A RARE LETTER TO THE EDITOR: MR. WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN, OF THE SATURDAY EVENING

Ichigaya, Tokyo 1899. A three-page holographic penned letter on two sheets:, one, two sides, 14 x 20 cm., on buff colored paper, dated and signed by Lafcadio Hearn. RARE & OBSCURE ! A superb letter to William G. Jordan, the editor of the SATURDAY EVENING POST. Hearn sends Jordan a blistering reply to his request to receive more Hearn essays. Hearn in turn states categorically that he shall never submit to any editor or publisher's censorship. The following is the full text of that letter, exactly recorded below in the format as Hearn actually wrote it: [* = our paragraph/space markers] * William George Jordan, Esq., Editor Saturday Evening Post:- * "My Dear Mr. Jordan - Your letter of March 10th is with me. I am afraid that my answer to it will not please you; but I have no doubt that you will be able to understand my view of the question, and I propose to be perfectly frank with you. * I have stopped writing for magazines, because their Editors or perhaps their publishers, are the enemies, and, mostly, the irreconcilable enemies, of literature. They want only work written according to their order. They want only something that is like something which has already pleased the majority of their readers. They do not want anything because it is well-done, because it is original, because it contains a new idea, -no, they want only what they think their readers want. And necessarily they desire, as a consequence of this policy, the commonplace, the lifeless, the imitation, the counterfeit, the pinchbeck. Send them an original story -it is too horrible, or too shocking, or too heterodox, or 'not likely to please the majority of our readers.' Send them an essay; and it is not 'exactly suited for the magazine.' But write what they want, -and you can get your own price for dullness and insi- pidity. It is no wonder that American writers have to speak for an audience in -London ! The American magazines are murdering American literature. * Under no circumstances and for no renumeration will I ever again write anything to order. I have never done so without regretting it. I could not be persuaded to promise a series of so many articles on such or such a subject at any price. * I might undertake, with a fair-minded editor, to be a contributor to some magazine. But I should propose that he be willing to consider any MS. that I might choose to offer him, upon any subject, -that I should never be asked to write upon a particular theme, or to furnish exactly so many notes and words, or to send in a MS. exactly at such and such a time. I should ask for absolute freedom to use my own judgement. And for any MS. -short or long, accepted by him,- I should expect to be paid not less than $100, -unless the magazine were too poor to pay, in which case I might give a MS. for nothing. It would, under any circumstances, be understood that no changes whatever should be made in the text. * I doubt, my dear Mr. Jordan, whether your publishers would agree to this sort of thing, -unless you have a freer hand than most editors. But to undertake to please you upon any other conditions would be a positive injury to myself; and my experience with editors has not been small, - though my success has not been great. I remain, dear Sir, Yours very sincerely, Lafcadio Hearn * Tokyo, Nishigime Ku, Ichigaya, Tomihisacho 21 * /April 8th '99)" * This letter contains numerous underlines to give emphasis to his reply. With a very solid and bold Hearn signature. * HEARN MANUSCRIPTS ARE RARE ! The majority of his manuscripts took the form of his book texts. His personal letters have always been exceptionally RARE and OBSCURE when compared to his book writings. This unique letter truly reflects Hearn's spunk and backbone as well as his ethical and moral stand- ards for himself. It shows his real character as an author and as an especially as an intellectual. A treasure and keen insight to Lafcadio Hearn's personality.