Anthony Trollope to GHL, London, 9 November 1866
Title
Anthony Trollope to GHL, London, 9 November 1866
Title
Anthony Trollope to GHL, London, 9 November 1866
Sender
Anthony Trollope
Recipient
George Henry Lewes
Date(s)
- 1866-11-09
Place
London
Letter Content
Anthony Trollope to GHL, London, 9 November 1866
MS: Yale. Published: The Letters of Anthony Trollope, ed. B. A. Booth, 1951, pp. 189-191.
Athenaeum Club, | Pall Mall S.W.
November 9. 1866.
My dear Lewes.
I wrote to you last night an official letter at the request of the Committee; 726 but I cannot let you part from us without saying with more of personal feeling than I could put into that letter how sorry I am that it should be so. I hate the breaking of pleasant relations, and am distrustful as to new relations. I have felt however for some time that it must be so; and that you would not hang on to us much longer. I have felt also that your time was too valuable to be frittered away in reading MSS, and in writing civil, -- or even uncivil -- notes.
Only two propositions as to the editing are before us. 1st to ask Mr. John Morley 727 to undertake it. 2d that I should do it for 6 months, without Salary, keeping Mr. Dennis with perhaps a somewhat encreased Salary. No doubt a permanent arrangement will be best, and the second plan has little in it of advantage either for me or for the Review. But it is supported by the desire which many of us have to keep the employment for Mr. Dennis as long as it can be kept; and also by a feeling that we hardly know enough of Mr. Morley. This latter may be overcome by better information; and I shall be very glad if you will tell me your opinion. Do you think that Mr. Morley is competent for the work? And do you believe that his opinions as to politics and literature are of a nature to support those views which we have endeavoured to maintain? If I found that the Review had drifted into the hands of a literary hack who simply followed out his task without any honesty of purpose, I should wash my hands of it.
When you want a new pair of boots it is pretty nearly enough for you to know that you are going to a good bootmaker. But this going to an Editor is a very different thing. A man may be a most accomplished Editor, -- able at all periodical-editing work, -- and yet to you or to me so antipathetic as to make it impossible that the two should work together. You will understand what I mean when I say that should I find I don't like the nose on our new Editors face, I must simply drop the Review; and that therefore I cannot but be very anxious. Let me know what you think about Morley.
Give my kindest regards to your wife.
Yours always
Anthony Trollope.
Address Waltham Cross. I am to see Mr. Morley on Tuesday.
MS: Yale. Published: The Letters of Anthony Trollope, ed. B. A. Booth, 1951, pp. 189-191.
Athenaeum Club, | Pall Mall S.W.
November 9. 1866.
My dear Lewes.
I wrote to you last night an official letter at the request of the Committee; 726 but I cannot let you part from us without saying with more of personal feeling than I could put into that letter how sorry I am that it should be so. I hate the breaking of pleasant relations, and am distrustful as to new relations. I have felt however for some time that it must be so; and that you would not hang on to us much longer. I have felt also that your time was too valuable to be frittered away in reading MSS, and in writing civil, -- or even uncivil -- notes.
Only two propositions as to the editing are before us. 1st to ask Mr. John Morley 727 to undertake it. 2d that I should do it for 6 months, without Salary, keeping Mr. Dennis with perhaps a somewhat encreased Salary. No doubt a permanent arrangement will be best, and the second plan has little in it of advantage either for me or for the Review. But it is supported by the desire which many of us have to keep the employment for Mr. Dennis as long as it can be kept; and also by a feeling that we hardly know enough of Mr. Morley. This latter may be overcome by better information; and I shall be very glad if you will tell me your opinion. Do you think that Mr. Morley is competent for the work? And do you believe that his opinions as to politics and literature are of a nature to support those views which we have endeavoured to maintain? If I found that the Review had drifted into the hands of a literary hack who simply followed out his task without any honesty of purpose, I should wash my hands of it.
When you want a new pair of boots it is pretty nearly enough for you to know that you are going to a good bootmaker. But this going to an Editor is a very different thing. A man may be a most accomplished Editor, -- able at all periodical-editing work, -- and yet to you or to me so antipathetic as to make it impossible that the two should work together. You will understand what I mean when I say that should I find I don't like the nose on our new Editors face, I must simply drop the Review; and that therefore I cannot but be very anxious. Let me know what you think about Morley.
Give my kindest regards to your wife.
Yours always
Anthony Trollope.
Address Waltham Cross. I am to see Mr. Morley on Tuesday.
Signature
Anthony Trollope.
Citation
Anthony Trollope, Anthony Trollope to GHL, London, 9 November 1866, 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/91710