Posthumous Recognition
Shall I be remembered after death? I sometimes think and hope so. But I trust I may not be found out (if I ever am found out, and if I ought to be found out at all) before my death. It would bother me very much and I should be much happier and better as I am. [1880.]
P.S.—This note I leave unaltered. I am glad to see that I had so much sense thirteen years ago. What I thought then, I think now, only with greater confidence and confirmation. [1893.]
Analysis of the Sales of My Books
| Copies Sold | Cash Profit | Cash Loss | Total Profit | Total loss | Value of stock | ||||||||||
Erewhon | 3843 | 62 | 10 | 10 | — | 69 | 3 | 10 |
| — |
| 6 | 13 | 0 | ||
The Fair Haven | 442 | — | 41 | 2 | 2 | — | 27 | 18 | 2 | 13 | 4 | 0 | ||||
Life and Habit | 640 | — | 4 | 17 | 1½ | 7 | 19 | 1½ | — | 12 | 16 | 3 | ||||
Evolution Old & New | 541 | — | 103 | 11 | 10 | — | 89 | 13 | 10 | 13 | 18 | 0 | ||||
Unconscious Memory | 272 | — | 38 | 13 | 5 | — | 38 | 13 | 5 | — | ||||||
Alps and Sanctuaries | 332 | — | 113 | 6 | 4 | — | 110 | 18 | 4 | 22 | 8 | 0 | ||||
Selections from Previous Works | 120 | — | 51 | 4 | 10½ | — | 48 | 10 | 10½ | 2 | 14 | 0 | ||||
Luck or Cunning? | 284 | — | 41 | 6 | 4 | — | 13 | 18 | 10 | 27 | 7 | 6 | ||||
Ex Voto | 217 | — | 147 | 18 | 0 | — | 111 | 8 | 0 | 36 | 10 | 0 | ||||
Life and Letters of Dr. Butler | 201 | — | 216 | 18 | 0 | — | 193 | 18 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 0 | ||||
The Authoress of the Odyssey | 165 | — | 81 | 1 | 3 | — | 59 | 10 | 3 | 21 | 11 | 0 | ||||
The Iliad in English Prose | 157 | — | 89 | 4 | 8 | — | 77 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 18 | 0 | ||||
A Holbein Card | 6 | — | 8 | 1 | 9 | — | 8 | 1 | 9 | — | ||||||
A Book of Essays | 0 | — | 3 | 11 | 9 | — | — | 3 | 11 | 9 | ||||||
|
| 62 | 10 | 10 | 960 | 17 | 6 | 77 | 2 | 11½ | 779 | 18 | 1½ | 195 | 11 | 6 |
To this must be added my book on the Sonnets in respect of which I have had no account as yet but am over a hundred pounds out of pocket by it so far—little of which, I fear, is ever likely to come back.
It will be noted that my public appears to be a declining one; I attribute this to the long course of practical boycott to which I have been subjected for so many years, or, if not boycott, of sneer, snarl and misrepresentation. I cannot help it, nor if the truth were known, am I at any pains to try to do so. [369]
Worth Doing
If I deserve to be remembered, it will be not so much for anything I have written, or for any new way of looking at old facts which I may have suggested, as for having shown that a man of no special ability, with no literary connections, not particularly laborious, fairly, but not supremely, accurate as far as he goes, and not travelling far either for his facts or from them, may yet, by being perfectly square, sticking to his point, not letting his temper run away with him, and biding his time, be a match for the most powerful literary and scientific coterie that England has ever known.
I hope it may be said of me that I discomfited an unscrupulous, self-seeking clique, and set a more wholesome example myself. To have done this is the best of all discoveries.