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J L 260 To T. W. Higginson 15 April 1862 Mr. Higginson, Are you deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive? The Mind is so near itself it cannot see, distinctly and I have none to ask Should you think it breathed and had you the leisure to tell me, I should feel quick gratitude If I make the mistake that you dared to tell me would give me sincerer honor toward you I enclose my name asking you, if you please Sir to tell me what is true? That you will not betray me it is needless to ask since Honor is it's own pawn
Manuscript: BPL (Higg 50). Ink. Envelope addressed: T. W. Higginson. / Worcester. / Mass. Postmarked: Amherst Ms Apr 15 1862. Note: In place of a signature, ED enclosed a card (in its own envelope) on which she wrote her name. This first letter to Higginson, which begins a correspondence that lasted until the month of her death, she wrote because she had just read his "Letter to a Young Contributor," the lead article in the Atlantic Monthly for April, offering practical advice to beginning writers. She also enclosed four poems: "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers," "The nearest Dream recedes unrealized," "We play at Paste," and "I'll tell you how the Sun rose." When Higginson first published the letter [AM LXVIII (October 1891): 444], he introduced it by saying: "On 16 April, 1862, I took from the post office in Worcester, Mass., where I was then living, the following letter." |