The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945 Page: 441
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
carrying on a wide correspondence with authors in this country
and in England.
Letter writing was Hayne's means of keeping in touch with
the outside world. Time and again he cries out against neglect
by his own people and turns to poetasters in the North for
help and consolation. He urges others not to work too hard
but does not spare himself. If once free from debt, he feels
he could write better. Many of his letters and manuscripts
seem to have miscarried, and he often begs for the return of
a poem that someone appears to have forgotten. He exhibits
excessive admiration for the Metropolitan Poets, but his ob-
sequiousness is always well-mannered and can readily be under-
stood.
The 245 letters in this collection have been gathered from a
dozen libraries throughout the country. They include the letters
to R. H. Stoddard in the New York Public Library, letters to
E. P. Whipple and John Esten Cooke at Yale, to James Russell
Lowell in the Harvard Collection, to J. R. Thompson at Virginia,
to Longfellow at Craigie House, to Simms and to Stedman in
the Columbia University Collection, to Moses Coit Tyler in
the Cornell Library, and to John G. James in the possession
of The University of Texas. Some sixty letters and papers in
the Duke University collection, unfortunately, could not be
included; nor is the extensive correspondence with Whittier and
with Lanier available here.
Nevertheless, these letters, together with the admirable set
of notes, give us the fullest portrait of Hayne and his times
now available. It appears that he once participated in a duel,
that he edited Russell's Magazine without remuneration, that
he had to subsidize his own books, that he suffered from lung
trouble throughout the last half of his life, that he labored a
week over a sonnet and got $10 or $15 for it, and that he per-
suaded his Texas friend, John G. James, president of A. & M.,
to try to bring out an illustrated edition of Hayne's Poems,
which, though not accomplished, resulted in Lothrop's publication
of the Complete Poems.
Since Hayne devoted himself completely to the literary life,
his relations with other men of letters are the most important
contribution of this correspondence. Being a nature poet, he
calls Bryant "my master," but he also says with right that
Simms was "my literary father and patron." He admired
Whittier and venerated Longfellow. He loved Timrod and wrote441
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945, periodical, 1945; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146055/m1/485/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.