hope of a second edition, as Miss Sarah Clarke etched some charming illustrations to accompany it, a series of which I have seen. This re-issue never came, but she sold, apparently, seven hundred copies;[1] the whole edition of a new book at that day being usually five hundred or a thousand.
Before assuming her editorial work she found time to revise and amplify an essay which had been first published in the “Dial,” and had attracted far more general attention than any of her previous articles. It had appeared in October, 1843, under the name of “The Great Lawsuit, or Man vs. Men, Woman vs. Women.” This phrase was awkward, but well intentioned, its aim being to avert even the suspicion of awakening antagonism between the sexes. The title attracted attention, and as the edition of the “Dial,” in its last year, was even smaller than ever before, this number soon disappeared from the market, and it is not uncommon to see sets of the periodical bound up without it, as is the case with my own.
She added a great deal to the essay before reprinting it, and brought it to a final completion during seven weeks delightfully spent amid the scenery of the Hudson, at Fishkill, N. Y., where she had the society of her favorite out-door companion, Miss Caroline Sturgis, lived in the open air with her when the sun shone, and composed only on rainy days. She wrote to Mr. Emerson (November 17, 1844): —
- ↑ Fuller MSS. ii. 755.
