John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 18 October 1875
Title
John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 18 October 1875
Title
John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 18 October 1875
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Eliot
Date(s)
- 1875-10-18
Place
St. Andrews
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 18 October 1875
Text: Copy in Blackwood Letter Book. Hitherto unpublished.
Strathtyrum | St. Andrews October 18/75.
My Dear Mrs. Lewes
You will think me very ungrateful for not having at once answered your pleasant and most welcome letter. I got it in Edinburgh when I was in a whirl of business, after which I had to pay a visit in a country house, very pleasant but not conducive to writing, and since I came home on Saturday I have been obliged to sit doggedly at an enormous M.S. about which a friend is coming from the other end of the Island tonight to consult with me. Thank God I have finished the reading and the great pile of M.S. is lying beside me face downwards. However the M.S. was I am happy to say worth reading. I am sorry Rickmansworth did not suit you better, but it is a comfort that the "trip" to Wales has done some good. Your happy phrase of trip being too lovely an epithet for such an expedition reminds me of May cruises in the rainy West Highlands when I devoutly wished myself at Randolph Crescent or Strathtyrum all the time.
I am delighted to hear of the two volumes being ready for the printer and I sympathise with your feeling in taking the "Plate Chest" to your bankers before you started. Who has got such a plate chest? Mr. Simpson was energetic in his applause of the precaution and begged me to tell you that we have a fire proof room at 45 George Street where he would carefully deposit the precious M.S. and dole it out to the printers.
I think Lewes is right about February being the best month to begin publication. The active world of London is then drawing together and although I do not think it greatly matters when such a Ship as yours is launched it is well to have the buzz of talk open at headquarters at once. The main thing of course is not to hurry or harass you. It would be better to begin publication in the dog days than do that in any degree. From the state of progress however in which I am happy to think "Daniel Deronda" is, I see no fear of the start in February being too soon.
You had better send the M.S. as soon as may suit you and we shall return proofs at any time that may be most easy to you for correction. From reading the first volume, which privilege has ever since made me feel rather ahead of the rest of the world, I am quite sure Lewes who has seen more is right, and you may dismiss those fears that so easily beset you as to not having hit your mark. The scope and merits of that first volume are wonderful.
As to form I do not think we can do better than follow Middlemarch only making the publication monthly as the audience are more ready.
I am very glad the Abode of Snow pleased you so much as it will be an immense gratification to the Author to hear of praise from you. How he got over those fatigues is not the least remarkable part of the story as physically he seems to have no more muscle than a jelly fish and he is a queer fish but a very big fish in mind and energy. Some 20 years ago when quite a youngster he wrote a paper for me which indicated genius and I wrote to him saying so and urging him to go on. He became however a kind of wandering waif and only hearing of him vaguely for years I feared he had gone to the bad -- when after many days the prodigal son returned and produced this admirable series of papers.
We are suffering here from very wild stormy weather and I fear it is not over yet. Yesterday at lunch we heard the guns signaling a ship in distress in the Bay and of course my wife and daughter insisted on sallying forth with me. Their two slight figures perched in a hurricane of wind and rain on one of the dunes by the seashore watching the struggling ship would have made a picture. The ship drifted away from us and finally went ashore on a sand bank south of the Tay opposite. All lives were saved.
We intend to remain here until about the 10th of November and I am in hopes of good weather after this fearful week.
Always yours truly
(Signed) John Blackwood.
Text: Copy in Blackwood Letter Book. Hitherto unpublished.
Strathtyrum | St. Andrews October 18/75.
My Dear Mrs. Lewes
You will think me very ungrateful for not having at once answered your pleasant and most welcome letter. I got it in Edinburgh when I was in a whirl of business, after which I had to pay a visit in a country house, very pleasant but not conducive to writing, and since I came home on Saturday I have been obliged to sit doggedly at an enormous M.S. about which a friend is coming from the other end of the Island tonight to consult with me. Thank God I have finished the reading and the great pile of M.S. is lying beside me face downwards. However the M.S. was I am happy to say worth reading. I am sorry Rickmansworth did not suit you better, but it is a comfort that the "trip" to Wales has done some good. Your happy phrase of trip being too lovely an epithet for such an expedition reminds me of May cruises in the rainy West Highlands when I devoutly wished myself at Randolph Crescent or Strathtyrum all the time.
I am delighted to hear of the two volumes being ready for the printer and I sympathise with your feeling in taking the "Plate Chest" to your bankers before you started. Who has got such a plate chest? Mr. Simpson was energetic in his applause of the precaution and begged me to tell you that we have a fire proof room at 45 George Street where he would carefully deposit the precious M.S. and dole it out to the printers.
I think Lewes is right about February being the best month to begin publication. The active world of London is then drawing together and although I do not think it greatly matters when such a Ship as yours is launched it is well to have the buzz of talk open at headquarters at once. The main thing of course is not to hurry or harass you. It would be better to begin publication in the dog days than do that in any degree. From the state of progress however in which I am happy to think "Daniel Deronda" is, I see no fear of the start in February being too soon.
You had better send the M.S. as soon as may suit you and we shall return proofs at any time that may be most easy to you for correction. From reading the first volume, which privilege has ever since made me feel rather ahead of the rest of the world, I am quite sure Lewes who has seen more is right, and you may dismiss those fears that so easily beset you as to not having hit your mark. The scope and merits of that first volume are wonderful.
As to form I do not think we can do better than follow Middlemarch only making the publication monthly as the audience are more ready.
I am very glad the Abode of Snow pleased you so much as it will be an immense gratification to the Author to hear of praise from you. How he got over those fatigues is not the least remarkable part of the story as physically he seems to have no more muscle than a jelly fish and he is a queer fish but a very big fish in mind and energy. Some 20 years ago when quite a youngster he wrote a paper for me which indicated genius and I wrote to him saying so and urging him to go on. He became however a kind of wandering waif and only hearing of him vaguely for years I feared he had gone to the bad -- when after many days the prodigal son returned and produced this admirable series of papers.
We are suffering here from very wild stormy weather and I fear it is not over yet. Yesterday at lunch we heard the guns signaling a ship in distress in the Bay and of course my wife and daughter insisted on sallying forth with me. Their two slight figures perched in a hurricane of wind and rain on one of the dunes by the seashore watching the struggling ship would have made a picture. The ship drifted away from us and finally went ashore on a sand bank south of the Tay opposite. All lives were saved.
We intend to remain here until about the 10th of November and I am in hopes of good weather after this fearful week.
Always yours truly
(Signed) John Blackwood.
Signature
(Signed) John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 18 October 1875, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/95326