Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Olde Cambridge

[139] how important these productions were or how valuable was his example to the struggling band who were fighting slavery. Since Hart undertook at his own risk what was then regarded as an Edition de luxe, the poet may have felt that the daring publisher had a right to make his own selection. It must be remembered that Longfellow was nothing if not modest, and that his career of great success was really only beginning. The authors who had then made such successes were, as usual, those now forgotten, a good type of these being a certain Professor J. H. Ingraham of whom Longfellow justly says, “I think he may say that he writes the worst novels ever written by anybody,” though he got twelve hundred dollars for each of them, and wrote twenty a year. As time went on, Longfellow's poems were financially more profitable than some which were profounder, as those of Emerson; and probably no American poet has been on the whole so well repaid in money, popularity, and in at least temporary fame. How permanent is to be the fame of any poet can never be predicted by his contemporaries.