My Dear Carlyle,--I have just learned that in an hour Mr.
Wilmer's mail-bag for London, by the "Acadia," closes, and I will
not lose the occasion of sending you a hasty line: though I had
designed to write you from home on sundry matters, which now must
wait. I send by this steamer some sheets, to the bookseller John
Chapman,--proofsheets of my new book of Essays. Chapman wrote to
me by the last steamer, urging me to send him some manuscript
that had not yet been published in America, and he thought he
could make an advantage from printing it, and even, in some
conditions, procure a copyright, and he would publish for me on
the plan of half-profits. The request was so timely, since I was
not only printing a book, but also a pamphlet (an Address to
citizens of some thirteen towns who celebrated in Concord the
negro Emancipation on 1st August last), that I came to town
yesterday, and hastened the printers, and have now sent him
proofs of all the Address, and of more than half the book. If
you can give Chapman any counsel, or save me from any nonsense by
enjoining on him careful correction, you shall.
I looked eagerly for a letter from you by the last steamer, to
give me exact tidings of Sterling. None came; but I received a
short note from Sterling himself, which intimated that he had but
a few more days to live. It is gloomy news. I beg you will
write me everything you can relate of him, by the next mail. If
you can learn from his friends whether the packet of his
Manuscripts and printed papers, returned by Russell and sent by
me through Harnden's Express to Ventnor, arrived safely, it would
be a satisfaction.
Yours affectionately,
R.W. Emerson