ALs to Willam Parker Snow
Charles Dickens
Item Info
Physical Description: [4] pages
Transcription:
Broadstairs, Kent.
Monday Sixth September 1847
Sir
Your letter and book of MS have been forwarded to me here.
You may suppose that it is not easy for me to find time for the perusal of long sheets of writing; and I can assure you that if I read one fiftieth part of what is sent to me in this way, I should be able to do little, if anything, else. I do not pretend to have read your book through, or to have done more than you ask of me, when you beg that I will “glance” at it. But I have made myself sufficiently acquainted with it, to be very earnest—and to be certain that I have reason to be very earnest—in advising you to abandon all thoughts of literature, as a pursuit; and in expressing to you my firm conviction that if you do not, you will devote yourself to a life of misery, heartache, disappointment, and regret.
Whether the substance of your book be true of fictitious, is nothing to the purpose. If you cannot grace truth in the narration, and have not the faculty of telling it in writing, you should either leave it untold, or leave it to the chance of being told by some one else. If it were a reason for writing, that what is written is true, surely there is nothing to prevent the whole civilized world from becoming authors, in as much as every man, woman, and child, has some truthful experience, and might, on such a plea, rush into print with it.
I do not discern in this piece you have sent me, one element of success. And I see such obvious defects in it, as regards the commonest rules of literary composition, that I honestly believe you would find it as difficult to bring it into any shape or form of merit, as you would—if you were to try—to make a steam-engine of it.
I write this with great reluctance, and with little expectation that you will defer to my judgment. But, discharging the ungracious task you have imposed upon me, at all, I am bound to discharge it honorably. The sad consequences that flow from a mistaken trade, present themselves frequently before me in terrible shapes. However poor you are now, rely upon it you will never be the richer for this kind of effort, and will only lavish upon it the time, the hope, and energy, that, otherwise directed, might lead to happiness.
If you knew how much it costs me to write this, and how often I endeavour to make the resolution that I will never read what is sent to me as your Manuscript has been, you would at least value it for its sincerity. f you will reflect that there is nothing wrong or disgraceful in such a mistake as I believe you are tending to, and that it is one of every day occurrence, you will at least receive it as kindly as I mean it.
I am Sir
Your faithful Servant
Mr. W. P. Snow Charles Dickens
MssDate: Monday Sixth September 1847
Media Type: Letters
Source: Rare Book Department
Notes:
William Parker Snow (1817-1895) did in fact write and publish after Dickens wrote this response to his unsolicited manuscript.
Most notably, Snow wrote Southern Generals, Who They Are, and What They Have Done in 1864, later reprinted in revised editions as Southern Generals, Their Lives and Campaigns (1866) and Lee and his Generals. Snow did not experience much success in his writings beyond this book, and found himself in poverty at the end of his life, as predicted by Dickens in this letter.
Recipient: Snow, William Parker, 1817-1895
Provenance: Hamill & Barker 5/55
Bibliography:
The Letters of Charles Dickens, Volume Five: 1847-1849, ed. Graham Storey and K. J. Fielding. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981, p. 159.
Country: Creation Place Note:Broadstairs
Country:England
City/Town/Township:Kent
Creation Year: 1847
Call Number: DL Sn61 1847-06
Creator Name: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 - Author
ALs to Willam Parker Snow