To the poet Christopher Cranch - photo 1

To the poet Christopher Cranch

Lot 246
16.06.2023 10:00UTC -05:00
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$ 5 040
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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ID 967442
Lot 246 | To the poet Christopher Cranch
Estimate value
$ 5 000 – 7 000
EMERSON, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882). Autograph letter signed ("R.W. Emerson") to Christopher P. Cranch, Concord, 1 October 1841.

Four pages, bifolium, 146 x 195mm with integral autograph transmittal leaf (small loss from seal tear does not affect text).

An eloquent letter of encouragement to the Boston poet and artist, Christopher Cranch thanking him for his poetic submissions to The Dial and mentioning the publication of his essay, "The Method of Nature." Emerson thanks Cranch for the submission of his "wise wistful verses which I read with great pleasure not only for their tunefulness & particular merits but for what I admire still more their continuity of thought & unity of plan. I hasten to write that an apology may reach you before the knowledge of the offence," and explains in detail that although the piece had been intended to be published in the new issue of The Dial, a series of miscommunications between the editors and the printer left no space. "Our only amends now possible in this great wrath of the muses & their diabolical coadjutors, is to declare to you that the piece shall appear whole in the next number with apology for the divorce in the last."

"Let me now take breath to congratulate you on what is grateful to me in your letter; that you dwell in a beautiful country, that the beauty of natural forms will not let you rest, but you must serve & celebrate them with your pencil, and that at all hazards you must quit the pulpit as a profession, I learn without surprise yet with great interest and with the best hope. The Idea that arises with more or less lustre on all our minds, that unites us all, will have its way & must be obeyed. We sympathize very strictly with each other, so much so that with great novelty of position & theory a considerable company of intelligent persons now seem quite transparent & monotonous to each other. I have no doubt that whilst great sacrifices will need to be made by some to truth & freedom—by some at first, by all sooner or later,—great compensations will overpay their integrity, and fidelity to their own heart. Indeed, each of these beautiful talents which add such splendor & grace to the most polished societies, have their basis at last in private & personal magnamities, in untold honesty & inviolable delicacy. The multitude when they hear the song or see the picture do not suspect its profound origin. But the great will know it, not by anecdote but by sympathy & divination. May the richest success attend your pencil & your pen."

Emerson closes noting that George Ripley had left the managing editor role at The Dial, "withdraws from all interest in the direction, from Jordan to Miss Peabody, an arrangement that promises to be greatly more satisfactory to Miss F[uller, the editor]. & so to all of us, than the former one. Do not, I entreat you, cease to give us good will & good verses. We shall need them more than ever in the time to come; and yet I hope the journal which seems to grow in grace with men, will by & by be able to make its acknowledgments at least to its younger contributors. I remain your debtor for your kind & quite extravagant estimate of my poor pages." He closes with other news of friends and colleagues and reporting, "I have a pamphlet in press which I call The Method of Nature, or oration delivered lately at Waterville, M[ain]e which I shall take the liberty to send to you as soon as it appears If I can learn in town that you are to remain at Fishkill." See John D. Gordan, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Berg Collection exhibition (1953), p. 16.
Artist:Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)
Place of origin:USA
Auction house category:Letters, documents and manuscripts
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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16.06.2023
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