Metadata
Title
Therese Robinson to Sarah Josepha Hale
Date
1850-12-05
December 5, 1850
Subject
Hale, Sarah Josepha Buell, 1788-1879
Medium
Manuscripts
Language
eng
Type
text
Collection
Sarah Josepha Hale Collection, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia
Identifier
46-M-088
Rights
http://www.philaathenaeum.org/rights.html
Text
Dear Madam
New York. Dec 5. 1850.
I can hardly hope, that you will excuse in me, what I
cannot excuse myself; in the long delay of my answer to your polite
letter. I must confess that I have had, from the very beginning
of my literary career a decided aversion against all personal
publicity. I succeeded for considerable time in keeping my person
in the shade, declining all the requests in that respect of [F.?] Rassmann,
Schindel and other editors of literary Biographies and works of
that kind. At last, as one gets accustomed to every thing, I have
suffered - not caused - to be [?] under my real name in the
well known: Conversations Lexicon [Lexikon] der Gegenwart , [DE:?] Leipzig,
Brockhaus 1840 (Continuation of F. Liebers Encyclopedia Americana)
The details of my life as given there, are essentially correct; only the
name given there as Adolfine, ought to be changed in: Albertine - if it is
worthwhile to change such a trifling thing. May I refer you to this
work, dear Madam? I have no doubt that it is to be got in Philadelphia
and that, if you do not read German yourself, you can
easily get it translated for you. However as this article was written more
than ten years ago, I add the following details refering [referring] to the
ten intervening years.
They were in literary respect principally devoted to the study
of American history. The result was a history of John Smith in [DE: the] F. Raumer's
Historisches Taschenbuch, Brockhaus 1845 and a larger historical
work on the Colonization of New England. (Geschichte der Colonisations
von Neu England Leipz, Brockhaus 1847) The outbreak
of the revolutions in Germany immediately afterwards,
which destroyed of course for some time all literary interests
operated against it and it may be said without vanity, that this
book, which I consider as the best I have ever written, received [DE: from] by
accidental circumstances less attention than it deserved; [DE: the] and it would
have received at a more favourable time. The
Germans, who know everything, [DE: h]are perfectly ignorant about
the history of this country before the Revolution. I had a strong
desire to make them acquainted with it and feel very much [DE: ?]
disappointed. - My next publications were in the English language.
The article on Slavic languages and literature refered [referred] to in the Convers. Lex. where it out to have been
mentioned that it was originally written for and appeared in the Biblical
Repository, a theological periodical, started by my husband,
was revised [DE: ,] and partly rewritten by me and the history of the
Slavic literature conducted to the present time; it was published
under the title: Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic
nations New York. Putnam. 1850. Immediately afterwards a small
novel appeared: Heloise or the unrevealed secret N.Y. Appleton which
it at the same time published in Germany under the title: Eigen
sinn des Herzens. Another tale is printing now and will appear at Appletons:
"Life's Discipline, a tale of the Annals of Hungary.
With perfect esteem
I remain my dear Madam
Therese Robinson.
Life's Discipline -
Heloise or the
Unrevealed Secret
Love -
The Loves of Goethe
Graham's
Magazine
New York. Dec 5. 1850.
I can hardly hope, that you will excuse in me, what I
cannot excuse myself; in the long delay of my answer to your polite
letter. I must confess that I have had, from the very beginning
of my literary career a decided aversion against all personal
publicity. I succeeded for considerable time in keeping my person
in the shade, declining all the requests in that respect of [F.?] Rassmann,
Schindel and other editors of literary Biographies and works of
that kind. At last, as one gets accustomed to every thing, I have
suffered - not caused - to be [?] under my real name in the
well known: Conversations Lexicon [Lexikon] der Gegenwart , [DE:?] Leipzig,
Brockhaus 1840 (Continuation of F. Liebers Encyclopedia Americana)
The details of my life as given there, are essentially correct; only the
name given there as Adolfine, ought to be changed in: Albertine - if it is
worthwhile to change such a trifling thing. May I refer you to this
work, dear Madam? I have no doubt that it is to be got in Philadelphia
and that, if you do not read German yourself, you can
easily get it translated for you. However as this article was written more
than ten years ago, I add the following details refering [referring] to the
ten intervening years.
They were in literary respect principally devoted to the study
of American history. The result was a history of John Smith in [DE: the] F. Raumer's
Historisches Taschenbuch, Brockhaus 1845 and a larger historical
work on the Colonization of New England. (Geschichte der Colonisations
von Neu England Leipz, Brockhaus 1847) The outbreak
of the revolutions in Germany immediately afterwards,
which destroyed of course for some time all literary interests
operated against it and it may be said without vanity, that this
book, which I consider as the best I have ever written, received [DE: from] by
accidental circumstances less attention than it deserved; [DE: the] and it would
have received at a more favourable time. The
Germans, who know everything, [DE: h]are perfectly ignorant about
the history of this country before the Revolution. I had a strong
desire to make them acquainted with it and feel very much [DE: ?]
disappointed. - My next publications were in the English language.
The article on Slavic languages and literature refered [referred] to in the Convers. Lex. where it out to have been
mentioned that it was originally written for and appeared in the Biblical
Repository, a theological periodical, started by my husband,
was revised [DE: ,] and partly rewritten by me and the history of the
Slavic literature conducted to the present time; it was published
under the title: Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic
nations New York. Putnam. 1850. Immediately afterwards a small
novel appeared: Heloise or the unrevealed secret N.Y. Appleton which
it at the same time published in Germany under the title: Eigen
sinn des Herzens. Another tale is printing now and will appear at Appletons:
"Life's Discipline, a tale of the Annals of Hungary.
With perfect esteem
I remain my dear Madam
Therese Robinson.
Life's Discipline -
Heloise or the
Unrevealed Secret
Love -
The Loves of Goethe
Graham's
Magazine