You, I think of in
Lenox--which is a summer spot only to my memory; alas! with nothing
summery now, I fancy, but your rage at the equinoctial. Does Mrs.
Hawthorne yet remember that she sent me a golden key to the studio of
Crawford, in Rome? I have neither forgotten that, nor any smallest
token of her frequent courtesy in the Concord days. Such be our days
forever! Yours truly,
GEORGE W. CURTIS.
Among many messages from friends there was a welcome note from
Cambridge:--
MY DEAR HAWTHORNE,--Mr. Duyckinck and his friend Mr. Beekman, of New
York, having read your "Twice-Told Tales" with great wonderment and
delight, "desire you of more acquaintance." I therefore am happy to
make you known to each other. Yours truly,
LONGFELLOW. June 30.
Mr. G. P. R. James, the novelist, lived somewhat near, but writes to
Hawthorne between calls:--
STOCKBRIDGE, MASS., 4th July, 1851.
MY DEAR MR. HAWTHORNE,--The night before last I received the two
portentous bundles [essays by Miss Sedgwick's scholars]. Last
night--though to give up reading "The House of the Seven Gables" for
the purpose of reading a packet of seventy gabbles was like tearing
the flesh from my bones--I set to, and got through ten of the
compositions--six of the minors and four of the majors. . . . Of what I
have read, I am inclined to say, "the devil a barrel a better
herring." All contain great inaccuracies of style and grammar; and few
display a trace of original thought. As far as I have gone, it is all
desk-fancy and "book larning"--parrotism, in short.
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