1887-11-early to Herbert Wigram

Autograph letter signed, National Library of Ireland, 378 words

[Edited for paragraph breaks, capitalization, spelling and punctuation.]

Fresh Combe Lodge, Beeding, Sussex.

[early November 1887]

Dear Mr Wigram

I send you back the magazine corrected. I notice that the printers have not taken notice of any of my corrections.

One thing I cannot help calling your attention to — I wrote eununched the genius of the century — the printer printed it ’’enriched.” I put it right and it came up right in the revise but I find it ’’enriched” in the magazine.

Is it possible that you objected to the word in the magazine? I have seen the word casterated used on many different occasions in the Athenaeum. Mr. John Payne wrote in that journal ”I did not think it necessary to casterate the story”; I used Eununched partly because I thought you might not like the word casterate and partly [because] the word eununched seemed to express my meaning better. I should have thought that what might be written in the Athenaeum might be written in Time.

Yours very truly

George Moore

PS But stay — did I spell the word wrongly? I haven't a dictionary — eununched is the correct spelling or is it eununchated? No it must

be what I wrote, eununched.

Blanche’s design for the bookcover was quite impossible. I send you a sketch of my own. It would have to be more or less redrawn but I think the engraver could manage that. I cannot go any further with the sketch. I never drew a bird from nature in my life; here I have nothing to draw from and I have only one pencil that will not come to a sufficiently fine point to draw with.

The design is supposed to represent a bird of prey devouring a heart in mid air; the world — a very effete world is below. I cannot draw the world because I have no globe here and haven't seen one since the year one. If the engraver is anything of an artist he will be able to complete my sketch, it really wants very little. If there is any difficulty about it I will send [the] sketch to a friend of mine who will redraw it.

euniched