Letter 2
Charleston, Sep. 8. [1841]
[19]
My dear Madam
Your first number was received yesterday, & I must confess
quite
Surpasses my expectations. You have done wonders. In fineness of paper,
neatness of appearance, general propriety and Completeness, your work will
bear free comparison with the best of our periodicals. Your letter press too
is very good. John Neal's verses are rather less mad than usual &
Contain some forcible & fine lines.[20] Those by Wilde,[21] though not equal to some others
of his
pieces, are graceful & sensible. The paper on Classical Literature by
our
young Countryman Holmes[22] shows
reading and is very well expressed. Perhaps it shows too much reading. The
notes are quite unnecessary & cumber the narrative, besides giving an
air
of pedantry to the paper which lessens the reader's interest as well in the
writer as in the Subject. If they are to be put in, I would recommend that
you throw them at the foot of the
columns, and not suffer them to be massed like so many hyeroglyphics, to
themselves. The article on Education, though very <sensible> &
Showing thought is too long.[23] The
commonplaces of this Subject should be rejected in Such essays. Of the
tales I cannot well judge having only glanced at a few paragraphs. Your
own Editorials (Qu?) betray unnecessary timidity. I suspect you feel
alarmed, but you really
need not. You give an ample quality of matter, and in this you have the
advantage of Several of your Competitors. I do not think your artists have
been quite Successful with the plate.
[24] The choice of the subject was very
unfortunate. The scene itself, now that my taste is more mature, should
never have been written. At all Events it is one of those Scenes of which
the artists Could make little or nothing. You recollect, also, that I warned
you that the Partisan I considered the most faulty and the least successful
of my books. You were pleased to think differently, but without impressing
me with your own more favorable estimate. How you can give a plate at
all, is another subject of wonder. — I intended that my Sonnets
should
be published as a series. I wrote you or meant to write you, that I should
regularly give you a contribution of
verse for each Number.
Let
me beg that you will put the remaining Sonnets in a batch
together
[25] — unless they usurp
a
place that might be better occupied. — I note your offer for prizes.
Perhaps, it would be advisable to define to your readers what you require
for a prose tale, of what length &c. A small prize for the best essay
of
two or three pages might also be of good results. Of course you have the
privilege of publishing such as you please of the unsuccessful articles. Mr.
Hart has a subscriber for you, for whom you must send a copy. He, Mr.
H., suggests you should send a show copy of the work to him. He is an
excellent man and will make a good agent.
I do not know what your calculations are. I trust you may not deceive
yourself. I suppose you See the Magnolia. I think it not possible that such
a work can be successful. It wants variety.[26] Yours has Enough; but
subscriptions in
the South are bad things, and Correspondents not to be relied on. Your
chance is better as your book is larger, better looking, and promises to
compete on Equal ground with the Northern journals of the
same class. In the number of pages you beat both the N. Y.
Companion and Godey's Lady's Book. I have just bought one of your first
books for children[27] I think it very
good. It is not improbable that your Class Books for the South will take the
lead of all others. —[28]
At this moment I am a<laborer> at the mill. I have Some
literary engagements with Northern publishers which Scarcely leave me
time for sleep. I have written you this scrawl, with tremulous fingers, after
penning 20 pages foolscap. In the early part of the Season Sickness,
night-watching &
finally death in my family,
[29] kept me
from performing my tasks. It will be November before I am free. This will
excuse me to you for not having complied with your request for a Story.
— By the way, when you set up my Indian Sketch,
[30] perhaps it will be safer to send me
a
proof. Send me 2. — by different mails; so that, should one fail the
other
may be sure. In conclusion, let me say, again — you have done
wonders.
Your work does equal credit to the taste of the publisher and the talents of
the Editor. I have little or no fault to find. What I have, is already
expressed. I put up a copy of my poems for you some months ago, but it
remains still with Hart waiting for an opportunity to be sent. Can you
suggest one? With Sincere wishes for your Success. I am very
respectfully
Yr obt Sevt.
W. G. Simms Mrs. S. L. Griffin