Letter from Oliver Wendell Holmes
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line 1: (Private)
line 2: Written in another hand.Paid
line 3: Boston Sept 26th 1867
line 4: Gentlemen
line 5: Mr Fields tells me that
line 6: he shall transmit the remain-
line 7: ing sheets of "The Guardian Angel"
line 8: by one of the next steamers.
line 9: At his suggestion I will
line 10: venture a few words on the
line 11: expediency of making changes
line 12: in title pages, omitting prefaces
line 13: etc. as is sometimes done
line 14: in reprinting American books
line 15: in England. I remember that
line 16: Hawthorne's "Marble Faun" wasPage 2
line 1: so treated, and I have had
line 2: a similar experience in one of
line 3: my own books. In two English
line 4: editions which I have seen
line 5: of my "Autocrat of the Breakfast
line 6: table", the conversations are
line 7: distributed under the heads
line 8: Breakfast I Breakfast II etc.
line 9: Nothing could be more absurd.
line 10: The book is supposed to be the
line 11: Repeat of talk which took place
line 12: at an indefinite number of
line 13: Breakfasts, and though published
line 14: in twelve numbers may have
line 15: been the gleanings of fifty
line 16: imaginary breakfasts.
line 17: The preface was also omitted,Page 3
line 1: perhaps as having no interest
line 2: for English readers.
line 3: Now, if you will kindly permit
line 4: me to give my own opinion,
line 5: the title page "The Guardian Angel"
line 6: aided by the brief Preface
line 7: which is a key to the book,
line 8: ought to be enough, without
line 9: any explanatory second title.
line 10: They must hope that without
line 11: any regard to particular prec-
line 12: edents or the more common
line 13: custom, you will give my
line 14: Preface as I send it. It is a
line 15: part of the book as much as
line 16: the porch is part of a house,
line 17: and without it I should
line 18: feel that many readers might Page 4
line 1: not look for the meaning which
line 2: underlies the story. I have tried
line 3: to make it interesting for those
line 4: who only want to be entertained,
line 5: but I hope to have a small
line 6: clan of more careful readers,
line 7: who will detect a purpose running
line 8: through it, and who will be glad
line 9: of the hints my preface affords
line 10: them.
line 11: I make this suggestion with
line 12: more confidence believing that
line 13: an American author is on the whole
line 14: more acceptable to an English public
line 15: when his work is served au naturel
line 16: than when it is hacked and flavoured
line 17: to suit the supposed conventional taste
line 18: of his reader. I submit my opinion
line 19: to your judgement.
line 20: Yours very truly
line 21: O.W.Holmes.