word as from yourself,
let it be done in the shape of a preface or introductory chapter." At the
end there is a postscript: "The publication, if made at all, should be
effected as soon as possible after my death." My father died on the 6th
of December, 1882.
It will be seen, therefore, that my duty has been merely to pass the book
through the press conformably to the above instructions. I have placed

headings to the right-hand pages throughout the book, and I do not
conceive that I was precluded from so doing. Additions of any other
sort there have been none; the few footnotes are my father's own
additions or corrections. And I have made no alterations. I have
suppressed some few passages, but not more than would amount to two
printed pages has been omitted. My father has not given any of his own
letters, nor was it his wish that any should be published.
So much I would say by way of preface. And I think I may also give in
a few words the main incidents in my father's life after he completed
his autobiography.
He has said that he had given up hunting; but he still kept two horses
for such riding as may be had in or about the immediate neighborhood
of London. He continued to ride to the end of his life: he liked the
exercise, and I think it would have distressed him not to have had a
horse in his stable. But he never spoke willingly on hunting matters. He
had at last resolved to give up his favourite amusement, and that as far
as he was concerned there should be an end of it. In the spring of 1877
he went to South Africa, and returned early in the following year with a
book on the colony already written. In the summer of 1878, he was one
of a party of ladies and gentlemen who made an expedition to Iceland
in the "Mastiff," one of Mr. John Burns' steam-ships. The journey
lasted altogether sixteen days, and during that time Mr. and Mrs. Burns
were the hospitable entertainers. When my father returned, he wrote a
short account of How the "Mastiffs" went to Iceland. The book was
printed, but was intended only for private circulation.
Every day, until his last illness, my