AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
[In response to my request, Mr. Burroughs began in 1903 to write
for me a series of letters, autobiographical in character. It
is from them, for the most part, helped out by interviews to
fill in the gaps, that I have compiled this part of the book.
The letters were not written continuously; begun in 1903, they
suffered a long interruption, were resumed in 1906, again in 1907,
and lastly in 1912. The reader will, I trust, pardon any repetition
noted, an occasional return to a subject previously touched upon
being unavoidable because of the long intervals between some of
the letters.
It seems to me that these letters picture our author more faithfully
than could any portrait drawn by another. Thomas Bailey Aldrich
has said that no man has ever yet succeeded in painting an honest
portrait of himself in an autobiography, however sedulously he may
have set about it; that in spite of his candid purpose he omits
necessary touches and adds superfluous ones; that at times he cannot
help draping his thought, and that, of course, the least shred
of drapery is a disguise. But, Aldrich to the contrary
notwithstanding, I believe Mr. Burroughs has pictured himself
and his environment in these pages with the same fidelity with
which he has interpreted nature.
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