VARIOUS PROPERTIES
LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL. Autograph letter signed ("J.R. Lowell") to Ralph Waldo Emerson, discussing various literary matters. Cambridge, 19 November 1857. 4 pages, small 8vo, a few slight vertical creases, but fine condition.
Details
LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL. Autograph letter signed ("J.R. Lowell") to Ralph Waldo Emerson, discussing various literary matters. Cambridge, 19 November 1857. 4 pages, small 8vo, a few slight vertical creases, but fine condition.
A very important letter from the American poet and essayist to Emerson, mentioning his poem "Bramah," other contributing authors to early issues of The Atlantic Monthly, including Thoreau, Lonfellow, Holmes, and other contemporary New England authors.
"Dear Sir, you have seen, no doubt, how the Philistines have been parodying your 'Brahma' - & showing how they still believe in their special god Baal & are unable to arrive at a conception of an omnipresent Deity. I have not yet met with a nigh clever one or I would have sent it to you for your amusement. Meanwhile, they are advertising the Atlantic [Monthly] in the very best way, & Mr. Underwood tells me that the orders for the second number are doubling on those for first. I think you will find the second an improvement - the contents are -
... 2. Battle of Lepanto - Prescott. 3. Wind & Stream - Bryant... 6. Golden Milestone - Longfellow. 7. Autocrat of B.T. - Holmes... Your poem is to go into No. 3, simply as a matter of housewifery because we had already three articles at $50... The "Solitude & Society" has only one fault - that it is not longer - but, had it been only a page there would have been enough in it... Let me thank you in special for one line in 'Brahma' which abides with me as an intimate 'When one they fly, I am the wings' -- You have crammed meaning there with an hydraulic press. Will not Thoreau give us something from Moosehead? Faithfully yours J.R. Lowell."
A very important letter from the American poet and essayist to Emerson, mentioning his poem "Bramah," other contributing authors to early issues of The Atlantic Monthly, including Thoreau, Lonfellow, Holmes, and other contemporary New England authors.
"Dear Sir, you have seen, no doubt, how the Philistines have been parodying your 'Brahma' - & showing how they still believe in their special god Baal & are unable to arrive at a conception of an omnipresent Deity. I have not yet met with a nigh clever one or I would have sent it to you for your amusement. Meanwhile, they are advertising the Atlantic [Monthly] in the very best way, & Mr. Underwood tells me that the orders for the second number are doubling on those for first. I think you will find the second an improvement - the contents are -
... 2. Battle of Lepanto - Prescott. 3. Wind & Stream - Bryant... 6. Golden Milestone - Longfellow. 7. Autocrat of B.T. - Holmes... Your poem is to go into No. 3, simply as a matter of housewifery because we had already three articles at $50... The "Solitude & Society" has only one fault - that it is not longer - but, had it been only a page there would have been enough in it... Let me thank you in special for one line in 'Brahma' which abides with me as an intimate 'When one they fly, I am the wings' -- You have crammed meaning there with an hydraulic press. Will not Thoreau give us something from Moosehead? Faithfully yours J.R. Lowell."