GE to William Blackwood, [Richmond, 4 January 1857]
Title
GE to William Blackwood, [Richmond, 4 January 1857]
Title
GE to William Blackwood, [Richmond, 4 January 1857]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
William Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1857-01-04
Place
[Richmond]
Letter Content
GE to William Blackwood, [Richmond, 4 January 1857]
MS: National Library of Scotland. Endorsed: January 1857. Mostly published: Cross, 1, 427-428, as to John Blackwood, to whose letter of 29 December 1856 it is a reply.
My dear Sir
Your letter has proved to me that the generous editor and publisher -- generous both in word and in deed -- who makes the author's path smooth and easy, is something more than a pleasant tradition. I am very sensitive to the merits of cheques for fifty guineas, but I am still more sensitive to that cordial appreciation which is a guarantee to me that my work was worth doing for its own sake.
If the "Scenes of Clerical Life" should be republished, I have no doubt we shall find it easy to arrange the terms. In the meantime, the most pressing business is, to make them worth republishing.
I think the particularization of the children in the deathbed scene has an important effect on the imagination. But I have removed all names from the [Conclusion,] except those of Patty and Dickey, in whom, I hope, the reader has a personal interest.
I hope to send you the second story 781 by the beginning of February. It will lie, for the most part, among quite different scenes and persons from the last -- opening in Shepperton once more, but presently moving away to a distant spot and new people, whom, I hope, you will not like less than Amos and his friends. But if any one of the succeeding stories should seem to you unsuitable to the pages of Maga, it can be reserved for publication in the future volume, without creating any difficulty.
Thanking you very warmly for the hearty acceptance you have given to my first story, I remain, my dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
The Author of Amos Barton.
W. Blackwood Esq.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Endorsed: January 1857. Mostly published: Cross, 1, 427-428, as to John Blackwood, to whose letter of 29 December 1856 it is a reply.
My dear Sir
Your letter has proved to me that the generous editor and publisher -- generous both in word and in deed -- who makes the author's path smooth and easy, is something more than a pleasant tradition. I am very sensitive to the merits of cheques for fifty guineas, but I am still more sensitive to that cordial appreciation which is a guarantee to me that my work was worth doing for its own sake.
If the "Scenes of Clerical Life" should be republished, I have no doubt we shall find it easy to arrange the terms. In the meantime, the most pressing business is, to make them worth republishing.
I think the particularization of the children in the deathbed scene has an important effect on the imagination. But I have removed all names from the [Conclusion,] except those of Patty and Dickey, in whom, I hope, the reader has a personal interest.
I hope to send you the second story 781 by the beginning of February. It will lie, for the most part, among quite different scenes and persons from the last -- opening in Shepperton once more, but presently moving away to a distant spot and new people, whom, I hope, you will not like less than Amos and his friends. But if any one of the succeeding stories should seem to you unsuitable to the pages of Maga, it can be reserved for publication in the future volume, without creating any difficulty.
Thanking you very warmly for the hearty acceptance you have given to my first story, I remain, my dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
The Author of Amos Barton.
W. Blackwood Esq.
Signature
The Author of Amos Barton.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to William Blackwood, [Richmond, 4 January 1857], 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/94176