1899-04-11 to Edmund Gosse

Autograph letter signed, Yale University, 223 words

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

92 Victoria Street

[Tuesday] April 11th 1899

Oh best of friends,

I accepted as much as I could and I should have done well if I had accepted all your suggestions. A preface must be feminine — you use the word winning. A preface that does not induce a yeilding mood is a vain thing. Next time I write one I will quell the angry spirit.

But even now it is rising in me. Why should I be forced to mention Meredith? His novels are to me ridiculous. I daresay I am wrong, but that is not the point. Why should I acquesse in the general opinion? Is not this a shameless truckling to the newspapers? Hardy’s novels are to me commonplace and Meredith’s are absurd.

However I took out the passage and, to sooth my outraged feelings, I added the name of W. B. Yeats to the list of names... and Fitzgerald, and Mr. W. B. Yeats. I must insult the public somehow and the substituted insult is such a little one.

I have just returned from Paris where Kipling is all the go. There is nothing so popular as vulgarity, it is accepted everywhere with acclamation.

With many thanks —         

Always yours

George Moore