"I see you have some capital names in the 'Atlantic Monthly.' If
they will only put forth their strength, there is no doubt as to the
result, but the misfortune is that persons who write anonymously
_don't_ put forth their strength, in general. I was a magazine
writer for no less than a dozen years, and I felt that no personal
credit or responsibility attached to my literary trifling, and
although I sometimes did pretty well (for me), yet I never did my
best."
As I read over again the portfolio of his letters to me, bearing date
from 1848 to 1866, I find many passages of interest, but most of them
are too personal for type. A few extracts, however, I cannot resist
copying. Some of his epistles are enriched with a song or a sonnet, then
just written, and there are also frequent references in them to American
editions of his poetical and prose works, which he collected at the
request of his Boston publishers.