GHL[?] to the Editor of The Times, [Wandsworth, 15 April 1859]
Title
GHL[?] to the Editor of The Times, [Wandsworth, 15 April 1859]
Title
GHL[?] to the Editor of The Times, [Wandsworth, 15 April 1859]
Sender
George Henry Lewes as George Eliot [?]
Recipient
U
Date(s)
- 1859-04-15
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
[GHL] to the Editor of The Times, [Wandsworth, 15 April 1859]
Text: Times, 16 April 1859, p. 7e.
To the Editor of the Times
Sir, --
The Rev. H. Anders has with questionable delicacy and unquestionable inaccuracy assured the world through your columns that the author of The Scenes of Clerical Life and Adam Bede is Mr. Joseph Liggins, of Nuneaton.
I beg distinctly to deny that statement. I declare on my honour that that gentleman never saw a line of those works until they were printed, nor had he any knowledge of them whatever.
Allow me to ask whether the act of publishing a book deprives a man of all claim to the courtesies usual among gentlemen? If not, the attempt to pry into what is obviously meant to be withheld -- my name -- and to publish the rumours which such prying may give rise to, seems to me quite indefensible, still more so to state these rumours as ascertained truths.
I am, Sir, yours, etc.,
George Eliot.
Text: Times, 16 April 1859, p. 7e.
To the Editor of the Times
Sir, --
The Rev. H. Anders has with questionable delicacy and unquestionable inaccuracy assured the world through your columns that the author of The Scenes of Clerical Life and Adam Bede is Mr. Joseph Liggins, of Nuneaton.
I beg distinctly to deny that statement. I declare on my honour that that gentleman never saw a line of those works until they were printed, nor had he any knowledge of them whatever.
Allow me to ask whether the act of publishing a book deprives a man of all claim to the courtesies usual among gentlemen? If not, the attempt to pry into what is obviously meant to be withheld -- my name -- and to publish the rumours which such prying may give rise to, seems to me quite indefensible, still more so to state these rumours as ascertained truths.
I am, Sir, yours, etc.,
George Eliot.
Signature
George Eliot.
Citation
George Henry Lewes as George Eliot [?], GHL[?] to the Editor of The Times, [Wandsworth, 15 April 1859], Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/91692