GHL to [?], London, 8 November 1872
Title
GHL to [?], London, 8 November 1872
Title
GHL to [?], London, 8 November 1872
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
[?]
Date(s)
- 1872-11-08
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to [?], London, 8 November 1872
MS: Princeton.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regent Park.
November 72.
Dear Sir
Mrs. Lewes (George Eliot) is so much occupied just now that I relieve her, whenever practicable, of the labour of correspondence; and she is the more desirous that I should reply to your question, because she has a very slight experience on which to found a judgment, and I have had a tolerably large experience.
My advice is by all means not to throw yourself on Literature for a living. Very splendid talents and wide knowledge are often incompetent to secure bread and cheese and except in the department of journalism there is but a perilous outlook for any one who has not already proved that his talents are commercially valuable. Now it seems to me that this question you can decide for yourself. Assuming that your present employment is intolerable to you and that you have a strong bent towards Literature, I would urge you to ascertain decisively whether editors and publishers are willing and eager to pay you for your writing? If they are you can form some estimate of your probable success when you devote your whole energies to Literature. Meanwhile you can do what hundreds of others are doing, viz. cultivate Literature in your leisure hours, and try by your production to encrease your income and find a footing for yourself on the shifting sand of periodicals. To give up any honorable employment on the vague chance of success in Literature is what all rational men would advise against. 118 You must not confound your hopes and wishes with the condition of success. It is for you a question of pounds and shillings and pence not of literary activity -- and that question you, like every one else, have the means of settling, by simply offering editors and publishers what you have written. Believe me both editors and publishers are for their own sakes eager to accept and pay for whatever promises to be commercially valuable; and no one will accept work that does not seem to promise such commercial advantage.
Yours truly
G. H. Lewes.
MS: Princeton.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regent Park.
November 72.
Dear Sir
Mrs. Lewes (George Eliot) is so much occupied just now that I relieve her, whenever practicable, of the labour of correspondence; and she is the more desirous that I should reply to your question, because she has a very slight experience on which to found a judgment, and I have had a tolerably large experience.
My advice is by all means not to throw yourself on Literature for a living. Very splendid talents and wide knowledge are often incompetent to secure bread and cheese and except in the department of journalism there is but a perilous outlook for any one who has not already proved that his talents are commercially valuable. Now it seems to me that this question you can decide for yourself. Assuming that your present employment is intolerable to you and that you have a strong bent towards Literature, I would urge you to ascertain decisively whether editors and publishers are willing and eager to pay you for your writing? If they are you can form some estimate of your probable success when you devote your whole energies to Literature. Meanwhile you can do what hundreds of others are doing, viz. cultivate Literature in your leisure hours, and try by your production to encrease your income and find a footing for yourself on the shifting sand of periodicals. To give up any honorable employment on the vague chance of success in Literature is what all rational men would advise against. 118 You must not confound your hopes and wishes with the condition of success. It is for you a question of pounds and shillings and pence not of literary activity -- and that question you, like every one else, have the means of settling, by simply offering editors and publishers what you have written. Believe me both editors and publishers are for their own sakes eager to accept and pay for whatever promises to be commercially valuable; and no one will accept work that does not seem to promise such commercial advantage.
Yours truly
G. H. Lewes.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to [?], London, 8 November 1872, 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/94352