University of Virginia Library

Letter 2

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