The trust of editing the following Correspondence, committed to
me several years since by the writers, has been of easy
fulfilment. The whole Correspondence, so far as it is known to
exist, is here printed, with the exception of a few notes of
introduction, and one or two essentially duplicate letters. I
cannot but hope that some of the letters now missing may
hereafter come to light.
In printing, a dash has been substituted here and there for a
proper name, and some passages, mostly relating to details of
business transactions, have been omitted. These omissions are
distinctly designated. The punctuation and orthography of the
original letters have been in the main exactly followed. I have
thought best to print much concerning dealings with publishers,
as illustrative of the material conditions of literature during
the middle of the century, as well as of the relations of the
two friends. The notes in the two volumes are mine.
My best thanks and those of the readers of this Correspondence
are due to Mr. Moncure D. Conway, for his energetic and
successful effort to recover some of Emerson's early letters
which had fallen into strange hands.
--Charles Eliot Norton
Cambridge, Massachusetts
January 29, 1883
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