One word more with regard to your biography. In the case of a person like Mr. Conkling, whose vocation it was to express himself in words, and whose utterances were often most brilliant and powerful, I think you should make great and free use of his letters and speeches. Is not a volume of five hundred pages too small? Could you not make a work in two volumes, and get Mark Twain to sell it by subscription?
Another: I hope you feel the peculiar character and importance of that part of New York of which Utica is the central point. It does not figure much in books, but there are many strong and remarkable families there. I should like to see it elucidated. The first questions to be asked of a man are: Where, and of whom, was he born?
Very truly yours,
James Parton.
P. S.—For example: If you know fully what a Corsican is, you have the key to the understanding of Bonaparte. He was a Corsican above all things else, and not in the least a Frenchman.
So of Andrew Jackson: He was a Scotch-Irishman. Alexander Hamilton: a Scotch-Frenchman.
Newburyport, Mass., March 26, 1889.
My dear Sir: You can give a sufficiently “complete account” of an event without giving a long one. Now, the duel between two such persons as Burr and Hamilton may be long, because it can also be interesting. Readers are interested in the men, in the time, in the scene, and the whole affair is surcharged with human interest. In that Elmira trial, the chief interest will centre in your uncle’s tact and success. I should give enough of the trial to enable the reader to see and appreciate his part in the affair. My impression is: Do not expend many pages upon it, but pack the pages full of matter. You want all your room for other scenes in which he displayed his great power in a striking way.
Many qualities are desirable in a book, only one is necessary—to be interesting enough to be read. The art is, to be short where the interest is small, and long where the interest is great.