The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-05-06
Four Literary Fellers.
Something About Hawthorne, Carlyle.
Disraeli and Fields.
FIELDS AND HAWTHORNE.

IN 4. I1meSI
OF the American authors to whom Mr..
James t. Fields rendered invaluable aid in
his capacity as publisher and editor, Nathan
iel Hawthorne unquestionably is most worthy
OF note and the share of the public in the in
debtedness is so large that full acknowledge
ment of it should be made. Hawthorne had
been writing in obscurity a full twenty years
when Mr.. Fields's association with him first
began. He had produced the anonymous
to suppress it, so that the first edition is now
one of the rarest of American books; he had
spent tue next nine years in writing enough
short stories to make up the first volume of
Twice Told Tales" and five years more in
producing those in Vol. III. Four additional
years were consumed before the "Mosses" saw
themselves gathered out of the Democratic
Review and other periodicals and put into
book form. Meme of these volumes sold WE'LL
Munroe of Boston was hard pressed to dispose
of the "Twice Told Tales and Putnam of
New York, who brought out the "Mosses''-
the only one of Hawthorne's collected writ
ings that was ever published here-had not
found it profitable undertaking, and readily
turned over his interest in it, some years later,
to Mr.. Fields's house. Probably the acquain-
tance began about 1910, when Hawthorne was
weigher and gauger in the Boston custom
house, under Mr.. George Bancroft, the collect
or; but Mr.. Fields appears not to have known
him intimately until several years later, when
the Wings displaced him from his post as sur
veyor of the port of Selem. Hearing that he
was ill, Mr.. Fields went down to Salem, find
ing him IN a mood of despondency. 1t was
NH IA hot ho of
sistent talk with him, that the first draft of the
Scarlet Letter" had been written, and was at
that moment hidden away in chest of draw
ers in the very room where they sat. Haw-
thorne's design had been to make it one of
several stories, to be included in single vol
ume, under the general title "Old Time Leg
ends, together with Sketches, Experimental
and Ideal" and that it should fill only 200
pages of the book. Mr. Fields was finally per-
mitted to take the story home with him, and
when he had read it he advised its enlarge
ment into a separate book. From this time
forth Mr.. Fields's house continued to be the
publishers of all the great romancer's works,
and the "Blithedale Romance. "The House
of the Seven Cables" and the other volumes
that came so rapidly from his hands during
der Mr.. Fieldss supervision. OF the 'Seven
Cables he possessed the original manuscript
which was carefully preserved for him by the
printers When "Blithedale" was ready he
dTTduStu us appearance III llOuuO0, anu
Hawthorne declared that he was paid by the
English publishers $50 more than he expected
to receive. "Our Old Home" was sold to
Smith & Elder who agreed to pay the
suthor 500 Il am delighted with
Fields, ''or rather with you; for it is you that
squeeze the English sovereigns out of the poor
devils" Two years before Hawthorne died
Mr.. Fields dedicated to him new edition of
Lockhart's "Scott." and the letter he received
in acknowledgment of the compliment con-
tains these words: "My literary success,
whatever it has been or may be, is the result
of my connection with you. Somehow or 9TH
er you smote the rock of public sympathy in
my behalf, and a stream gushed forth in suf-
ticient quantity to queuch my thirst, though
not to drown me. l think no auther can
ever have had publishers that he valued so
much as do mine.
WHAT BEACONFIELD OWED TO WOMEN.
Boston Traveller.l
Mrs Disraeli brought to the future premier
not only u considerable fortune. but perfect
companionshp. She was ten years his senior.
and if passage in "Endymion" is to be trust
ed as autobiographica', she relieved him of
fully half the embarrassment of popping the
question. To her influence he always largely
ascribed the success of his after lfe Women
will do much for you" says Myra to Endymi-
on Ferrars (Disraeli's mask), and certain it is
that Benjamin Disraeli believed implicitly that
they had done more for him than all other in
strumentalities combined. Truth is stranger
than fiction, and it is the simple truth that
Mrs. Bridges Wyllyams, of Torquay, Devon
shire, out of her woman's admiration for his
genius made him heir to her estate, worth
some $15O,O0O. She only exacted from him in
return his friendship while lived, and a
promise that she should rest after death among
the Disraelis at Hughenden. Nor will it be
forgotten that to the queens high personal es-
TEEN for him he owed series of favors in his
conduct OF the government such as Victoria
has never shown to any other of the long line
OF able statesmen who have served as her
prime ministers.
he was all chiv alrous Difference to women in
general, and all devotion to one woman in par
tcular. Addressing the farmers of Bucking
hamshire at a harvest home festival he called
his spouse 1.-THE best wife in England" and he
dedicated "Ss bl'' "to the most severe of crit
les, but perfect wife, AT every turn III the
road along which we trace his path to fame we
see standing beside him this enchanting figure
ef faithful wife, nerving his ambition, sooth-
ing his defeats, and entering with zest into his
ultimately startling triumphS. The story has
often been told of her riding with him down to
the House of Commons, giving no sign of the
acute pain caused her by having her thumb
severely crushed by the carriage door, lest her
distress might unnerve him for the great
speech which he was shortly to deliver 1t we'll
illustrates the fine sympathies that linked
den has been full of touching anecdotes of