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William Nathan Stedman

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William Nathan Stedman (1861-1919) was a British printer, publisher, and second-hand bookseller, the proprietor of bookshops in Sydney, Australia (49 Liverpool Street) and London, England (5, The Exchange, East Finchley), who is most notorious as a poet of ill repute, his verse typically found to be very poor. Politically, Stedman was an apparent supporter of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, and vehement in his opposition to William Gladstone, whom Stedman claimed was responsible for the Whitechapel murders and held to be a mesmerically-empowered Anti-Christ, this latter allegation being partly supported on an isopsephic basis, calculating GLADSTONE to be 666 (by transliterating E as the long Eta, ē, 8, rather than Epsilon, e, 5). Criminally, Stedman was one of several men, including William James Morgan and Sir Gilbert Edward Campbell, who were convicted of fraud in 1892 stemming from the operation of certain "bogus literary societies."[I]

Selected Works

  • Stedman, W. N. (188?), Brighton Ballads, London: City of London Pub. Co. 
  • Stedman, W. N. (1887), The Silver Bullet, and Other Poems  — reviewed in the Bookseller as "seventeen effusions" that "may doubtless be of interest to their authors and his friends, but we fail to see why they should be circulated beyond the limited indicated."
  • Stedman, William Nathan (1889), The Future of Great Britain: An Epic in Seven Cantos, London: Wyman and Sons 
  • Stedman, William Nathan (1891), The Poetic Works of William Nathan Stedman: Dedicated to Lord Tennyson, London: The Author 
  • Stedman, William Nathan (1907), The Man in the Moon, etc. (A Musical Merry-Go-Round and Satirical Allegory.), Watford: L. N. Stedman and Sons 
  • Stedman, W. Nathan (1909), Antichrist and the Man of Sin, England: The Author 
  • Stedman, William Nathan (1911), Sonnets, Lays and Lyrics, Sydney, NSW: Stedman & Williams 
  • Stedman, William Nathan (1912), What Might Have Been: Ballads and Poems for Reading and Reciting, Sydney, NSW: Stedman & Williams 
  • Stedman, William Nathan (1913), Stedman's Book Circular. (His Majesty the King. a Dramatic Comedy.), London: W. N. Stedman 
  • Stedman, William Nathan (1916), Sky Blue Ballads, East Finchley: The Finchley Press 
  • Stedman, W. N. (1917), Finchley Press Poems, East Finchley: The Finchley Press 

Reading

Press Coverage

International Society of Literature, Science, and Art (1891-'92)

Stedman, along with William James Morgan and several others, established the International Society of Literature, Science, and Art, in connection with the Artists' Alliance, an institution that was ultimately brought down when all its executives were convicted on fraud charges.

For his role, Steadman was found guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud and obtaining money by false pretenses, being sentenced to fifteen months' hard labour.

Later (1894-1912)

  • "Court Circular", Morning Post (London, UK): 5, 3 Apr. 1894, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/409942728/, "The Princess of Wales extended her patronage to the poetical works of William Nathan Stedman, which are dedicated to the late Lord Tennyson, and her Royal Highness expressed her pleasure at the complimentary ode specially written by Mr. Stedman, which accompanied the volume, for which she had subscribed. The Duchess of Rutland, the Duke of Fife, and the Bishop of Bath and Wells are also patrons of this edition." 
  • "MR. WILLIAM NATHAN STEDMAN", The Publisher: Journal of the Publishing Industry 89: 705, 14 Nov. 1908, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hxpbk4&view=1up&seq=809, "AMONG the writers of modern verse who possess a rich fancy and frequent felicity of phrase, is William Nathan Stedman, the author of the poem, named 'The First Easter,' and its sequel, 'In Coelo Quies.' That he is capable of dealing with subjects demanding higher flights of poetic imagination is proved by the several comedies and tragedies bearing his name. We have pleasure in announcing a uniform edition of Mr. Stedman's poetic and dramatic works as being in preparation by his firm (Messrs. L. M. Stedman & Son, Watford, Herts.)" 
  • "MARIE CORELLI ANGRY.", Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT): 16, 24 Aug. 1912, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/593591622/, "Marie Corelli is loose again. She is good and mad with a daring Australian poet. His name is William Nathan Stedman and it seems that, in issuing his poetic outpouring in volume form, he has had the effrontery (as Marie calls it) to publish photographs of himself and of Miss Corelli as 'The King and Queen of the Pen,' and makes other 'preposterous associations,' (again one quotes the authoress,) of his name with hers. Of course the only and only Marie considers this lese-majeste and she is 'taking her counsel's opinion,' as the song says, to see if legal vengeance can be wreaked. Meanwhile she has notified the London newspapers that if they have the temerity to give further publicity to the 'King and Queen' business she will be down on them like a hawk on a June-bug." 
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