William Blackwood to GE, [Edinburgh], 30 December 1879
Title
William Blackwood to GE, [Edinburgh], 30 December 1879
Title
William Blackwood to GE, [Edinburgh], 30 December 1879
Sender
William Blackwood
Recipient
George Eliot
Date(s)
- 1879-12-30
Place
Edinburgh
Letter Content
William Blackwood to GE, [Edinburgh], 30 December 1879
Text: Copy in Blackwood Letterbook. Hitherto unpublished.
December 30th 1879.
My dear Mrs. Lewes
I am rather puzzled how to answer enclosed from Professor Meiklejohn 356 of St. Andrews University as I do not recollect of any like application having ever before been made to us, but you are more likely to recollect and how it was received. If Professor Meiklejohn was one of the young and very promising professors at St. Andrews I should have been inclined to advise your declining his request unless a payment was made by him or his publisher, as these compilations are regular robberies and I am greatly surprised to learn that he is engaged in such a work. Another reason and rather a selfish one that inclines me to ask you to accede to his wishes is that he is engaged upon another work of totally different character and which one of my friends, a brother professor, has advised him to bring to us for publication and I am anxious to secure it but do not let this reason influence you in your decision and I only mention it to you that you might not think hereafter I had not been frank with you in the matter when you saw his name in our list of publications. Moreover we can easily decline the request if you do not approve of it without giving him any grounds of ill feeling towards either you or ourselves.
I had intended writing to you for some days past but one pressing matter or another has obliged me to postpone it from day to day. It was a great pleasure to me to hear that the binding of the Manuscript of Theophrastus was all right and your cordial letter of thanks was very welcome. That interruption in your talk with General Hamley about me and my present responsibilities was annoying but I have no doubt our good friend will be soon calling upon you again and you may then be able to end your talk. Your remarks on easily written criticisms will be very useful to me and I shall try to avoid having such criticisms as you so aptly describe in pages of Maga. It was very good of you to trouble to write me and such sound advice and I trust Maga may benefit from it.
I was happy to hear your good report of your own health. I trust it continues. Mrs. J. Blackwood and her family are all better although she is feeling her desolation terribly. What a sad year this dark and heavy one now about to close has been for us all -- surely the incoming one will be a little brighter. With all kind greetings and good wishes of the season, believe me
Always Yours Sincerely
(signed) William Blackwood.
Text: Copy in Blackwood Letterbook. Hitherto unpublished.
December 30th 1879.
My dear Mrs. Lewes
I am rather puzzled how to answer enclosed from Professor Meiklejohn 356 of St. Andrews University as I do not recollect of any like application having ever before been made to us, but you are more likely to recollect and how it was received. If Professor Meiklejohn was one of the young and very promising professors at St. Andrews I should have been inclined to advise your declining his request unless a payment was made by him or his publisher, as these compilations are regular robberies and I am greatly surprised to learn that he is engaged in such a work. Another reason and rather a selfish one that inclines me to ask you to accede to his wishes is that he is engaged upon another work of totally different character and which one of my friends, a brother professor, has advised him to bring to us for publication and I am anxious to secure it but do not let this reason influence you in your decision and I only mention it to you that you might not think hereafter I had not been frank with you in the matter when you saw his name in our list of publications. Moreover we can easily decline the request if you do not approve of it without giving him any grounds of ill feeling towards either you or ourselves.
I had intended writing to you for some days past but one pressing matter or another has obliged me to postpone it from day to day. It was a great pleasure to me to hear that the binding of the Manuscript of Theophrastus was all right and your cordial letter of thanks was very welcome. That interruption in your talk with General Hamley about me and my present responsibilities was annoying but I have no doubt our good friend will be soon calling upon you again and you may then be able to end your talk. Your remarks on easily written criticisms will be very useful to me and I shall try to avoid having such criticisms as you so aptly describe in pages of Maga. It was very good of you to trouble to write me and such sound advice and I trust Maga may benefit from it.
I was happy to hear your good report of your own health. I trust it continues. Mrs. J. Blackwood and her family are all better although she is feeling her desolation terribly. What a sad year this dark and heavy one now about to close has been for us all -- surely the incoming one will be a little brighter. With all kind greetings and good wishes of the season, believe me
Always Yours Sincerely
(signed) William Blackwood.
Signature
(signed) William Blackwood.
Citation
William Blackwood, William Blackwood to GE, [Edinburgh], 30 December 1879, 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/95636