559 WINTHROP (Theo.). Cecil
Dreeme. First Edition. 12°, original
cloth. Boston, 1861.
A Biographical Sketch of the Author
written by Geo. W. Curtis appears in the
Volume, which is well worth reading, as
also is the book itself. It deals with N. Y.
Society, and “Densdeth,” one of the characters,
is supposed to have been a portrait
of Henry William Hurlburt, the well-known
Journalist.
These rumors about “portraits”
in point are of very little value;
probably a writer of fiction takes the
hint of a character frome some one
when he has known them & then follows
it out in his own way, the result
being an essentially even creation.
There is doubtless a suggestion of
Hurlburt in Densdeth but the total
effect is of a much more deliberate
& cruel being than he ever could
have been. In my tale of “Malbone”
he appears in a far softer light
and yet with quite as much truth.
It is not fair to call either sketch
a portrait.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Cambridge
Mar. 27. 1903.
