Brown, John Jr. (1821-1895) to Franklin B. Sanborn
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00929.02 Author/Creator: Brown, John Jr. (1821-1895) Place Written: Put-In-Bay, Ohio Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 18 March 1885 Pagination: 2 p. ; 20.5 x 13.5 cm. Order a Copy
Critiques Sanborn's book for having too many of John Brown's personal letters. Read part of Sanborn's manuscript for "The Life and Letters of John Brown" out loud to his brother Owen. They both worry readers may get bored of so many letters and personal details about John Brown, and also note these letters were intended only for his family.
[Excerpt:]
The part thus far sent of Chapter VII is very interesting. After reading to Owen, he remarked, ‘What a misfortune it would be if the readers of the book should get stalled among Father’s letters and throw it down and not read the rest.’ …Cannot the desired end be attained without the satiety and perhaps disgust which most readers are likely to experience on wading through so many ‘repetitions of petty concerns, of old-fashioned forms of expression with their whimsical mixture of important and unimportant affairs’? Would it not be better to leave many of these to the kindly keeping of his family for whom they were written, rather than to an unappreciative public for which they were not?
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