Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Twice-Told Tales, Vol. 1 of 2
Much more, indeed, he wrote; and some verv small part of it might yet be rummaged out, (but it would not be worth the trouble, ) among the dingy pages of fiftecn-or-twenty-ycar-old periodi cals, or within the shabby morocco covers of faded Souvenirs. The remainder of the works alluded to had a very brief existence, but, on the score of brilliancy, enjoyed a fate vastly superior to that of their brotherhood, which succeeded in getting through the press. In a word, the Author burned them without mercy or remorse, and moreover, without any subsequent regret, and had more than one occasion to marvel that such very dull stuff, as he knew his condemned manuscripts to he, should vet have possessed in?ammability enough to set the chimney on fire!
After a long while, the first collected volume of the Tales was published. By this time, if the Author had ever been greatly tormented by liter ary ambition, (which he does not remember or be lieve to have been the case, ) it must have perished, beyond resuscitation, in the dearth of nutriment. This was fortunate for the success of the volume was not such as would have gratified a craving de sire for notoriety. A moderate edition was got rid of (to use the Publisher's very significant phrase) within a reasonable time, but apparently without rendering the writer or his productions much more generally known than before. The great bulk of the reading Public probably ignored the book altogether. A few persons read it, and liked it better than it deserved. At an interval of three or four years, the second volume was pub lished, and encountered much the same sort of kindly, bnt calm, and very limited reception. The circulation of the two volumes was chic?y confined to New England nor was it until long after this period, if it even yet be the case, that the Author eould regard himself as addressing the American Public, or, indeed, any Public at all. He was merely writing to his known or unknown friends.
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