Early works While at Oxford, Tupper's literary career commenced; his first important publication was a collection of 75 short poems entitled
Sacra Poesis (1832). In the same year he wrote a long poem partially in
blank verse, "A Voice from the Cloister", but this was only published, anonymously, in 1835. In the summer of 1838 Tupper penned a continuation of
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's
Christabel, naming it
Geraldine and publishing it alongside various other pieces in the latter half of that year in the collection ''Geraldine, a sequel to Coleridge's Christabel: with other poems
. The poem Geraldine'' itself met with some critical reprobation, although in his contemporary notes Tupper attributes this largely to it being a continuation of an early version of Coleridge's poem: "When Coleridge first published Christabel ... it was positively hooted by the critics ... Coleridge left behind him a very much improved and enlarged version of the poem, which I did not see till years after I had written the sequel to it: my Geraldine was composed for an addition to Christabel, as originally issued." The other poems in the collection were more warmly received.
Proverbial Philosophy . Tupper's most successful work had its genesis in 1828, shortly before his Oxford matriculation. At this time he was engaged to Isabella, and he decided to write his "notions on the holy estate of matrimony" for her, "in the manner of
Solomon's proverbs". Isabella showed them to
Hugh M'Neile, who suggested seeking publication, but Tupper chose not to do so at the time. In 1837, on the encouragement of Henry Stebbing, Tupper began to revise these writings and expand them into a book, working on them at home and in his workplace, Lincoln's Inn, over the subsequent 10 weeks. The work takes the form of
free verse meditations on morality ("OfHumility", "OfPride"), religion ("OfPrayer", "TheTrain of Religion"), and other aspects of the
human condition ("OfLove", "OfJoy"). Tupper did not refer to the pieces as poetry, preferring his own description of "rhythmics". Stebbing referred Tupper to the publisher Joseph Rickerby, who agreed to publish the work on a profit-sharing basis, and this first official version appeared on 24 January 1838 entitled
Proverbial Philosophy: A Book of Thoughts and Arguments, originally treated, by Martin Farquhar Tupper, Esq., M.A. at a price of 7
s. It met with moderate success in Britain; a second edition was commissioned, to which Tupper added more material, and sold for 6s. A third edition emerged, but this failed to sell well; the unsold copies were sent to America, where it was received poorly. "Americans scarcely knew what to make of it at all; one of the few stateside reviewers to read
Proverbial Philosophy, the powerful editor
N.P. Willis, was so perplexed by the form of the book that he guessed it to have been written ... in the seventeenth century." Despite the lack of interest in the third edition, in 1841 Tupper was spurred to write a second series of
Proverbial Philosophy at the suggestion of
John Hughes, who he had met in a chance encounter in
Windsor two years previously. This series was to be serialised in the new publication
Ainsworth's Magazine,
William Harrison Ainsworth being a friend of Hughes. Tupper and his family temporarily moved to
Brighton where he produced some initial pieces for the magazine, as well as some essays. However, being "too quick and too impatient to wait for piecemeal publication month by month", Tupper collated his new "rhythmics" and had the second series of
Proverbial Philosophy published as a whole, on 5 October 1842 by
John Hatchard. The second series was sold alongside the fifth edition of the first series, and proved to be immediately popular. The two were soon combined into one collection, still entitled
Proverbial Philosophy, and this iteration became an enormous success over the subsequent decades: In the 1850s the work was translated into several languages, including German, Swedish, Danish, Armenian, and a French version by
George Métivier. By 1866 it had sold over 200,000 copies in the United Kingdom, through forty editions. Tupper did go on to write a third and fourth series in 1867 and 1869 respectively, published by
Edward Moxon in his ''Moxon's Popular Poets'' series (which had previously included luminaries such as
Byron,
Wordsworth,
Coleridge,
Keats and
Milton). However, by this time Tupper had fallen out of fashion, and these latter series did not sell well. Moxon had already been in bad financial straits, and Tupper's new works did not change his fortunes; the publisher was shortly taken over. Over the course of the author's lifetime it is estimated that between one quarter and half a million copies were sold in England, and over 1.5 million in the United States, across 50 editions. Due to the lack of international copyright laws, the US market was dominated by pirated copies; consequently, Tupper made almost no money from the work's enormous American sales. However, he did manage to capitalise on his fame in North America by undertaking two tours of the US and Canada, in 1851 and 1876-1877.
Candidate for Poet Laureate Upon the death of
William Wordsworth in 1850, Tupper began to suggest his willingness to fill the now-vacant position of
Poet Laureate to influential friends and acquaintances such as William Gladstone and
James Garbett, who further gathered support. He continued to write poems for public events in order to demonstrate his capability, marking occasions such as the deaths of
Robert Peel and the
Duke of Cambridge, as well as the
Great Exhibition, for which he published
Hymn to the Exhibition in over sixty languages (set to music by
Samuel Sebastian Wesley). It appears that his candidacy had popular support, from both sides of the Atlantic. However, the eventual selection was
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, partly due to
Prince Albert's admiration of the poem
In Memoriam A.H.H. First tour of America Despite making almost no money from his written works in North America, Tupper recognised the potential of his enormous popularity on the other side of the Atlantic. Having overcome his stammer at the age of 35, he embarked on a "wildly successful" reading tour of the Eastern USA and Canada, setting off from
Liverpool on 2 March 1851 and landing in
New York City two weeks later. His arrival was announced in American newspapers, and while based in the city he met a variety of literary figures including
William Cullen Bryant,
Nathaniel Parker Willis,
James Gordon Bennett Sr.,
James Fenimore Cooper, and
Washington Irving. He was generally warmly received by the people he met, although his tendency to quote his own poetry was "deemed unseemly at the time" and criticised in the press, as was his perceived "patronising attitude and sentimentalism" towards Americans. An indication of Tupper's popularity in the US is given by his dealings with one of his publishers in Philadelphia: The highlight of the American tour was a dinner at the
White House on 8 May with President
Millard Fillmore and members of his cabinet, Fillmore himself being an admirer of the poet. In his autobiography Tupper quotes his contemporaneous notes: After stops in
Pittsburgh and
Philadelphia, Tupper returned to New York, where he was noticed in a concert crowd by its promoter
P. T. Barnum and brought backstage to meet
Jenny Lind. The Swedish Nightingale was an admirer - "she sat holding Tupper's hand and crying with emotion while the management of the theatre frantically tried to get her on stage for a bow." He set off on his return trip to Liverpool on 24 May 1851, seen off by a group of admirers and "regretful paragraphs" in the New York newspapers.
Middle years By 1851 Tupper had fathered eight children, and had moved his large family into the spacious Albury House in
Albury, Surrey approximately ten years previously. However, his financial position became precarious by the mid-1850s. His wife Isabella had fallen ill, and he wrote to Gladstone (then
Chancellor of the Exchequer) to request an office or public pension, to no avail. His eldest son, Martin Charles Selwyn (born 1841), was made the youngest Captain in the British Army
by purchase in 1864, but it fell upon his father to settle his many drinking and gambling debts, and fund a spell in an asylum in
St John's Wood, until he was relocated to
Rio de Janeiro in 1868. These financial strains were compounded by a series of poor investments. Tupper managed to stay afloat by continuing to publish poetry, and bringing out new editions of
Proverbial Philosophy, including an illustrated version, but he was compelled to let out Albury House from 1867 to generate additional income. Tupper was already a favourite poet of Queen Victoria, and in June 1857, having written sonnets for each of the engaged couple
Victoria, Princess Royal and
Prince Frederick, was granted the honour of being "summoned to
Buckingham Palace, to be received by the Queen herself and
Prince Albert, and to present special copies of 'Proverbial Philosophy' with his own hands to the young betrothed." The circumstances of this audience were highly unusual, as Tupper was instructed to meet the Royal Family on a Sunday after church – "the Royal Family had never entertained a private individual in this way since
George III had summoned
Dr Johnson." Tupper's work was already well known to the family, having been appreciated by the children's governess and their drawing master
Edward Henry Corbould (who also happened to be Tupper's friend), and he had written pieces for the children to perform for their parents previously. Tupper continued to write poetry for periodicals and publications of his own work, but none of these came close to the popularity of
Proverbial Philosophy. By the mid-1860s he and his work were being persistently satirised by a new generation of Victorians, the victims of changing tastes (see ).
British and second American tours Deciding to focus on readings of his works instead of continuing to pen new material to be satirised or ignored, Tupper began touring south-west England in April 1873. These events were somewhat popular, although apart from the "fair-sized audiences, largely composed of ladies" there were also "many who only came to satisfy themselves that such a fabulous being as Martin Tupper really existed". The most popular of his works were "Love" and "Marriage" from
Proverbial Philosophy, as well as the poems "Never Give Up" and "All's for the Best". Later in the year he also toured Scotland, to a warmer reception. After his Scottish success, Tupper decided to undertake a second American tour; delayed by illness, he arrived in October 1876 and stayed in New York as the guest of
Thomas De Witt Talmage, an admirer of
Proverbial Philosophy. Much like in Britain, this tour was filled with public readings of his works; while his American popularity had also declined, it was not to the extent that it had in his home country, and he delivered a reading of "Immortality" to his largest-ever audience, between five and six thousand – the congregation of Talmage's church. However, Tupper often failed to attract large crowds on the merit of his readings alone; he performed to several thousand at one event in Philadelphia, but only a few hundred at various events in New York State and Canada. After the huge success of his first American tour, this one "proved a pale shadow". Nevertheless, it was profitable, and his stature was such that he was invited to the inauguration and White House reception of
President Hayes. ==Later life and death==