--------- * From Emerson’s Diary, May 23, 1846:—“In Carlyle’s head (photograph), which came last night, how much appears! How unattainable this truth to any painter! Here have I the inevitable traits which the sun forgets not to copy, and which I thirst to see, but which no painter remembers to give me. Here have I the exact sculpture, the form of the head, the rooting of the hair, thickness of the lips, the man that God made. And all the Laurences and D’Orsays now serve me well as illustration. I have the form and organism, and can better spare the expression and color. What would I not give for a head of Shakespeare by the same artist? of Plato? of Demosthenes? Here I have the jutting brow, and the excellent shape of the head. And here the organism of the eye full of England, the valid eye, in which I see the strong executive talent which has made his thought available to the nations, whilst others as intellectual as he are pale and powerless. The photograph comes dated 25 April, 1846, and he writes, ‘I am fifty years old."’ ---------
I am heartily glad that you are in direct communication with these really energetic booksellers, Wiley and Putnam. I understood from Wiley’s letter to me, weeks ago, that their ambition was not less than to have a monopoly of your books. I answered, it is very desirable for us too; saving always the rights of Mr. Hart in Philadelphia.—I told him you had no interest in Munroe’s Sartor, which from the first was his own adventure, and Little and Brown had never reprinted Past and Present or Chartism. The French Revolution, Past and Present, Chartism, and the Sartor, I see no reason why they should not have. Munroe and L. & B. have no real claims, and I will speak to them. But there is one good particular in Putnam’s proffer to you, which Wiley has not established in his (first and last) agreement with me, namely, that you shall have an interest in what is already sold of their first edition of Cromwell. By all means close with Putnam of the good mind, exempting only Hart’s interest. I have no recent correspondence with Wiley and Putnam. And I greatly prefer that they should deal directly with you. Yet it were best to leave an American reference open for audit and umpirage to the stanch E.P. Clark of the New England Bank.
Ever yours,
R.W.
Emerson
CXII. Carlyle to Emerson
Chelsea, 18 June, 1846
Dear Emerson,—I have had two letters of yours, the last of them (31st May) only two days, and have seen a third written to Wiley of New York. Yesterday Putnam was here, and we made our bargain,—and are to have it signed this day at his Shop: two copies, one of which I mean to insert along with this, and give up to your or E.P. Clark’s keeping. For, as you will see, I have appointed Clark my representative, economic plenipotentiary and factotum, if he will