Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

[67]

Chapter 7: the corner stone laid

That the young professor rose very early for literary work, even in November, we know by his own letters, and we also know that he then as always took this work very seriously and earnestly. What his favorite employment was, we learn by a letter to his friend George W. Greene (March 9, 1833) about a book which he proposes to publish in parts, and concerning which he adds, ‘I find that it requires little courage to publish grammars and school-books; but in the department of fine writing—or attempts at fine writing—it requires vastly more.’ As a matter of fact, he had already published preliminary sketches of ‘Outre-Mer’ in the ‘New England Magazine,’ a Boston periodical just undertaken, putting them under the rather inappropriate title of ‘The Schoolmaster,’ the first appearing in the number for July 18, 1831,¹ and the sixth and last in the number for February, 1833.² He writes to his sister (July 17, 1831), ‘I hereby send you ’