Editing Anthony Trollope (section)

===Return to England===
Although Trollope had been happy and comfortable in Ireland, he felt that as an author, he should live within easy reach of London. In 1859, he sought and obtained a position in the Post Office as Surveyor to the Eastern District, comprising [[Essex]], Suffolk, [[Norfolk]], Cambridgeshire, [[Huntingdonshire]], and most of [[Hertfordshire]].<ref name=auto8>Trollope (1883).  [https://web.archive.org/web/20080814183301/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/trollope/anthony/autobiography/chapter8.html Chapter 8.]  Retrieved 2 July 2010.</ref>
Later that year, he moved to [[Waltham Cross]], about {{convert|12|mi|km}} from London in Hertfordshire, where he lived until 1871.<ref>[http://www.lowewood.com/walthamcross/anthony-trollope "Anthony Trollope".] [http://www.lowewood.com/ Lowewood Museum.] Retrieved 2 July 2010.</ref>

In late 1859, Trollope learned of preparations for the release of the ''[[Cornhill Magazine]]'', to be published by [[George Murray Smith]] and edited by [[William Makepeace Thackeray]].<ref>Payne, Jr.L. W. (1900). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/27528123 "Thackeray,"] ''The Sewanee Review'', Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 447–448.</ref> He wrote to the latter, offering to provide short stories for the new magazine. Thackeray and Smith both responded: the former urging Trollope to contribute, the latter offering £1,000 (about £{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|1000|1859|r=-2}}}} in {{#expr:{{CURRENTYEAR}}-1}} consumer pounds) for a novel, provided that a substantial part of it could be available to the printer within six weeks. Trollope offered Smith ''[[Castle Richmond]]'', which he was then writing; but Smith declined to accept an Irish story, and suggested a novel dealing with English clerical life as had ''Barchester Towers''. Trollope then devised the plot of ''[[Framley Parsonage]]'', setting it near Barchester so that he could make use of characters from the Barsetshire novels.<ref name=auto8/><ref name=smith-memoir>{{cite DNBSupp|wstitle=Memoir of George Smith|first=Sidney|last=Lee|author-link=Sidney Lee}}</ref><ref name=sadleir>Sadleir, Michael (1927).  ''Trollope: A Commentary''. Farrar, Straus and Company.</ref>{{rp|207–08}}

''Framley Parsonage'' proved enormously popular, establishing Trollope's reputation with the novel-reading public and amply justifying the high price that Smith had paid for it.<ref>Moody, Ellen. [http://www.jimandellen.org/trollope/framley.introduction.html ''Framley Parsonage'' introduction.] [http://www.jimandellen.org/ellen/emhome.htm Ellen Moody's Website: Mostly on English and Continental and Women's Literature.] Retrieved 7 April 2011.</ref> The early connection to ''Cornhill'' also brought Trollope into the London circle of artists, writers, and intellectuals, not least among whom were Smith and Thackeray.<ref name=sadleir/>{{rp|209}}<ref>Cook, E. T. (1910). [https://archive.org/stream/newcornhill28londuoft#page/n23/mode/2up "The Jubilee of the 'Cornhill',"] ''The Cornhill Magazine'', Vol. XXVIII, New Series.</ref>

By the mid-1860s, Trollope had reached a fairly senior position within the Post Office hierarchy, despite ongoing differences with [[Rowland Hill (postal reformer)|Rowland Hill]], who was at that time Chief Secretary to the [[Postmaster General of the United Kingdom|Postmaster General]].<ref name=auto8 /> Postal history credits Trollope with introducing the [[pillar box]] (the ubiquitous mail-box) in the United Kingdom. He was earning a substantial income from his novels. He had overcome the awkwardness of his youth, made good friends in literary circles, and hunted enthusiastically. In 1865, Trollope was among the founders of the liberal [[Fortnightly Review]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Durey |first1=J. |title=Trollope and the Church of England |date=2002 |publisher=Springer |page=135}}</ref>

When Hill left the Post Office in 1864, Trollope's brother-in-law, [[John Tilley (civil servant)|John Tilley]], who was then Under-Secretary to the Postmaster General, was appointed to the vacant position. Trollope applied for Tilley's old post but was passed over in favour of a subordinate, [[Frank Ives Scudamore]]. In the autumn of 1867, Trollope resigned his position at the Post Office, having by that time saved enough to generate an income equal to the pension he would lose by leaving before the age of 60.<ref name=auto15>Trollope (1883). [https://web.archive.org/web/20080814183329/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/trollope/anthony/autobiography/chapter15.html Chapter 15.]  Retrieved 2 July 2010.</ref>

[[File:Anthony Trollope Vanity Fair 5 April 1873.jpg|thumb|Trollope by [[Leslie Ward|Spy]] in ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', 1873]]