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255 years ago, Christopher Smart was broken out of a private mental asylum in Bethnel Green, London after many years of forced imprisonment. He was both a neoclassical and proto-romantic writer, serving as an important transition in 18th-century literature. He was also one of the most prolific writers of children’s literature of all time, and his captivity has been a source of mystery, and controversy, ever since. What is certain is that his father-in-law, John Newbery, for whom the Newbery Medal is named, did what he could to destroy Christopher in a most egregious and malicious manner.

As a young boy, Kit, as he was affectionately known, had everything going for him. He was a precocious boy born to a well-off middle class family attached to a noble estate of Christopher Vane, 1st Baron Barnard in Kent. Due to his sharp wit and his family ties, he was doted on by the lord and his wife, who left him enough money to further his place in the world.

After the passing of the Vanes, Christopher’s father moved the family to an estate he was able to purchase on his own, and Christopher was placed into a highly respectable grammar school to be classically educated before finishing his education at the prestigious Durham School. He remained close to the Vane family, including the Vane’s grandson who was the Earl of Darlington, and this relationship provided him with a fair pension and the funds to attend the elite Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge.

Early Success and Risky Behavior

Christopher excelled at college, winning various awards for poetry, translation, and scholarship, and he quickly became well known in academic circles. He soon won praise from Alexander Pope for his work, which was a great achievement and a point of pride. When the time came, he began a Master of Arts.

Although he received many scholarships, Christopher developed a major spending problem, and he quickly ran up debts. As he gained more recognition and scholarship, his personal issues caused him to slowly lose previous sources of funding, and he found himself barely able to tread water. However, this did not interfere with his studies or writing, and he continued to produce more and more.

Ultimately, Christopher did not finish his Master’s. In 1749, he left academia for London and began to work in Grub Street. Eventually, he met with Newbery, and the two began to pioneer the field of children’s literature together. His production increased greatly, and he began to receive more recognition and fame. This spurred him to publishing more and more, even creating his own humor magazine, titled The Midwife after a fictional midwife Christopher impersonated.

Christopher worked for many publications and newspapers, and he came into close contact with other literary figures of the time. Of these, the great Samuel Johnson became a close confidant. He was at the top of his field, friends with the great writers of his age, and well-respected for both his bawdy humor pieces and his pious religious works. However, it proved to be too much.

In the early 1750s, Christopher was married to Anna Carnan, Newbery’s step-daughter, and they had two daughters soon after. This caused him to lose much of his previous funding, which were connected to complicated rules regarding enrollment and bachelor status. Finding himself further in debt, he was forced to rely on Newbery for support, and Newbery seized further control over Christopher’s writing in return.

Christopher was forced to write more and more, but small amount of additional income could not keep up with his needs. To make matters worse, Newbery seized control over the publishing rights to most of his works and the profit that went with it.

Confinement

Historians do not know the truth of what took place, but Newbery took out a “Commission of Lunacy” against Christopher and forced him into St Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics in 1757. It was thought that this was not the first time Christopher was confined, and there are hints in his writings that he suffered from an unknown “illness” years before.

Some biographers speculate that Christopher was an “enthusiast,” a Christian faithful who believed that public prayer was a fundamental aspect of religious life. Allowing himself to be swayed by the Holy Spirit, Christopher was seen “disturbing” the public with open prayer. There is a brief allusion in one of his poems to having “routed all the company” in St. James’s Park due to his prayer, an act which resulted in him being “smited” with a “staff.”

Others have suggested that Newbery used a combination of Christopher’s debts and his own political power to force Smart into confinement to hold better legal control over him. It is know that Newbery published many of Christopher’s works against his will and kept the proceeds. It is also know that Newbery was ruthless towards others, providing writers with very little of the profit from their works. However, it is uncertain as to how much profit Newbery could have gained, or thought he could have gained, if he had controlled Christopher in such a manner.

The truth of the matter is unknown, but it is likely that a combination of issues led to Christopher being forced into asylum. He was known to expound with a strong religious fervor quite often, according to many famous writers who were also his friends, but these accounts also suggest that he did so while intoxicated. It is uncertain as to how much intoxication, or some willingness to play pranks, resulted in him going too far and disrupting the public, or if he truly disrupted anything at all. It is known that he was a true believer, and he continued to produce works of faith while imprisoned, which became his famous Jubilate Agno and A Song to David.

Whether sane or not, there is much evidence that Christopher was tortured and abused while confined. Sometimes, he would provoke his handlers with his sharp wit, causing them to use medieval torture devices on his tongue as punishment. Whether true or not, he was later deemed “incurable” and moved to a more private facility.

Isolation and Freedom

Christopher’s confinement was well-known, and some joked about it but not in a disparaging way. It seems few knew how to actually handle the matter. Newbery did his best to isolate Christopher, even to the point of relocating his wife and children to Ireland. He was on lock-down at St. Luke’s, and even other doctors were not allowed to see him unless the head of the facility granted them permission.

It was only when Christopher was transferred to a smaller, cheaper facility that he could receive visitors, though rarely. He was alone, except when he was punished or mocked, and his only friend was his famous cat Jeoffry, for which he wrote a few lines of poetry that are still widely-remembered. It was physical and mental torture, the kind that could create a mental disturbance in even the most sound of minds, but Christopher kept to his faith in hopes of being freed.

In January 1763, Christopher’s prayers were answered. Like all other aspects of his confinement, we have few details, but it is known that his friend John Sherratt was eventually able to meet with members of parliament to make a political push for his freedom. Sherratt argued that forced asylum in general included many who were of sound mind and admitted for instances of intoxication or other issues not related to mental disturbance, which put great pressure on the practice as a whole. Eventually, a parliamentary committee issued a report that gave Sherratt leverage to force Smart’s release, and he was quickly welcomed back by his friends.

Soon after, Christopher published A Song to David, which was respected by many in his field but served as an excuse for critics to bring up his asylum confinement. This level of harassment led him to keep his other poem, Jubilate Agno, from being published. When Christopher tried to put forth a translation of the Psalms, Newbery did whatever he could to ruin him, including running his own competing translation and having his writers submit negative reviews about Christopher’s version. A feud continue between the two until Newbery’s death in 1767.

By then, it was too late for Christopher’s career. His debt grew far too great, and he was forced into a debtor’s prison in 1770. He was still able to write, and he produced a well-received hymnal for children, but it was not enough to secure his freedom. It was in prison, penniless and ruined,where he died an ignoble death.

Christopher’s reputation lasted after his passing, and his impact on children’s literature is still felt today. The Victorians, in particular, embraced his writing, and many, including Browning, praised the “madness” that allowed him to capture great emotion within his works, lifting him up to the level of John Milton or John Keats. Even as Western culture became more secular, Christopher experienced a resurgence in popularity when his Jubilate Agno was eventually published in 1939 after years hidden away in manuscript form.

Newbery’s Reputation

Historians do not have definitive information as to Newbery’s motivation for imprisoning Christopher, but even the most positive of accounts shine poorly on his action. The most benevolent of interpretations of the initial act are undermined by Newbery’s later behavior in his petty and malicious attempt to ruin his son-in-law.

The Newbery Medal was established to honor great works of children’s literature because Newbery was an important publisher in the field, but few supporters of Newbery ever acknowledge that his empire was built off of unseemly practices. The creators of the prize, the American Library Association, seemed to have done little research into Newbery’s background when they established their award 100 years ago.

Newbery’s legacy should be one of exploitation. Any benefit he provided to the field is outweighed by his willingness to destroy great authors and hinder them from producing even more. He ensured that those like Christopher, Samuel Johnson, and Oliver Goldsmith, received as little as possible for their works, which forced each of them into great financial strain.

Although art thrives in conflict, and many later writers praised Christopher’s two asylum works, such is a poor trade for basic humanity. How much of his poetry was lost because of his confinement, and how many others were equally brought down by Newbery’s mistreatment of his writers?

Objectively, what we have of Christopher’s poetry is of a level that can place him among many great writers, but modern critics are still attempting to overcome what was lost due to Newbery’s attempt to poison others against him. Bits and pieces of Christopher’s works are read today, but far more should be known and will be ignored because of his confinement.