SD802.1. William Harrison Ainsworth to John Macrone

Addendum to The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 3.

[London]

June 14th, 1836.

Forster, whom I saw yesterday, tells me that Colburn is anxious to publish Browning’s new poem Sordello. I hope you will not let this work, which will, at all events, do you credit as a publisher, slip through your hands without due consideration. It is impossible to foretell in such a case as the present whether the work will pay or not. My own opinion, from all I hear and know of Mr. Browning, is that it will do so. But at all events, it will do what I am so desirous you should do for yourself—contribute to fan your character as a publisher of taste and discrimination; and viewed only in this light is a very desirable undertaking for you. You should see Forster as soon as you can, and come to some positive understanding on this point....

Text: S. M. Ellis, William Harrison Ainsworth and His Friends (London, 1911), I, 289–290.

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