. James Russell Lowell : a biography . occupiedhimself with preparing a uniform edition of hiswritings, and answered one or two of the applica-tions he had for poems or papers. His own needswere few, he lived simply, and he was under nostress of necessity, but he was eager to turn overwith increment the little estate he had to hisdaughter and her children. Mr. Howells had in-terested himself in procuring a poem from Lowellfor Harper s Monthly^ for which a liberal sum waspaid, and Lowell, when the transaction was over,wrote him : I happened to want the money, andthough one cannot write a poem f
. James Russell Lowell : a biography . occupiedhimself with preparing a uniform edition of hiswritings, and answered one or two of the applica-tions he had for poems or papers. His own needswere few, he lived simply, and he was under nostress of necessity, but he was eager to turn overwith increment the little estate he had to hisdaughter and her children. Mr. Howells had in-terested himself in procuring a poem from Lowellfor Harper s Monthly^ for which a liberal sum waspaid, and Lowell, when the transaction was over,wrote him : I happened to want the money, andthough one cannot write a poem for money, one isglad to get what oue can for it once written. Youpartly know how it is with me. My hearts desireis to leave Mabel as independent as I can, andwhat I leave will, at best, hardly go round amongso many. Now I had got myself into a placewhere I could not keep certain promises I hadmade without encroaching on my principal. Yourbenefice will just tide me over. The sacredness ofmy little pile has become almost a cult with IHE Nf;W YORK PU&LIC LIBRARY ASrOV. t»KtfI ANDB L THE LAST YEARS 395 In preparing his writings for a new definitiveedition, Lowell did much more than merely see toan orderly arrangement. He took great pains withhis prose, going over his various papers with care,and tucking in new sentences, or erasing sentenceshe did not like. He did not meddle much withhis poetry; he wished indeed he might get rid ofsome of his juvenilia, and it was suggested that heshould dismiss them to the back-yard of an Appen-dix. The question was raised if it would be wellto date his poems, for the student of literaturerightly values the opportunity of marking develop-ment in the author he is at work on, but the objec-tion was made that such dating coming from himwould be authoritative, and would give sanction tothose publishers who lined the legal fence and wereready to seize upon an authors work the momentit was technically out of copyright, whether theauthor were livin
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