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Pforzheimer Collection, New York Public Library, Misc MS. 2214. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 417–419.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.
Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.
Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their length.
Southey's spelling has not been regularized.
Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.
& has been used for the ampersand sign.
£ has been used for £, the pound sign
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You attribute more weight among the Booksellers to my recommendation than it possesses. It might be of some avail
if they referred a manuscript to me, xxxxx xxxxx xxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxxxx but it is of none in
introducing a work to them, for this reason – that they regard subject as the main thing, & consider themselves as the best
judges of that, which probably they are. If the subject be likely to succeed among other winter fashions, then they think about
the execution, & refer it to some professor of criticism which in contradistinction to cobbling, may be called the ungentle
craft.
I should conceive your subject a good one, but that the booksellers would object to the proposed extent of the work, & that you would be far more likely to obtain a purchaser for three volumes than for six.
I will peruse your MSS. with great pleasure, & return it with such remarks as may occur upon perusal. MessrsLongman & Co are the only publishers with whom I am acquainted; – to them I will
mention the book – if you still think such mention can be of use; – but the truth is that they find my own books so little
successful in point of sale, that tho my opinion might induce them to think I well of a published work, it is by no
means likely to induce them to publish one.
The history of our manners from the accession of the Stuarts, is I fear only to be collected from scattered
authorities. Just at that point you will find a very interesting document at the end of Stowes Chronicle,xx Addison,gathered
xxx picked out of the dunghill of our comic writers. For this reason the latter part of your work will be the most
laborious.
Messrs Longman are about to send off a parcel to me, in which your papers may be inclosed. I am sorry you should
have laboured at Olivier in vain. With the name of Cazotte, & the praise of Gibbon I should have thought any bookseller would
willingly have purchased the translation.