Letter to the editor of the Literary World
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE TO E. A. DUYCKINCK ON HERMAN MELVILLE IN 1850.
From the original manuscript in the New York Public Library.
Lenox, August 29th. 1850.
My dear sir,
I have read Melville's works with a progressive appreciation of the author. No writer ever put the reality before his reader more unflinchingly than he does in "Redburn" and "White Jacket". "Mardi" is a rich book, with depths here and there that compel a man to swim for his life. It is so good that one scarcely pardons the writer for not having brooded long over it, so as to make it a great deal better.
You will see by my wife's note that I have all along had one staunch admirer; and with her to back me, I really believe I should do very well without any other. Nevertheless, I must own that I have read the articles in the Literary World with very great pleasure. The writer has a truly generous heart; nor do I think it necessary to appropriate the whole magnificence of his encomium, any more than to devour everything on the table, when a host of noble hospitality spreads a banquet before me. But he is no common man; and, next to deserving praise, it is good to have beguiled or bewitched such a man into praising me more than I deserve.
Sincerely yours,
- Nathl Hawthorne
E. A. Duyckinck, Esq.
- New York.
This work was published before January 1, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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