At the time when Mr. Burroughs was dropping the Emersonian manner,
and while his style was in the transition stage, he wrote an essay
on "Analogy," and sent it also to the "Atlantic," receiving quite a
damper on his enthusiasm when Lowell, the editor, returned it. But
he sent it to the old "Knickerbocker Magazine," where it appeared in
1862. Many years later he rewrote it, and it was accepted by Horace
Scudder, then the "Atlantic's" editor; in 1902, after rewriting it
the second time, he published it in "Literary Values."
Because of the deep significance of them at this time in the career
of Mr. Burroughs, I shall quote the following letters received by
him from David A. Wasson, a Unitarian clergyman of Massachusetts,
and a contributor to the early numbers of the "Atlantic." Their
encouragement, their candor, their penetration, and their prescience
entitle them to a high place in an attempt to trace the evolution
of our author. One readily divines how much such appreciation and
criticism meant to the youthful essayist.
Groveland, Mass., May 21, 1860
Mr. Burroughs,--
My Dear Sir,--Let me tell you at the outset that I have for five
years suffered from a spinal hurt, from which I am now slowly
recovering, but am still unable to walk more than a quarter of
a mile or to write without much pain.
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